April 28, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Jim Ryun – The LRC American GOAT

LRC Jim Ryun Named LetsRun’s Greatest American Distance Runner Of All Time Ryun, who set multiple middle-distance world records in the 1960s, won Olympic silver, appeared on 7 Sports Illustrated covers, and later served in the US House of Representatives, defeated women’s champion Deena Kastor handily in the final, 62.1% to 37.9%.

Olympic News

Organizers Say That The Tokyo Olympics Will Be Cancelled Entirely If They Cannot Be Held Next Summer President of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee Yoshiri Mori said, “No. In that case, the Olympics will be scrapped.”
The Telegraph: “Olympic Movement Criticized For Hiding Finances As Athletes Struggle” A report claims that of the $5.76 billion that the IOC made in its last four-year cycle, only 4.1% went directly to athletes.
IOC allocates $25 million toward Olympic postponement costs $15 million to a program helping athletes from less well-funded countries and $10 million to national Olympic bodies to cover additional operational costs.
Tokyo 2020 President Suggests The Olympics And Paralympics Could Share Opening And Closing Ceremonies To Save Costs
British Olympic Association Confident They Have Avoided The Predicted $9.9 Million Loss After Tokyo Postponement
Olympic Quiz: Who Are The Missing Medalists? Most of these aren’t easy.

Doping News

Seb Coe Warns Drug Cheats That Testing Systems Will Be Fully Functional Soon “The AIU is at the top of its game, as are some of the national anti-doping agencies, so I would hate for any athlete to think that this is an unmonitored area or a test-free zone; it isn’t.”
Indian Middle Distance Runner Jhuma Khatun Gets 4-Year Drug Ban She tested positive for a anabolic steroid.

Face Mask News

Washington City Paper: Do Runners Need To Wear Face Masks? Apparently people in more populated areas have been getting very angry about runners going by them without face masks. Dr. William Schaffner, the medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, says the chances of catching coronavirus from a runner going by on the street are “very, very low” but runners should probably still wear masks if they’re running by a lot of people, even for symbolic reasons.
Organizers For A Japanese Marathon Produce Masks From Bib Numbers
Japanese Comedian Blasts “Dumbass Runners” Who Run Without Masks

Track And The NFL

Video: Ato Boldon Details Track Vs. NFL Speed Myth “There is no formula for converting a 40 (yard) to 100m. … There’s a difference between football speed and track and field speed.”
MileSplit: The Track Resumes Of First Round NFL Draft Choices Joe Burrow, the top pick in the NFL draft ran 13.32 for 100m and 25.94 for 200m as a sophomore.

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

Mo Farah Talks About His Training Durig COIVD-19; Says He Doesn’t Mind Running On The Treadmill “I’m one of these people, I’m weird. … I love the treadmill.”
Mo Farah Thinks Tokyo Delay Could Boost His Medal Chances “It is probably, in my honest opinion, not a bad thing for me because it gives you a bit more time to train for it, to do more races, because I would have gone from the marathon and then the following year straight to the track.”
Mo Farah Gives Props To 99-Year-Old Veteran Who Raised More Than $30 Million For The National Health Service (NHS) Charity Tom Moore initially targeted $1,000 by walking 100 laps in his garden.

Event Cancellation/Rescheduling Stuff

Athletic.net Launches App To Host Virtual Track Meets Athletes will be able to submit times with video for short events or GPS data for longer distances.
New Balance Nationals Outdoor Moved To July 16-19 They were originally scheduled for June 18-21. They are allowing athletes to use marks from indoors or 2019 outdoors to qualify.
World Athletics Forms Outbreak Prevention Taskforce For Endurance Events The task force will provide guidelines for endurance events during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Russian Track And Field Federation Postpones All Meets In May

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

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

LetsVault.com

Good Read: Renaud Lavillenie Says He Wants To Move To Motorcycle Racing After He Finishes His Track Career Lavillenie talks about not being ready to retire yet, his relationship with Mondo Duplantis and how he felt when Duplantis broke his WR.
Mondo Duplantis Admits He’s Struggling A Bit With Motivation With The No Competitions To Train For “There are many mornings when I wake up and I have difficulty motivating myself. What am I fighting for? What do I try to achieve with my training?”
Sandi Morris Shares How She Warmups For Her Heavy Lifting Workouts Morris shared the video of her thorough warm-up on Instagram.
Video Interview With New Zealand Pole Vaulter Eliza McCartney The Olympic bronze medalist talks about training during lockdown and recovering from injury.
Meet Helena Duplantis, Mondo Duplantis’ Mom She was a former pro heptathlete. Duplantis’ father was a former pro vaulter.

History Of The Sport

Interview With GB’s Joyce Smith, Who Won The First Two London Marathons As A Mother Of Two She talks about those wins as well as running again in her 80s.
Moment In Time: Wilma Rudolph is first American to win trio of gold medals at 1960 Olympics
USTFCCCA Looks Back 2-Years Ago When Josh Kerr Broke Sydney Maree’s 36-Year-Old Collegiate 1500m Record With 3:35.01
A Look Back At April 2016 When Courtney Okolo Broke The NCAA 400m Record With 49.71 She was the first woman to go sub-50 during the regular collegiate season.
Look Back On Meg Ritchie 39-Year-Old NCAA Discus Record (67.48m)
Japan Running News Looks Back At The 1988 International Chiba Ekiden Women’s Race
Japan Running News Looks Back At The 1988 International Chiba Ekiden Men’s Race

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.

Odd Ways To Train Through Lockdown

Embed from Getty Images

Funny Video: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Competes In Home Heptathlon Against Her Dogs Even includes official commentating and slow-mo replays.
Russian Man Runs Around His Bed For More Than 10 Hours In An Effort To Replicate Completing A 100km Ultramarathon Dmitry Yakukhny was supposed to run a 250km ultra in the Sahara Desert this month, so did this instead.
European Athletics Catches Up With Greece Pole Vaulter Emmanouil Karalis Karalis put out a joke video pole vaulting into his bed. He says he’s jealous of Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie who have pole vault setups in their backyard.

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

Diamond League Postpones Two More Meets In June (Pre Classic And Paris) Due To Coronavirus The Oslo Bislett Games is being changed to an alternative format called the “Impossible Games.” The event will have athletes take part in a “one-off showpiece event” following social distancing rules. It will include a WR attempt from 400H world champ Karsten Warholm and a PV showdown between Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie.
*Ken Goe: No New Date Has Been Set For The Postponed Pre Classic
*Norway’s World 400H Champ karsten Warholm Targetting The 300m Hurdles World Best In Oslo Warholm will run a solo race targeting the 34.48 world best mark (he’s already run 34.26 indoors).
*Seb Coe On The Impossible Games: “This is really positive news for athletes and fans and promises, even in this early stage, to be another great night of athletics from the Bislett stadium.”
European Athletics Championships Cancelled Because Of Coronavirus Th event was scheduled for August 25-30 in Paris. *Euro Champs Will Not Be Rescheduled Due To The Crowded 2021 Calendar
Seb Coe Says He Would Relish The Chance To Target The 2022 Treble (Worlds, Euros And CWG) If He Was Still Competing “Training was what I did to compete. Competition was what I woke up in the morning for.”

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

US Olympic And Paralympic Committee Bracing For Cuts; Says Tokyo Olympic Cancellation Would Be “Devastating” The USOPC is facing cuts up to 20%. Talking about the Tokyo Games being cancelled altogether, a letter from the CEO said, “We would survive such a scenario, but the impact would be severe.”
IOC And Japan Clash Over Who Pays For Additional Costs For Postponing Tokyo 2020 The IOC has been forced to backtrack after “irritating the Japanese government” by saying the prime minister had agreed to cover the additional costs.
Tokyo 2020 Staff Member Tests Positive For Coronavirus The man in his thirties has been placed in in quarantine.

Previous GOAT News

Rojo Speaks LetsRun Got It Wrong. Joan Benoit Samuelson Had A Better Career Than Jenny Simpson
*MB: Has LetsRun nation lost its mind? Jenny Simpson is currently beating Joan Benoit in the voting for Greatest American Ever
*MB: Rojo goes home DEVASTATED. Simpson def. Benoit Samuelson

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

London Marathon News

The London Marathon May Move To An Elite Only Race Race director Hugh Brasher said that a decision will be made by the end of August at the latest.
Hugh Brasher: “Nothing Is Off The Table”
London Marathon Seeking Clarification From World Athletics Over Whether Results From The Re-Scheduled Race In October Will Count Towards Olympic Qualification World Athletics has suspended all Olympic qualification until December 1st, but London organizers want clarification if that was for just track or marathon too. (We don’t see why the marathon would be an exception).
Athletics Weekly: Top 10 London Marathon Moments
Fundraising Continues Despite London Marathon’s Postponement More than $6.2 million has been raised for the 2.6 Challenge so far with some pros including Jo Pavey and Steph Twell taking part.

The Penn Relays Aren’t This Weekend But Here Are Two Recommended Reads

Sports Illustrated: Over 125 Years, The Penn Relays Have Endured Everything. That Streak Just Ended. A look back at some of the amazing history behind the meet that has endured through wars and national emergencies.
A Look Back At Usain Bolt’s 2010 Historic Return To The Penn Relays Ten years ago Bolt lead the Jamaican team to victory in the USA vs the World 4 x 100 in a meet record 37.90. Looking back on that day, commentator Ato Boldon said, “The volume got to a point where it ceased to become noise and it was just a deafening roar. That’s not supposed to happen when you have headsets on.”

RIP

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 Kiprop, Mo Farah, Stephen Kiprotich, Taoufik Makhloufi, Vivian Cheruiyot, and Tirunesh Dibaba.
*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.