May 8, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Podcast Time

LRC We Talk To Jim Ryun After Naming Him The Greatest American Distance Runner Of All-Time What a great podcast we have for you this week as we devote the entire show to talking to Jim Ryun, who recently was voted the Greatest American Distance Runner of All-Time on LetsRun.com. Ryun talks about his entire career, including making the Olympics and running sub-4 in HS, breaking the WR as a college frosh (and meeting his wife on the same day), winning Olympic silver, getting tripped in ’72 and much more including what his relationship with Alan Webb and Matthew Centrowitz is like.

LRC’s Jonathan Gault Appears As Guest On Pace The Nation Podcast Gault talks about LetsRun’s origins and the party scene at the Olympic Trials in Atlanta. The podcast is co-hosted by 2012 Olympic Trials 5k champ Julie Culley. Rojo kindly asks that you don’t listen to this podcast as he’s very proud his appearance on the show holds the record for most listened to podcast for them – ahead of even Matthew Centrowitz.

He Will Be Missed

LRC Dathan Ritzenhein Hangs ‘Em Up: We Pick Our 5 Favorite Moments From His Career Between a 12:56 American record in Zurich, bronze at World Half and World Jr. XC, two dominant Foot Locker wins, and an NCAA XC title over Ryan Hall, there were plenty of highlights during Ritz’s lengthy career.
*MB: Breaking: Dathan Ritzenhein Retires at 37

RRW Dathan Ritzenhein Retires: The Last Of The “Big Three” From The HS Class Of 2001 Calls It A Career At Age 37 Ritzenhein accomplished a lot during his career as he won two HS Foot Locker XC crowns and one NCAA XC title, made three Olympic teams, amassed PRs of 12:56.27, 27:22.28, 60:00, and 2:07:47, and won world medals in XC (junior race) and the half marathon.

Mothers Day Is Sunday

Alysia Montaño Starts A Nonprofit For Working Moms On Wednesday, she launched &Mother.
NBC Takes A Look At Moms Who Could Star At The Tokyo Olympics
Shalane Flanagan Talks About Being A Mom Days Before Her First Mother’s Day As A Mom “It’s overwhelming infatuation. It’s an obsession, for sure.”
Olympic Delay Has Been Good For Allyson Felix, Who Is Focused On Making A 5th Team In 2021 “I feel more like myself than I have since I had my daughter [in November 2018].”
More Women In The News: Four Running Tips from Former 2-Time Foot Locker Champ Melody Fairchild Her first book, GIRLS RUNNING, is coming out soon.
Catching Up With Reigning Olympic Shot Champ Michelle Carter, Who Is Making The Most Of The Covid-19 Crisis “I’ve been doing things I always wanted to do but never had the time to do.”
Andre De Grasse Hopes To Take Olympic Torch From Usain Bolt After Few Trying Years “I faced a lot of adversity the last couple of years, just trying to get back into the game and get back to running fast and making my family and my country proud, but I think I’ve definitely passed that bump.”

The American GOATs Answered Your Questions Right Here On LetsRun.com

MB: Got a question for our American GOATs Jim Ryun & Deena Kastor? Deena Kastor and Jim Ryun have been answering them this week on LRC.

Continue Taking That Trip Down Memory Lane

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

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

Some Actual Track Action

Drew Hunter Runs 8:36 For Two Miles In Time Trial On Instagram Live – Raises More Than $10k For A Charity In Haiti More than 3,000 people watched it live. It was supposedly 68 and a little windy (12 mph), which makes us appreciate Ritz’s 27:22 in high 78 degree temps in Berlin 2009.

More US Running News Of Note Grad Transfers Alex Ostberg And Thomas Ratcliffe Leaving Stanford To Reunite With Coach Chris Miltenberg At UNC The extra year of eligibility/free agency is getting crazy as UNC also picked up Connor Lundy and Allen Siegler. *Discuss

Administrative News

We Love This Idea Former 10,000 WChamp, Boston Marathon Winner & Half Marathon WR Holder Moses Tanui Proposes That Kenya’s Only Way Forward Is For Ex-Athletes To Confess To Past Doping Sins We love this. Give immunity to past actions but then we’ll find out where the drugs are coming from.
New Balance Parting Ways With NSAF, Planning To Own Its Own HS Nationals We wonder if there will now be two nationals like in XC as it looks like they are planning on moving the indoor meet to their new indoor track in Boston in 2022.
*MB: New Balance and NSAF parting ways? Anybody have the inside scoop?
After Independent Review, UK Athletics Told To Reform Board And “Transform The Way It Approaches Difficult Ethical Decisions” The review found a “general culture of mistrust” and claims the current state of athletics “couldn’t get any worse.” *AW
After Journalists Allegedly Found A Syringe On An Iten Track, AK Official In Iten Says All Foreign Coaches And Journalists Coming To Kenya To Write Stories On Kenyan Runners Should Not Get Approval From AK Before They Embark On Their Duties As They Have Hidden Agendas A county executive has pushed back and said the runners need to stop breaking laws. “Athletes here can not even abide by simple rules like self-distancing, which is common knowledge. Athletics has its own cartels doing business to benefit themselves. To end these murky scenarios, we need to cut out the in-fighting and fight the common enemy.”
Athletics Kenya Has Helped Fly Back Some Runners Who Were Stranded Overseas Due To Covid-19 Kenya so far only has 26 Covid-19 deaths.
FIU Cuts Men’s Indoor Track And Field
WADA Updates Guidance As Anti-Doping Bodies Aim To Restart Or Step Up Testing

Links That Passed Our Stringent Vetting Process

Video Of Shooting Of Unarmed Black Man Who Was Chased In Georgia Is Released – Case Will Go To Grand Jury You can watch the full graphic video here.
Milesplit Takes A Look At The Top 100 HS Junior Distance Times Of The Past Decade From the future stars to college flameouts, they have you covered.
Nikki Hiltz Talks About Her Breakout First Year As A Pro Under Terrence Mahon (TFN sub required)
To Everyone Complaining That The Race You Signed Up For Won’t Refund Your Money, Please Stop And Read This
Parents That At Experts At Running With A Baby Stroller Share Their Tips
Want To Give New Life To Old Running T-Shirts? Ginsrunningstich.co.UK Can Turn It Into A Poncho Or Running Skirt
Commonwealth Games 200m Bronze Medalist Leon Reid (20.27) Of Ireland Went To South African To Train Earlier This Year And Was Shocked That Wayde Van Niekerk Let Him Into His Inner Circle “He introduced me to all of his family and I was going to his house every other day … [He told me] just not to over-think things. Work hard, yes. Get the work done but have fun while you’re doing it.”
On May 11 From 9-10:30 PM ET, Oregon State’s Prof That Is An Expert Of “Maximal Shoes” (Like HOKA) Will Be Doing A Virtual Science Talk That Is Free To Watch Her findings were publicized in a NY Times article early this year got many to worry that the shoes can cause injury as her studies show they lead to more pronation and more force hitting the ground.
Even Though There Are No Events Planned In 2020 For The New Hayward Field, Construction Continues Nicely

Track’s Female Stars In The News

Dina Asher-Smith Appears On Cover Of GQ In Britain
Dalilah Muhammad: How The Olympic Champion And WR Holder Is Observing Ramadan During The Coronavirus Pandemic She’s fasting a bit more than normal but admits even her imam father never regularly broke his fast by eating dates. “I always try to fast some days during the season. It’s just honestly extremely difficult for me to train as hard as I do and fast.”
Olympic Hep Champion Nafi Thiam Is Giving Out Free Workout Videos On Instagram From jumping squats to glue bridges, she’s got you covered.
Reigning Olympic 1,500 Champ Faith Kiypegon Is Doing Well During Coronavirus Quarantine, Enjoying Her Training And Her Daughter, Who Is Almost Two
Reigning European U23 10,000 Champ Alina Reh Clocks A Solo 15:18 5,000m In Training You can watch the video here. Her PR is 15:04.
Ladies, Garmin Wants You To Track Your Period On Their Watch As They Think It Can Help You Run Better “In general, a woman can expect to feel better and have better workouts during times of the month when estrogen is the dominant hormone and feel the worst during her period and when progesterone is the dominant hormone.”

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.

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

Throwback Thursday

LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched The 1983 World Cross-Country Championships Journey back to 1983, when America was a cross-country superpower, the world’s best runners including marathoners ran at World XC, and a guy named Bekele was the best XC runner in the world. In a field loaded with stars, the top four men were separated by just one second. The 4th place finisher? Alberto Salazar. The race also included the likes of Miruts Yifter, Pat Porter, Steve Jones, Rob de Castella, and Alberto Cova.

From The Guardian‘s Archive: 7 May 1930 A Feature On Mile WR Holder Paavo Nurmi Nurmi revolutionized the mile by showing you should run all four laps fast (not rest in the middle) and by going to a more upright style.