Sub-5 History Was Made 66 Years Ago
On this day (29 May) in 1954, in Birmingham UK, Diane Leather, largely unheralded in comparison to Roger Bannister’s sub-4 on 6 May, became the first woman to run the Mile in under 5mins (4:59.6). The women’s Mile didn’t become an official world record event until 1967 ?. pic.twitter.com/M0AJRe5891
— Nurmi1924 (@1924Nurmi) May 29, 2020
- Women's sports may be saved!! CT's policy of allowing transgender women to compete w/o treatment found to violate Title IX
- As Brown becomes the fifth Division 1 victim; are universities using COVID just to cut programs?
- My Beef with being Vegetarian - I've gained almost 20 pounds since becoming a Vegetarian
- LOL: Shelby Houlihan: The pandemic hasn't changed that much for me as I'm a member of the BTC and we never race anyways
- What happened to Michael Granville? 1:46.45 in HS and still holds the 800m National Record!!
- Can a very new runner get a stress fracture by running 20 MPW over the course of two months?
- Runner's World: Can we all just agree to stop using "Jogger" as an insult?
For The First Time Ever
LRC 2020 Boston Marathon Canceled; Will Be Staged Instead As Virtual Race Through 123 years and two world wars, the Boston Marathon had always been staged as an in-person event. That streak ends in 2020, another victim of the coronavirus pandemic. *MB: BOSTON MARATHON CANCELED
- The Stawell Gift, Australia’s Oldest And Richest Handicap Footrace, Has Been Canceled For The First Time Since 1945 Because Of The COVID-19 Pandemic
- Toni Reavis: Many Races And Running Organizations, Including Ironman And Running USA, Have Banded Together To Beg The Govt. For A Bailout “Without specifically targeted help from the federal government,” said the Endurance Sports Coalition, “the endurance sports may not survive the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Throwback Thursday #8
LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched Alan Webb Run 3:53 As A High Schooler At The 2001 Prefontaine Classic In honor of the race’s 19-year anniversary, Jonathan Gault revisits the day when Webb broke Jim Ryun‘s 36-year-old US high school mile record and took a Hayward Field victory lap with Hicham El Guerrouj.
Administrative News
- Interesting Q&A With New UK Athletics Head Joanna Coates, Who Explains How Her Not Being A Track And Field Person Is Going To Help Her Do Her Job “I think you can look at it with a really fair pair of eyes, because you don’t have the emotion, you can be very critical of things. But don’t get me wrong, you do then fall in love with it!”
- Australian Medical Director Says The World Needs To Prepare For Tokyo 2021 As If Vaccine Won’t Exist
- WADA & Quebec To Fund Anti-Doping Project Piloting Artificial Intelligence To The Tune Of $850,000 AI will be used to try to figure out who is doping.
How Some Pros Are Training During Quarantine
Podcasts That Might Interest You
- Who Is The G.O.A.T. Of Canadian Mid-D Running? The Canadian Running Magazine podcast debates whether it’s Kevin Sullivan, Melissa Bishop-Nriagu, Mohammed Ahmed or Gabriela DeBues-Stafford.
- Mary Cain Appears On Dana Giordano’s Podcast To Talk About Her New Job With Tracksmith
- Video:Tracksmith’s Matt Taylor Talks To Flotrack
News From Outside The US
Interesting Read After Retiring At 28, Ciarán Ó Lionáird Is Making A Comeback At Age 32 2,800 words on the comeback on the man who shockingly ran 3:34 and made the 1,500 WC final in 2011 despite not scoring in the 5,000 or 10,000 at NCAAs that year. Bored during Covid-19, but not having run more than 30 minutes since Burning Man 2017, he moved to Flagstaff and started training with Stephen Haas‘ group on April 1 and is shocked by his progress. He’s posting lots of updates since he imagines some may be skeptical since he took 4 years off.
*MB:Ciarán O’Lionaird Comeback- This Is Normally Great Manchester Run weekend – A Look Back At The Previous 17 Winners Most are total studs like Tergat, Bekele, Geb and Farah but the list also includes Dathan Ritzenhein.
- Kipchoge Runs 16km In Lewa Wildlife Conservancy To Promote The Lewa Safari Virtual Marathon “I urge everybody to participate and just run where they are. We are all part of the human family and we must keep strong, stay fit,” said Kipchoge. Sign up here.
- Mondo Duplantis Has Been Playing A Lot Of Golf During Covid-19 But Is Ready To Get Back At It
- Great Britain’s Niamh Emerson – World U20 Hep Champ – Is Aiming For Big Things Once Pandemic Ends She missed last year’s Worlds due to injury.
- In Her Own Words, Jessica Ennis-Hill Reflects On Her Achievements From her first memories to the best coaching advice she’s ever received.
Speaking Of HS Studs, These Guys Were Pretty Good In HS
The Ultimate Video Conference
LRC The Big 3, Reunited: Alan Webb, Ryan Hall & Dathan Ritzenhein Discuss Their Greatest Performances, Biggest Lessons, & Much More Alan Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein and Ryan Hall had never sat down and talked about their careers until this week. Find out why Ritz had Webb’s face on his dartboard as a high schooler, how Webb was able to beat Ritzenhein in their famous 10k showdown in 2006, which performances each believes was the best from their careers, their biggest lessons from the sport, their views on new shoe technology, Webb and Ritz’s thoughts on their time with the Nike Oregon Project and Alberto Salazar‘s ban, and much more.
There Was No Olympics For The US 40 Years Ago Either
Interesting Read: Was The 1980 TJ Rigged So That A Soviet Athlete Would Win? 40 years later, many feel that Australian Ian Campbell or Brazilian Joao de Oliveira should have been the winner as they were given fouls on 9 of 12 jumps. The USSR’s flag bearer was the 3-time Olympic TJ champ Viktor Saneyev.- George Plimpton’s Epic Recap Of The Moscow Games He said lots of people thought the Soviets were fixing things but he didn’t seem to be convinced.
Bored? Buy A Book – We Enjoyed This One
LRC Book Review: A 46-Year-Old Spends A Summer Training Like A Pro In Flagstaff In “Running the Dream” Matt Fitzgerald joined Ben Rosario‘s HOKA NAZ Elite team for three months in the summer of 2017 as he chased a personal best at the Chicago Marathon. From workouts on Lake Mary Road to strength sessions to a visit to John Ball, he lived the full professional experience. “[The book] newfound appreciation for one of the privileges of life as a professional runner. Not the chance to travel the world racing in cool locations or the freedom to nap copiously, but the ability to dedicate all of one’s energies to becoming the best one can be – and the opportunity to make memories doing it alongside friends and teammates.” Five out of five stars. Purchase here.
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
XC/Track Cuts Spread To The Ivies
145 Years Of History, Gone In An Instant
MB:Brown University, Despite Its $4.2 Billion Endowment, Cuts Men’s XC, Indoor and Outdoor Track Effectively Immediately ADs love to get rid of men’s XC, indoor and outdoor track as the male athletes count three times for Title IX purposes. The Brown AD seems almost giddy to be axing 11 sports. “I’m excited for the many ways the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative will serve our student-athletes for years to come.” The President cited diversity as a factor but cut the diverse track team and elevated the all white sailing team from club to varsity status. *Sign the Save Brown T&F Petition
More Depressing News: MB:Breaking: David Rudisha has surgery after breaking ankle in Kenya. Expected to be out 3 months.
An Event Worth Looking Forward To & And A Podcast Worth Listening To
LRC Sara Hall Among Pros Who Will Take Shot at Treadmill World Records on June 6 in Chaski Challenge Inspired by the success of last month’s Quarantine Backyard Ultra, a handful of elite runners will attempt to break treadmill world records across five distances next week. S “We are 100% sure that we are going to break these records in this race,” says meet director Tyler Andrews, who will be aiming for the marathon/50k records. “We want to have actual, really good athletes just totally destroy them and set them way out of reach.”
MoreLRC Content: Podcast: Leo Daschbach Sub-4 in a Real Race, Pro Runner Wedding Bells, London Marathon in Doubt, LRC’s Poker Win Wejo reveals hsix-figure online poker win helped fund LRC in the ealry days.
Mid-D News Of Note
- DyeStat.com Does A Video Chat With 3 Of The Top US HS Girls 800 Talents In Athing Mu (2:01.17), Juliette Whittaker (2:03.01 PR) And Roisin Willis (2:03.05 PR)
- Donavan Brazier Says He Was Super Confident Before Olympic Postponement And Out To Prove That 2019 Was No Fluke “I am a little frustrated. I just wanted to prove to myself that 2019 Worlds wasn’t a fluke, that I am this great racer, that I am a medal contender every year and I should have a big target on my back,” he says. “I was really confident about the Olympics this year, but 2021 will be just as special.”
Centro, Watch Out: Elijah Manangoi And Timothy Cheruiyot Are Back Training Together And Manangoi says he’s more motivated due to missing Worlds last year with injury.- Bernard Ouma Is Thrilled To Be Back Coaching After Taking His 1,500 Studs Through Their 1st Track Workout “We were having a feeling like we were in a cage then suddenly we have been let loose. It is a happy feeling to be on the track after a long time being indoors with minimal activities,” said Ouma, who called the upcoming clash against the Ingebrigtsens as a “fun race with no monetary attachment to it.”
- Shelby Houlihan Says Of Course She Thought She’d Medal When She Ran 3:54 At Worlds Last Year “If I’m in 3:54 shape, there’s no way I don’t medal. You know, statistically or historically, in races that should medal.”
*MB: LOL: Shelby Houlihan: The pandemic hasn’t changed that much for me as I’m a member of the BTC and we never race anyways - A Recap Of The Odd World Records Nick Symmonds Went For Since Retirement He successfully broke WRs for the fastest 400 in crocs and mile while dribbling a basketball but came up short in running a mile after eating 4 Big Macs.
- 2013 800 World Champ Eunice Sum Is Still Dreaming Of Her First Olympic Medal At Age 32
- The BeerMileWorldClassic Will Be Run (Virtually) This Summer With $8k In Prize Money
Previous Distance News
Shannon Rowbury Has A Choice To Make As She Goes For A 4th Olympics – 1,500 Or 5,000? (TFN Sub Required) She doesn’t just want to make a 4th Olympics; she wants to be a contender but admits she has to train differently now that she’s a) 35 and b) a mom.- Scientific Paper Says What You’ve Always Been Taught Is Wrong – When You’re Trying To Recover, Put Your Hands On Your Knees, Not Behind Your Head A study showed that by bending over, your heart rate fell 20 bpm more than if you put your hands behind your head.
- Runner’s World: “Can we all just agree to stop using “Jogger” as an insult?”
- British Athletics Announces New Talent Hubs Sponsored By The London Marathon The running hubs are designed to provide athletes aged 16-21 with a “seamless experience through the performance pathway” and will be based at the University of Birmingham and Leeds Beckett University.
Interesting Reads
- Japanese Coaching Legend Yoshiyuki Aoba Is Coming Out Of Retirement At Age 77, 20 Years After Last Coaching, To Coach At His Alma Mater, Nihon University And he’s going to live in the dorms with the athletes.
*MB: Wait, what? Do the Japanese college coaches really live in the dorms with their athletes? 
Proposed Potential New NCAA XC Regional System Leaks, Insanity Of Plan Instantly Becomes Apparent We hope that a plan that has teams from NY in the Southeast regional (all teams from the same conference must be in the same region) is never going to get passed in this post-Covid-19 time of reduced budgets. Apparently the Big 10 has unanimously voted against it.
2020 UTMB May Have Been Canceled, But 2019 UTMB Champion Pau Capell Says He’s Running The Course Anyway- 37-Year-Old Marathoner O’Neil Williams Is Training In Kenya With A 2:19 PR But Still Thinks He Can Run 2:11:30 To Make Olympics
- Column By White Man: Covid-19 “Lockdown” Is Disproportionately Affecting How Women Experience The Sport We Love “I specifically explore how lockdown has stripped away some of the ‘coping strategies’ female runners use to ‘deal’ with the discrimination they face every time they lace up their trainers.”
- Are You A Pro? Depressed Because You Have No Track Races To Train For? Train For This: Bathurst 2021 World Cross Celebrates 300 Days To Go Bathurst is in Australia in case you didn’t know. Who wouldn’t want a free trip to Australia in March?
Field/Sprint News
- Austria Limits Sporting Events To A Max Of 10 People, But That Was More Than Enough For Discus Thrower Lukas Weisshaidinger, Who Threw 68.63 They held two competitions on the same day but his best throw came in the first.
- Commonwealth Games Organizers Are Realistic That Dina Asher-Smith May Not Want To Triple At CGs Just Weeks After 2022 Worlds We don’t see why she wouldn’t do at least one individual event and a relay.
US News
- Florida Adds 8 More HSers, 4 Transfers To Its Recruiting Class
- What’s Matthew Boling Up To During The Pandemic? We have no idea. If you listen to this 42-minute video on dyestat, you’ll hear from him.
The Latest Covid-19 Related Running News
- Mondo Duplantis Is Going To Sweden To Train As His LSU Facilities Are Closed And He’s Doing The Impossible Games On June 11th
- Day 2 Of The British Milers’ Club 1km Time Trials Is In The Books 2:19 (Oliver Dustin, Archie Davis and James Young) and 2:36 (Keira Brady-Jones) are the leading times. Dunston is a big talent with a 1:46 PR at age 19.
- Scottish Athletics Championships Rated 50-50 To Go Ahead “We might split up event groups and deliver them in different venues.”
Distance News
Evan Jager Writes About Missing Last Year Due To Injury And Training During Covid-19 He’s doing his normal 85-95 per week but having more fun with it than before the injury. “Since the injury, I’ve improved every couple of weeks and when I reflect on these past few years, I notice that the time away has changed my mentality. In 2017 and 2018 I was starting to treat track more like work – getting really, really intense – and that came from trying to be so professional that I wanted to do every little thing right. It took the enjoyment out of it a little, but I’ve realized that I can be lighthearted and have fun at the same time as being dialed in.”- UKA Investigates Alleged Breach Of Social Distancing By Senior Distance Coaches Someone allegedly filmed distance coaches Barry Fudge and David Harmer coaching while not observing proper social distance in a video they described as “awful.” *Discuss
- BMC 1km Virtual Time Trial Is Underway – Recap Of Day 1
This Debate Will Never End
LRC Ritz Vs. Webb Vs. Hall – Who Was Better? A Pseudo-Scientific Breakdown It’s one of the great running debates: which one of the Big Three had the best career? With Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Webb and Ryan Hall all retired, Jonathan Gault breaks it down and picks a winner.
*MB: Now that they are all retired, who had the better career – Dathan Ritz, Alan Webb or Ryan Hall?
Other Links Worth Looking At
- Cool Idea:Are Your Kids Bored At Home? Print Out This Free Track And Field Coloring Book And Have The Kids Get At It The latest addition is Kenenisa Bekele.
- Lamine Diack, Former President Of The IAAF, Trial Will Start June 8th The 87-year-old faces up to 10 years in the slammer.
- He Grew Up Around Crack And Heroin But Irish Sprinter Leon Reid Is One Of The Few Who Has Trained With Both Usain Bolt And Wayde van Niekerk
Kenyan News
- Kip Keino Is Thrilled The World Athletics Continental Tour Meet I Nairobi Will Be Named After Him – “It’s a great feeling to be honoured when someone is still alive.”
- Kip Keino Classic Likely To Be Held At Nyayo National Stadium Assuming It Gets A New Mondo Track If not, it will be held at the Moi Stadium in Kisumu.
- Hellen Obiri Thinks When She Ran 14:18 That She Might Have Been Able To Run 14:12 Why stop there? The WR is 14:11.15.
Distance News
- UMich Prof: The Qualifying Times For Older Runners For The Major Marathons Make No Sense “NYC’s qualifying times suggest that the performances of women are more affected by age than men, but the Boston qualifying times suggest the opposite.” A recent study by Jason Hall shows that men slow 1.1% every year they age whereas women only sloe 0.9%.
- Former World Champ And Villanova Great Sonia O’Sullivan Is Thrilled She Never Had To Deal With A Pandemic As An Athlete As She Thrived On Racing “I definitely raced a lot better than I ever trained.”
- New Hayward Field looks Almost Finished (Video)
- California State Champ Corie Smith Won’t Get To Finish Her HS Career The Way She Envisioned, But She’s Getting Ready To Run For Arkansas Instead
For the 1st time since 1945, the CA state meet has been axed. - Yet Another Study Proved The Obvious Benefits Of Exercise A study of the early quarantine days showed that those who were ” physically active during those early weeks of sheltering at home were less depressed and more mentally resilient than other people whose activity levels declined.”
Random Links That Passed Our Vetting Process
- Everyone Gets An Award: Coaches Name Everyone Who Qualified For NCAAs Indoors As All-Americans The coaches can pad their resumes as 671 people were named All-American. What a joke.
- Did You Know That 2021 Will Mark The 100th Anniversary Of The Very First NCAA Championship In Any Sport? – The NCAA Track And Field Champs
- WADA Vows To Conduct Additional Targeted Testing To Plug Gaps Caused By COVID-19
- Nike Is The Most Admired Brand In All Of Kenya Adidas and Samsung are two and three.
- Canadian Running Magazine Takes A Look At Jogging Strollers For Dogs Rojo has one. His dog loves this one.
- September 26th’s Nairobi’s Continental Gold Tour Event To Be Named “Kip Keino Classic”
- Appalachian State Cuts Men’s Indoor Track
Optimism In Regards To Covid-19
- July’s Hokuren Distance Challenge Will Go On With Modification From July 4-18 There will be no 10,000, for example, as they feel that’s too long for people to be near each other and the meet’s size may be reduced so they’ll focus on the elites.
Impossible Games On June 11th Will Feature Team Ingebrigtsen Vs. Team Cheruiyot At 2k We’re not exactly sure how this is going to work as the Kenyan team will be running at nearly 6,000 feet of altitude.- Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Lifts COVID-19 State Of Emergency
- Japan Reschedules June’s National Track Champs For October 1-3
- Athletics Australia Publishes Guidelines To Assist All Track Athletes In The Safe Return To Athletics Activity During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Anniversary Time
- Remembering Arthur Wint On The 100th Year Of His Birth Wint was the first Jamaican Olympic gold medalist, winning the 400 meters at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.
- Jamaican Prime Minister Hails Dr. Wint For HIs “Far-Reaching Impact” In addition to his Olympic gold at 400, he won silver in at 800, was an Air Force pilot, surgeon and more.
- 85 Years Ago, Jesse Owens Enjoyed The “Greatest 45 Minutes Ever In Sports” As He Set 4 WRs In 45 Minutes
- On This Day 24 Years Ago, Jan Zelezny Added Nearly Three Meters To The Javelin World Record No one else has come within 4 meters of it since. *Video
Fast US HS Action
LRC Leo Daschbach Breaks 4:00 In Mile; Supreme 56.81 Last Lap Allows Him To Become 11th US Boy To Do So Daschbach is only the 4th US high schooler to break 4:00 in the mile in a HS-only race. How did he celebrate? By vomiting all over the track. *Video Of Race
*MB: LEO DASCHBACH JOINS THE HS SUB 4 CLUB – 56.84 last lap gets him 3:59.54!! The first half was slow but he had plenty in the tank.
*Pre-Race Leo Daschbach Is Pumped To Be At This Saturday’s US HS Sub-4 Attempt After Running 1:49 And 4:03 Alone In Practice
MB: HSer Jace Aschbrenner runs 8:44.93 for 3,200 in time trialPretty darn impressive. He is Nico Young‘s teammate and was 18th at NXN.
Sometimes Low Moments End Up Being Good For You
Recommended Read “I Healed A Broken Soul”: Billy Mills Talks To Boston’s NPR Station About How He Went From Contemplating Suicide To Olympic 10,000 Champ This is an excellent read. You can actually listen to it if you click on the hard to see player in the upper left-hand corner of the article.- US 4 X 100 Gold Medalist Morolake Akinosun Talks About How She Doesn’t Regret Tearing Her Achilles In 2018 She got to actually live life and travel Europe with her friends instead of worrying about how everything impacted her running.
Will There Be A 145th Straight US Nationals In 2020? Max Siegel Couldn’t Be Bothered To Respond
David Woods/Indy Star: USATF Has Held A Nationals For 144 Years Without Interruption, Will That Change In 2020? Sadly, USATF’s Max Siegel was too busy collecting his 7-figure annual compensation to be bothered to give the reporter a quote for the story. What a joke. *Discuss- Jamaica Trials On August 8-9? A Decision Will Be Made Soon
- What About The NYC Marathon? Mayor Bill de Blasio Says It’s “Too Early” To Decide To Cancel The New York City Marathon But his comments aren’t exactly encouraging as he praises them for their virtual races and says mass events will be the last things to come back.
- Penn, Drake, Texas And Mt. SAC Meet Directors All Talk About The Thought Process That Led To Their 2020 Cancellations (TFN Sub Req.)
Non-Distance News
- Not Good Luvo Manyonga: Former Long Jumper Who Overcame A Crystal Meth Addiction To Win 2017 WC Gold, Is Fined For Public Drinking
- Sunette Viljoen, Who Won Olympic Jav Silver In 2016, Is Hoping Her 5th Olympics In 2021 Brings Gold At Age 38
- European Athletics – On This Day 33 Years Ago (May 22), Robert Emmiyan Shocked The World By Coming Within 4 cm Of Bob Beamon’s Legendary LJ WR His 8.86 jump was #2 in history at the time (#4 now) and still stands as the European record. *Watch it here.
- Reigning US 200 Champ Dezerea Bryant Says Covid-19 Has Changed A Lot But Not Her Goals “Nothing has changed with the Olympics being postponed. My goal is still to be a first-time Olympian and that will still be the same next year.”
- USOPC Cuts More Than 100 Jobs Due To Covid-19
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.
LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”
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