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

• Mlive.com: Ritz: ‘I’ve been blessed with an amazing, long career’ Ritz has few regrets and now will turn to coaching which he describes as a “passion.” He’ll still run and was headed out for a 12-mile trail run. *Ritz’s career in photos
• Toni Reavis says goodbye to Ritz

Administrative News

• We Love This IdeaFormer 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.