May 6, 2020 | LetsRun.com

A Special Anniversary Deserves A Special Podcast

Bonus Podcast LRC Chris Solinsky Podcast: “I Believe That I Was In Shape To Run Sub-7:30, Sub-12:50, And Probably Somewhere In The 26:40/26:30 Range” Chris Solinsky reveals that the best shape of his life came in 2011, not 2010 when he ran his historic 26:59. Plus he shares his vision for the Florida Gator distance program and tells a really cool story about how Eliud Kipchoge was genuinely happy for him when Chris destroyed Kipchoge in Oslo in 2010 when Solinsky first broke 13:00.
*MB: Chris Solinsky: “I Believe That I Was in Shape to Run Sub-7:30, Sub-12:50, and Probably Somewhere In The 26:40/26:30 Range”

The World Is Desperate For Sports

Day 2 Of The British Milers Club Bannister Virtual Miles Is In The Books The fastest times recorded so far are 4:07 for the men and 4:38 for the women.
People Are So Bored With Covid-19: Two Women Have Apparently Invented The Front Yard Ultra – Where You Run 1 Mile An Hour They ended up running for 10+ days.

Distance News During A Slow Wednesday

Athletics Canada States The Obvious And Confirms It Will Honor Dayna Pidhoresky And Trevor Hofbauer’s 2020 Olympic Marathon Qualification In 2021 The next two spots for the women will be interesting as 3 women have the standard.
Video Interview With World Mountain Running Champ Grayson Murphy
Meet The Finance Guy Who Took A Sabbatical From His Job To Train Full Time And Won The WMRA (Mountain Running) Circuit This Year Andrew Douglas has gone back to his job, however.

NCAA News / Free Agency

Reigning USATF Jr. 1,500 Champ Jason Gomez Transfers From DII To Iowa St.
A Trip Down Memory Lane. May 4, 1985: Jackie Joyner-Kersee Leaped A Collegiate Record 6.99m (22-11¼) In The LJ That Still Stands 35 Years Later Her mark came in the 4th of her 6 events at the UCLA vs. USC dual meet. on May 4, 2008, Scott Bauhs set the DII 10,000 record of 27:48.
Texas’ Edrick Floréal Talks About His Plans For Superstar Recruit Kevona Davis (11.16 /22.72) People are surprised she went the college route as she spoke highly of MVP Track Club and coach Stephen Francis a few weeks ago.
In Addition To Superstar Frosh Wayne Pinnock (LJ – 8.14m (26-8.5) / 110H – 13.06 39″), Tennessee Is Getting Two Transfers From Minnesota/Jamaica As Well
Hannah Steelman (23rd At NCAA XC For Wofford) Is Transferring To NC State The Wolfpack is going to be LOADED as their freshman class, led by Katelyn Tuohy and Marlee Starliper, is insane.
NCAA 800 Man Matt Wisner Of Duke Will Run His Extra Year At Oregon 8:53 steepler Steve Neumaier, formerly of Cornell, will as well.
Going The NCAA Route Is Once Again Popular For Many Top Jamaican Athletes And Three Top Jamaican Coaches Think It’s A Good Move The MVPs of the 2019 Champs recently went the NCAA route as men’s star Wayne Pinnock signed with Tennessee and women’s star Kevona Davis signed with Texas.

Backyard Pole Vault

Lavillenie And Duplantis Tie With 36 Clearances Of 5.0m In 30 Minutes In World Athletics Backyard Challenge Sam Kendricks was a distant third with 26. “I was really missing the feeling I get competing. It’s crazy but even doing this in my garden, I get the same feeling I’d get at a major championships,” said Lavillenie, who came up with the idea for the competition. *Discuss *Full Video

Speaking Of World Atheltics, They Didn’t Ban The Vaporflys
Interesting Read In 1993, With The Introduction Of “Active Suspension,” Formula 1 Had The Equivalent Of A Vaporfly Moment, In 1994 They Banned The Technology Worried about the rising cost (and safety) of the new technology that had made a mockery of the results, F1 banned the revolutionary new technology. World Athletics did not take the same approach.

The Only Thing Immune To Covid-19 Appears To Be Depressing Anti-Doping News

LRC US Sprinters Gabby Thomas & Deajah Stevens, Kenyan 58:51 Half Marathoner Alex Korio Oloitiptip All Provisionally Suspended For Whereabouts Failures Thomas was the 2018 NCAA indoor 200 champ for Harvard, while Stevens was the 2017 US 200 champ and took 5th at the 2017 Worlds. Oloitiptip finished 11th in the 10,000 at the 2019 Worlds. Thomas is appealing and says she’s “confident” she’ll be “completely cleared” as she says phone data plus the testimony of multiple witnesses will show that the anti-doping officer didn’t knock on her door for the third test.
*MB: Should we just give up and find a new sport? Gabby Thomas – formerly of Harvard – receives doping ban for missing 3 tests

Please Don’t Let Them Show Up At The Olympics More Doping Charges Likely To Come For Russian Athletes As WADA Completes Its Investigation Of A Vast Backlog Of Evidence Of the 298 athletes investigated, WADA said it found signs of manipulation in files relating to 145 of them.

Throwback Thursday #4

LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched Galen Rupp, Matt Withrow & Jenny Simpson At The 2003 Foot Locker Championships The 2003 Foot Locker Champs were an all-time classic and produced two amazing finishes, a legendary meme, and some of the biggest stars in running today, including Jenny Simpson, Galen Rupp, and Lopez Lomong.

*TBT#3: I Was Bored, So I Watched The Insane 2007 World Cross-Country Championships In Kenya
*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

This Weeks Podcast LRC Jim Ryun Is The GOAT, $300 Fines For Running Without A Mask? Does Max Siegel Deserve $.2 Million, + The 10-Year Anniversary Of Chris Solinksy’s 26:59 Start subscribing today.
*Citius Mag Pod With Morgan McDonald

Shalane Flanagan Is A Mom

Shalane Flanagan And Her Husband Have Adopted A Newborn Baby! Welcome Jack Dean Edwards Shalane says the 6 lb., 8 oz. boy is the “greatest gift we have ever been given … I was not prepared for a love like this.💙”

Salazar Still Making News

UK Athletics Hands Over Full Report Of Its Handling Of Alberto Salazar Situation To UK Anti-Doping Some had thought some sort of cover-up was going on as previously UKAD had only seen an executive summary of the report. *MB

You Might As Well Learn Something While You Are Quarantined

Rod Dixon Shares His Training That Allowed Him To Earn Bronze In The Olympic 1,500 And Then Win The NYC Marathon The Lydiard-inspired athlete’s “out and back” sessions are perfect for the Covid-19 crisis.
Training Seriously For A Race And Want To Donate Blood? Don’t You need to wait until right after your big race as a donation will take at least 3 weeks to recover from and will reduce your VO2 max by 4-11%. Plus 25-35% of regular donors develop iron deficiency.
Read About The Founding Of The Modern Athletics Governing Body 140 Years Ago The AAA was founded as the initial governing body was pretty much for the rich and forbade competition against anyone who was employed as “a mechanic, artisan, or labourer.”

Some Old People Are Dying, Some Going Strong

Italian 1960 Olympic Marathon Runner Francesco Perrone Dies Of Coronavirus At 89
Three-Time Olympic Javelin Medalist Janie Lusis Has Died At Age 80 The Latvian won gold in 68, silver in ’72 and bronze in ’64 for the Soviet Union.
3:57 Miler And Athletics Volunteer Andy Green Dies At Age 77 The Southend AC stalwart died of a heart attack but just a few weeks ago he did a fartlek session.
European Athletics Head Svein Arne Hansen Is Still Hospitalized But Is Now Stable After Stroke And Complications His son says a long recovery still lies ahead.
Slovakia Olympian Marko Racic Turns 100

Track Admin News

World Athletics Creates $500,000 Fund To Support Professional Athletes Experiencing Financial Hardship During The Pandemic Seb Coe will chair a working group that will include Hicham El Guerrouj that will assess applications.
Czech Republic Will Starting Hosting “Micro Meetings” Starting June 1st The Czech Republic is allowing gatherings of a maximum of 50 people.
Sarah Rowell, Head Of UK Athletics Interview Review Into Its Handling Of The Alberto Salazar Scandal, To Step Down A Year Earlier Than Planned She said “no pressure was applied” to leave, but she found it “Hard to step back to just being an ordinary board member” after having been chair.

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 American GOATs Are Answering Your Questions Right Here On LetsRun.com

Live Now. MB: Got a question for our American GOATs Jim Ryun & Deena Kastor? Post it on the message board as Deena and Jim are answering some of the best ones.

Previous Mid-D And Distance News

MB: Dani Jones signs with Hawi Keflezighi/Joins Team Boss
Interesting Read Lynsey Sharp Reflects On Dumping Terrence Mahon, Bombing Out Of Worlds And Talking About Caster Semenya A South African TV station celebrated her exit from Worlds by devoting 2.5 minutes to the race although the facts show she barely said anything negative about Semenya in 2016 and actually wrote her university dissertation on DSD women in college. More on Sharp-Semenya from 2019.
Jake Wightman Had A Meeting With Seb Coe This Year To Ask For Pointers On Making Sure Being Coached By Dad Is The Right Call Coe won two Olympic golds with dad as the coach. Jake seems to be doing pretty well as he ran 3:31 last year and was 5th at Worlds.
Toni Reavis Has A Third Idea To Save The 2020 Boston Marathon – Make It American-Only Elites And it would tie into the old name of the race. “Monday, April 19, 1897: the Boston Marathon was originally called the American Marathon and was the final event of the B.A.A. Games.” If you missed his first two ideas, they are here. *Discuss
The Church Of The Sunday Long Run

Training News

Scientific Studies Show Poor Sit-And-Reach Results Can Mean Better Running Economy
*MB: Are you stiff as hell? That’s a good thing for running and may explain why Kipchoge is so damn good at the marathon
Colorado Student And Ultra Runner Jackson Brill Writes Thesis Analyzing When Trail Runners Should Walk And When They Should Run Going Up Hills The answer? It’s complex but determining it by heart-rate alone is not a good idea. “I always switch to walking if I’m going steeper than 10 degrees, they’re dumb, because ultimately the speed of transition – whether we’re talking PTS, EOTS, or the unknown transition speed that optimizes performance – is a function of both incline and speed, not just one or the other.”
Meet The 1960 Irish Decathlon Champion Still Going Strong Doing Track Workouts During Covid-19 Crisis At 87
Are You A Fit Runner? That Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have Coronary Heart Disease

Covid-19 Related News

This Isn’t The 1st Time Athletes Have Been Denied Olympic Glory – Learn About 7 Superstars Who Were Denied Olympic Glory In The Past Due To Wars Or Bans For Accepting Money Gunder Hägg is on the list as he should be as he once set 10 world records in a 12-week period and was the last mile WR with a time over 4:00 but never ran in the Olympics as he was caught taking money. Here is his NY Times obituary.
Amateur Marathoner And Popular Tokyo Restaurant Owner Who Had Been Selected To Be An Olympic Torchbearer Apparently Sets Hieslf On Fire With Cooking Oil Despondent Over Prospects Of His Restaurant Due To Covid-19 Quarantine
DyeStat Quarantine Conversations With Michael Norman And Rai Benjamin (54 Minutes Of Video)
Sport Documentaries and Sport Films To Watch During Lockdown Maybe only 1 is running-related but we know you are bored.

Can The 2020 Boston Marathon Be Saved?

Toni Reavis Proposes Two Ideas To Save The 2020 Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon has never been cancelled but in 1918 they did run it as a relay. Might a medical relay be an option in 2020 since the Mayor has incorrectly stated that Boston is an “inclusive” marathon and criticized the idea of an elite-only race. *Discuss

2020 Peachtree Road Race Moves From July 4th To Thanksgiving

Random COVID-19 Related News

2019 NCAA 1,500 Champ Sinclaire Johnson Is Training As Normal And Running Time Trials During COVID-19 She recently ran 2:03 for 800 and is hoping to break 2:00 soon as she trains under the eye of Dave Smith with training partner Hannah Fields and boyfriend (and sub-4 miler) Craig Nowak as her pacer.
Denver Post: Running Industry Walloped By COVID-19, And It May Take Years To Recover – Or Maybe Not “We saw this in the late 2000s. People gave up their country club memberships and returned to simpler sports like running. You saw a downturn in golf, you saw a downturn in skiing – things that are more expensive. Runners turned to the sport, or returned to the sport, to relieve stress. And, to get and remain healthy.”
Australian Manager Thomas Krejci Of A Training Camp In Kenya Is Giving His Runners $93 Per Month During COVID-19 Crisis And They Are Thrilled Considering that GDP per capita is just over $100 a month in Kenya, we can see why the athletes are thrilled.
IOC Official Says Coronavirus Vaccine Not Necessarily Needed For Tokyo To Host The 2021 Olympics
British Athletes Jazmin Sawyers And Guy Learmonth Are Dating But Locking Down Hundreds Of Miles Apart
Mondo Is Sending Top ItalianTrack Athletes Some Of Its Rolled-Up Track Surfaces To Their Homes So They Can Unfurl It And Train
Anita Wlodarczyk, Greatest Hammer Thrower In History, Postpones Retirement Until 2022 Because Of COVID-19

The World Is Desperate For Sports

Good News UTMB Organizers Vow It Will Be Held In 2020 Even Though France Has Banned Major Sporting Events Until SeptemberWhy don’t they just move it back a week (it’s scheduled for August 24-30)? Instead, they are hoping that reducing the field size from 10,000 to 5,000 will placate the French government. The race takes place in France, Italy and Switzerland.
More Good News Czech Athletics Season Will Restart With A Bang On June 1 With 100 Meets They are holding six elite “micro-meetings” the first of which will be on June 1st – the same day they’ll hold 100 different meets for kids around the country.
Bad News Road Races Continue To Be Cancelled – Beach To Beacon (August 1) And Falmouth (August 16) Bite The Dust For 2020 Technically Falmouth will be held “at home.”
UK Athletics Ban On All Track Meets Is Extended Another Month Until June 30 The good news is they haven’t also extended their ban on formal club activities and running groups but those activities are under review.
adidas Boost Boston Games Are Cancelled Until 2021 For some reason, they are saying the 2020 version is postponed until 2021.
MB: Japanese ~~idiot~~ , I mean trail runner, runs 100 miles by doing a 15m loop around a tree on a riverbank (link includes video) And the week before he ran the height of Mount Everest up the stairs of your apartment building.
Rory Linkletter Tops Lauren Paquette In NAZ Elite Virtual 5K Showdown Sponsored By NYRR They ran at different times of the day on Lake Mary Rd but Paquette was given a 2-minute handicapp. Linkletter won by running 15:02 to Paquette’s 17:09. We’re not sure why fellow HOKA NAZ Elite Stephanie Bruce wasn’t also racing them but she crushed Paquette and ran 16:36 and donated $500 to a Covid-19 charity.
Bored? Want To Do A Virtual Shot Put Competition This Weekend? You Are In Luck Anyone can enter the Valhalla Virtual Shot Put Competition and British champions Scott Lincoln and Sophie McKinna are already entered.
Bored? You Can Now Run The Super-Difficult Inca Trail Marathon Virtually

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%.
*In Light Of LRC Voting, Toni Reavis Says Jim Ryun Is America’s Greatest Mid-D Runner But Views Meb And Frank Shorter As America’s Greatest Distance Runners Toni, we think Galen Rupp has to be viewed higher than Meb and Rupp actually took out Meb in our contest by more than a 2-1 ratio (70% to 30%).

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.

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

News From Kenya

Patrick Sang (Eliud Kipchoge’s And G Kamworor’s Coach) And Bram Som (Faith Kipyegon’s Coach) Are Adjusting To Covid-19 “Our coaching is very much one on one and the ‘coach’s eye’ is an instrument we use to see how the individual athletes are responding to the workload at any given time. The activation of the coach’s eye in these circumstances is not possible. You are relying on the feedback of the athletes,” said Sang.
Catching Up With Geoffrey Kirui, Who Says He Was Ready To Rock Boston Marathon Prior To Covid-19 Postponement The article reveals that Kirui was suffering from a tendon injury when he finished 14th at Worlds last year. Also, he’s married to the sister of Olympic champ Faith Kipyegon.
A Look At The Kenyan Athletes Farming During Covid-19 From Beatrice Chepkoech picking tea leaves with a mask on to Rodgers Kwemoi focusing on maize.
Is Rhonex Kipruto Kenya’s Best Bet To End Their Men’s 10,000-Meter Gold Drought, Which Dates To 1968?
Beatrice Chepkoech Says She’s Capable Of Breaking Her Own Steeplechase WR While picking tea on her parents farm, she took a break to talk to a Kenyan journalist. “I know I’m still capable of lowering my time, on the right course and with good preparations.”
David Rudisha Is Doing Well During Quarantine, Having Reconciled With His Wife Rudisha talks very optimistically about his training in this piece.
*MB: Rudisha on Covid-19: “It is sad… I was almost hitting my top form just a few months before the Olympic Games.”

News From Europe

World Athletics (And Other Sports Including Swimming) Ask The IOC To Pay Them Some Of The $40 Million In Olympic TV Money Now Even Though The Olympics Won’t Be Held Until 2021 “Like many Olympic sports, we are very grateful but also reliant on the share of the IOC broadcast revenues,” Coe said. “We work in that four-year business cycle and not having those revenues in the year that we were planning means that we have to be very careful.”

10 Years Ago, Chris Solinsky Ran 26:59.60 To SHOCK THE WORLD

LRC 26:59! How Chris Solinsky Transformed A “Glorified Tempo” Into An All-Time Upset And Performance 10 years ago today, Chris Solinsky shocked the world by running 26:59 in his 10,000-meter debut. Get the inside story from Jonathan Gault and learn how the date of Solinsky’s wedding played a key role in his preparations and why his victory led to a decade-long feud between coaches Alberto Salazar and Jerry Schumacher.
*MB: Chris Solinsky’s 26:59 turns 10 years old today. Share your memories here.z
*MB: Jonathan Gault’s new story makes Alberto Salazar look totally cringe
*MB: Does anyone have access to a recording of the live broadcast by Stanford of Chris Solinksy’s 26:59?

Speaking of Anniversaries

Three years ago from Tuesday, Thomas Rohler shocked the world with his 93.90m javelin throw in Doha Yes, he was the Olympic champ but no one was expecting the longest throw in 20 years.
The Penn Relays And Usain Bolt Recall Him Rocking Philly 10 Years Ago As Well

NCAA News

Dani Jones Goes Pro The 3-time NCAA champ had a great chance to become the most decorated Colorado runner in history in terms of NCAA titles as she won three and Jenny Simpson and Adam Goucher won 4.
UCLA-USC Dual Meet Won’t Be Held For 1st Time in 87 Years For the men, USC holds the all-time lead at 43 to 42 (1 year they didn’t keep score) but that includes a 32-year win streak.
8:05/13:59 Guy Jacob McLeod Transfers From Belmont To Arkansas He was an 8:52 guy in HS.

News From The Commonwealth

Tommy Hughes Shares His Secrets – How To Run A 2:27 Marathon At Age 59 He gives out 12 pointers and only one of them is to purchase the Vaporflys. Dude is a monster.
Pandemic Puts Things In Perspective For Jo Pavey But She’s Still Planning On Going For Her 6th Olympic Team Next Year At Age 46
John Bryant, Journalist And Key Figure In London Marathon, Dies At Age 76 In addition to helping London, he served as an editor at the Daily Telegraph, the Times and Daily Mail, plus wrote a book on Roger Bannister.
Get The Details Of Malindi Elmore’s Daily Routine Want to know how to take care of two kids, work and train for the Olympic marathon during Covid-19? This is for you. It’s not easy.

Sprints / Hurdles News

Devon Allen Has Packed Up His Car And Driven To Maryland To Train Under Old Coach Jamie Cook Cook, now the head man at Navy, coached him to 3 NCAA titles and an OT win at Oregon. “I just wasn’t running as fast as before.”
One Half Of The Famed Pouncy Twins In Dallas Is Dead At 69. RIP Gene Pouncy They were so fast they helped integrate Texas schools as people wanted to see everyone race the best. They then starred at SMU. *Obit *Oral History Of The Twins

Georgetown’s Grad Programs And Washington, DC Are Enticing For The Extra Year Of NCAA Eligibility Due To Covid-19

UCLA’s Robert Brandt (13:38/28:55) Will Finish Up His NCAA Career At GTown Next Year He’ll be working on a master’s degree in real estate finance.
Southern Utah Linnea Saltz (2:05 For 800) Also Will End Her NCAA Career At Georgetown She interned in DC last year and wants to continue to work part-time at American Capitol Group while she pursues a masters degree in public relations and corporate communications.
Video Interview With The 2 GTown Transfers

More NCAA News Top Jamaican Sprinter Kevona Davis (11.35/22.86) Signs With The University Of Texas Is it just a foregone conclusion that Edrick Floreal will win at least one NCAA title at Texas?

Catching Up With Eliud Kipchoge

Recommended Read: The Telegraph’s Ben Bloom Gets An Inside Look At Eliud Kipchoge’s Training Camp In Kenya Some interesting insights into Kipchoge the husband and father as well as runner. Kipchoge met his wife, Grace, when they were only teenagers. She says he is a “strict and fun” father.
Eliud Kipchoge And Kenenisa Bekele Talk About The Sub-2 Hour Marathon And Training During Lockdown Kipchoge: “Mentally, you can get tired early. because if you have an hour run and you’re running alone, then you can really get tired because you are running alone, you are thinking alone. I have been with a team for the last 15 years and it’s really crazy for me. I can say it is not comfortable at all, but safety is my number one priority.”
The Telegraph: A Run With Eliud Kipchoge, Avoiding Cows And Battling High Altitude To Train With The World’s Best Ben Bloom writes about visit with Kipchoge in Kenya.

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.