Archived Homepage For April 25, 2020
Archived Homepage For April 25, 2020

Seb Coe Talks And We Listen

LRC Seb Coe Talks To LetsRun.com About Suspending Olympic Qualification, Whether To Eliminate The “Off Year,” & More We spoke with Coe on Friday and share four highlights. Coe defended World Athletics’ decision to pause Olympic qualifying, called on the US to stage more high-quality professional meets, and explained how Jim Ryun helped him earn his first Olympic gold.

Throwback Thursday

LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched The Insane 2007 World Cross-Country Championships In Kenya The 2007 World XC meet was one of the most memorable in history. The UNBEATABLE Kenenisa Bekele was not only beaten – he quit mid-race while in medal position with only 800 meters to go. A truly insane day of racing in the heat of Mombasa, Kenya, that featured future Olympic champions Asbel KipropMo FarahStephen KiprotichTaoufik Makhloufi, Vivian Cheruiyot, and Tirunesh Dibaba.
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MB: Throwback Thursday: I Was Bored, So I Watched the Insane 2007 World XC Champs in Kenya

From The LRC Archives LRC 2007 World Cross-Country Championships Recap From Mombasa, Kenya: Controlled Chaos With people climbing into trees to watch, Wejo wrote, “The atmosphere was crazy. A party, a sporting event, a carnival, a once in a lifetime event with tremendous national pride associated with it all rolled into one.”

*TBT#2: I Was Bored, So I Went Back and Watched Ritz, Webb, & Hall Battle at the 2000 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships
*TBT#1: I Was Bored, So I Went Back and Watched the 1998 NCAA Cross Country Championships

Bored Because Of Covid-19? Read This Free Book Excerpt

LRC When Henry Rono Went From 15:40 To A 13:06 World Record In Two Months This excerpt from Richard Amery‘s new book, The Five and Ten Men, about the 10 men who have held the 5 and 10,000 WRs is a fascinating read.

LRC Book Review: “The Five And Ten Men” By Richard Amery Need to brush up on your distance running history? Richard Amery‘s book offers a comprehensive history of the sport from Paavo Nurmi to Kenenisa Bekele, told through the 10 men to hold both the 5,000- and 10,000-meter world records. *Purchase here.

Previous Free Book Excerpts From Craig Virgin – Purchase Your Autographed Book From Craig Virgin Now

RIP Neil Black

Doping News

NCAA News

It’s Boston Marathon Day For The First Time In 124 Years, There Will Be No Boston Marathon In April

MB: Boston Marathon Re-airing all day on Olympic Channel All times Eastern: 10 am 2017, 1pm 2017, 4pm 2018, 7pm 2019, 10pm 2014, midnight 2015. Jon Gault will be on a HOKA NAZ Elite video chat on 7:30 pm.

LRC Monday, But No Marathon: What I Miss Most About The Boston Marathon Jonathan Gault shares what he misses most about the Boston Marathon as for the first time since 1896 there will be no Boston Marathon in April.
*MB: It’s Patriots Day but there is no Boston Marathon – What do you most miss about Boston?

Boston MB Talk:

The Latest Covid-19 Related News

 

A Must Read If You Care About Doping Or Justice

LRC The Amazing Story Of How Jarrion Lawson Cleared His Name: He Showed That The Head Of A WADA Lab Provided False Testimony Against Him Jarrion Lawson is free to compete once again after his legal team was able to show that Christiane Ayotte, the head of the WADA-accredited doping control lab at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Laval, Quebec, lied while testifying during his case.
*MB: The amazing story of how Jarrion Lawson cleared himself: He showed the head of a WADA lab provided false testimony against him.

The Championship Is Here – Voting Ends Sunday

LRC Jim Ryun & Deena Kastor Voted As The Greatest Men’s And Women’s American Distance Runners Of All Time LetsRun nation has spoken and voted Jim Ryun and Deena Kastor as the greatest men’s and women’s American distance runners of all time. Ryun took down Frank Shorter in the men’s final while Deena Kastor came from behind to knock off Jenny Simpson in the women’s final.

LRC Who Is The Greatest American Distance Runner Ever: Jim Ryun Or Deena Kastor? And then there were two. You’ve named Deena Kastor and Jim Ryun as the greatest women’s and men’s distance runners in US history, but of the two, who had the better career?
*MB: The Final Is Here: Deena Kastor or Jim Ryun – Who is the American GOAT?

Face Mask News

Track And The NFL

Isn’t This Excessive For A Non-Profit?

Rich Perelman: Was It Even Max Siegel’s Idea To Extend With Nike or Did Two Ex-Nike Execs, Who Eventually Were Paid $23.75 Million, Come Up With It?Plus Perelman wonders if Siegel’s $3 million in deferred compensation was only agreed to after Vin Lananna was suspended. *Discuss

USATF Defends Itself To Washington Post For Paying Max Siegel $4.2 Million $1.2 million in 2018 and $3 million over the next four years. USATF does admit they didn’t want to put down $4.2 million on the tax form but the accountant made them.
*Discuss

MB: After delay, USATF reveals Max Siegel made $1.2 million in salary plus $3 million in deferred compensation Sarah Lorge Butler has the details.

Mo Farah News

Event Cancellation/Rescheduling Stuff

Top Tips From The Pros

LRC HOKA ONE ONE Pro Runners Give Their Best Advice To High Schoolers Want some simple training advice?

And The Amateurs: Great Read:7,000+ Words On Life And How To Run A 2:29 Marathon At Age 44 Wired‘s Nicholas Thompson didn’t break 3:00 until age 29. Now at 44, he’s a sub-2:30 guy. “To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past.”
*MB: Nick Thompson: 7,000+ Words on Life and How To Run A 2:29 Marathon at Age 44

Athlete Lockdown

USATF Lays Off 11% Of Its National Office

MB USATF lays off 11% of its workforce (7/65). Max Siegel’s salary reduced from 1.1 million to 900k Sports Business Daily broke the news. Siegel’s salary is being reduced by 20%. Does anyone know if Nike is paying its full sponsorship this year?

More Administrative News

News From The UK

Update On LRC Coronavirus Patient’s Condition

LRC Update: LetsRun.com Visitor With COVID-19 Continues To Recover Good news as “justthefacts” condition continued to improve over the weekend and his fever is gone.

LRC What’s It Like For A Runner To Have COVID-19? A Long-Time LetsRun.com Visitor Shares His Story Of Being Infected With The Coronavirus A long-term visitor to LetsRun.com wants to share his story of what it is like to have the coronavirus. He also wants a LetsRun.com singlet when he gets better.
Discussion: I tested Positive for COVID here is my story

Odd Ways To Train Through Lockdown

This Week’s Podcast

LRC Greatest American Distance Runner Final Four, Alicia Monson Joins Us After Turning Pro, LRC Visitor Of The Week Listen to the best track and field running podcast on the planet.

More Cancellations, But There Will Be At Least One Meet In June

No One Is Winning Road Races, But LRCers Are Still Winning

LRC Meet The Winners Of The Running Warehouse / HOKA ONE ONE Marathon Trials Prediction Contest Meet the winners, including a guy who shared a locker with the late Sammy Wanjiru. We’re also still looking for visitor “Old is as old does.”

Coronavirus Comes For Berlin

MB:The 2020 Berlin Marathon Won’t Happen As Planned In September As Germany Extends Ban On Large Events Through October The German government has banned all events of more than 5,000 people through October 24th. It’s not been officially stated whether the marathon will be outright cancelled, postponed or move to an elite only race. *Discuss

The Chicago Marathon Is Allowing Runners To Cancel Their 2020 Race Entries Runners who do choose to cancel will have guaranteed entry into the 2021 race, but they don’t get a refund and have to pay again in 2021.

Olympic News

Olympic Qualification Debate / Will There Even Be An Olympics?

Track Flashbacks

This Week’s Big Talk

LRC Meet Madeline Manning Mims – The Greatest American 800m Runner Ever? If you missed this week’s podcast we made our talk with Manning Mims its own podcast and have a few highlights of our talk. Manning Mims ran her first 800 by accident, and broke the then world record as a high schooler. 2 years later she was the Olympic champ. 14 years later she was still winning the Olympic Trials.

Runners Doing Good

LRC Running Helped Prepare Dr. Michael Joyner (The Guy Who Predicted The Sub-2:00 Marathon) To Help Lead The COVID-19 Fight Dr. Michael Joyner is on the leadership team of the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project.

Mike Smith Lifts The Veil On Galen Rupp’s Training

LRC Mike Smith Q&A Part II: On Choosing To Coach Galen Rupp, “Defending The Process,” & Rupp’s Human Side Smith said that he was careful not to let preconceived notions cloud his judgment when deciding whether to work with Rupp. “The second we abandon our critical thinking or our process with this stuff … I worry about that.”
*MB: Mike Smith Part II: Smith explains why he agreed to work with Galen Rupp

LRC Mike Smith Q&A, Part I: On Galen Rupp’s Commitment, Restructuring His Training & That 24 X 400 Workout 
*MB: Mike Smith lifts the veil on Galen Rupp’s training and talks about what makes him great