November 23, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Black Friday Comes A Week Early To LetsRun

LRC The LetsRun.com 20th Anniversary T-Shirt Is Here. 50% Off Through Monday For the first time in history, you can now sport the iconic look of the famed LetsRun.com singlet – the same look that pushed Alan Webb to sub-4, paced Paula to a WR, battled Galen Rupp to the final 200, beat Cam Levins and Abdi and started an Internet revolution. We’re kicking off Black Friday a week early and offering it at 50% off through Monday. Just $15. Mediums have been restocked a 2nd time!!!
*MB: THE OG LETSRUN SHIRT IS HERE!!!!!

RunningLane High School XC Champs

MileSplit: Jenna Hutchins Runs Fastest Girls XC 5k In Prep History At RunningLane National Champs In Alabama She ran 15:58.42 to dominate the race by almost a minute.
*MB: JENNA MF HUTCHINS – Runs 15:58 – 1st US HS Girl To Break 16:00 in XC!!
MileSplit: Parker Wolfe Snags Win In Craziest, Fastest Race Of The Season At RunningLane National Champs Wolfe won in a CR of 14:26.94 as the top-8 were under 14:40.
MileSplit: American Fork Puts Down Fastest 5K Team Average In Prep XC History The team averaged 15:00.99 which is reportedly the fastest team average in HS history behind the 1978 run by South Eugene with 15:01.02 at their state champs.
DyeStat RunningLane Champs Recap

Unusual Women’s Sport News

MileSplit Documentary On High Schooler Caitlin Little Who Suffered A Head Injury During XC Practice In Combination With Lyme Disease And Now Struggles To Hold On To Memories For More Than A Few Minutes If you remember Drew Barrymore from the movie 50 First Dates, it’s something like that.
Woman Accusing Former Cross Country Coach Of Sexually Abusing Her As A Teen Found Dead The autopsy ruled that Emilie Morris died from asphyxiation and could not determine whether it was accidental, suicide or homicide, meaning that the case against her former coach was dismissed. ( TV channel Oxygen is airing a report on her story on December 6.)
GB Olympic Team To Be Given Cyber-Security Training Before Tokyo Games Four British athletes have already been targeted and had intimate photographs and videos stolen.
*MB: Four female ‘British athletes’ have their nude photos hacked and leaked online
Recent Research Indicates That The Birth Control Pill Could Help Women Deal With The Hot Conditions At Tokyo 2020 This is because the pill helps to control body temperature during the menstrual cycle.

LetsJump.com

Get To Know Jamaica’s World Long Jump Champion Tajay Gayle Gayle explains how he only came out for track in the first place so he could beat his cousin in street races. The first day there he told the coach his 100m PR was six or seven seconds.
Germany’s World LJ Champ Malaika Mihambo Wants To Double Up In The 100m For Tokyo 2020 She has a PB of 11.21.
Four-Time World LJ Champ Brittney Reese Named By Senator To USOPC Commission

Ultra News

Ultramarathoner Kilian Jornet Targeting 24-Hour World Record In A Norway Track Race On November 25 The record for longest distance on the track in 24 hours is 188.590 miles (7:38 pace) from 1997. There will be a live stream available here.
New Study Finds That Ultramarathoners Have Two Mental Traits In Common, High Levels Of Mental Toughness And Self-Efficacy Makes sense, although this was a small scale study with only 56 participants.

LRC In-Depth

LRC Keira D’Amato Is Trying To Break The American 10-Mile Record On Monday. It Could Cost Her Thousands Of Dollars. The 36-year-old D’Amato, who spent over eight years away from the sport and plays in a fantasy football league with Matthew Centrowitz, will be going for the AR in the D.C. area on Monday. But staging an AR attempt on public roads – even in the middle of a pandemic – can be expensive.

Podcast Ken Goe Defends Salazar: “I’ve seen very little persuasive evidence that he was a systematic cheater.” Ken Goe retired as one of the last remaining track and field writers in America at a major newspaper. He looks back at his career and talks about everything Nike-related in running including Alberto Salazar, Galen Rupp, Phil Knight, Mary Cain and Vin Lananna.
*MB: Ken Goe: A Salazar Shill to the End

Mo Farah’s Reality TV Show Has Begun

MB: Official How Is Mo Farah Doing on Reality TV Show I’m A Celebrity Discussion Thread

Some Viewers Are Stunned As They Think Mo Farah Smuggled A Mobile Phone Onto Show We doubt it’s a phone but would Mo operating in the grey area really be shocking?
Mo Farah Allegedly Is Reminded Of The Importance Of “Good Hygiene” On Show
Mo Farah Becomes Emotional After Receiving A Sweet Picture Drawn By His Kids
Mo Farah Is Set To Do “Next Trial” On Celebrity TV Show

Manangoi Owns His Mistake

LRC “I Made A Mistake”: Elijah Manangoi Does What Christian Coleman Refuses To Do – Owns Up To Missing 3 Drug Tests Jonathan Gault praises Elijah Manangoi for doing something that fellow stars Christian Coleman and Wilson Kipsang have been unable to do and something that is very rare in the year 2020 – owning up to a massive mistake. Manangoi admitted his suspension for missing 3 drug tests was his own fault. “I would like to urge my fellow athletes both in Kenya and abroad to seriously take care of their own whereabouts to avoid unnecessary sanctions, it seems simple but a slight mistake can be costly at the end. It’s shameful.”
*MB: Jonathan Gault is (rightly) full of praise for Elijah Manangoi – a guy who just got banned for 2 years

LRC It’s Here: The 1:59:40 GOAT Shirt Get the premium shirt that signals and celebrates greatness. Order today.

US Distance Action

Hayden Hawks And Camille Herron Wins JFK 50-Miler Hawks ran 5:18:43 to win by 10-minutes and break Jim Walmsley‘s CR. Herron ran 6:31:14, winning by almost half an hour.
MB: CJ Albertson Runs 2:10:00 Treadmill Marathon
MB: Collegian Luis Grijalva smokes Drew Hunter (7:42 to 7:44), Nick Young fails to break 8:00 *MileSplit recap

Supporters Club Content

LRC Ask Me Anything with LetsRun.com Co-Founder Weldon Johnson – Running, Dogs, Paula Wejo has started an AMA for Supporters Club members and so far has answered question on his running career, his dogs, and whether he thinks Paula Radcliffe, who he paced to her first world record, in the marathon was clean.

Sprinters In The News

Lolo Jones Has Returned To Bobsledding Jones qualified for the 10-person national team roster after two days of team-trial races in New York.
Bahamian Sprinter Steven Gardiner Relives His 2019 World 400m Gold He said a lot of athletes struggled in the Doha heat, but he was used to it.
Ato Boldon And Sanya Richards-Ross To Host 2020 World Athletics Awards On December 5 Short Q&A with both presenters talking about the challenges of hosting/commentating during COVID and which awards they are most looking forward to presenting.
Karsten Warholm 2020 Highlights Video
Dr. Scholl’s Partners With Allyson Felix

More NCAA Updates

Weekend NCAA Round-Up: Southern And Mid-American Conference XC Champs Furman men and women swept Southern Champs while Eastern Michigan men and Northern Illinois women took Mid-American.
Big East Indoor Champs Canceled Probably many more to come unfortunately.

NCAA Stuff

Bernard Lagat Named As Part Of Arizona’s Coaching Staff Lagat has been a volunteer assistant at Arizona for the last 15 years.
Weekend NCAA XC Preview: Southern Conference And Mid-American Conference Champs

Interesting Reads

Steve Spence Shares The Training Secrets That Took Him From Being A Failed Marathoner To WC Bronze In 1991 Always walking at the end of marathons, he “… decided to invert his marathon training. Instead of building endurance early, followed by tuneup races and a taper, he did the bulk of his long runs closer to race day.”
Half Marathon NR Holder Hitomi Niiya Says She’s Planning On Winning December’s Nationals In 10,000 in NR Time (30:48 Is The Current NR) Niiya Also Admits She Is Likely To Try The Marathon Again Even Though In The Past She Said She “Absolutely Never” Would Do It Again “I’m not dead set against a marathon like I used to be, and I can feel that the possibility is there.” She’s run 3 but never broken 2:30.
My Greatest Race – Katharine Merry Recalls What It Was Like To Run Against Cathy Freeman In The 2000 Olympic Final Merry did incredible as she broke 50 for the 1st time and snagged bronze.
Toni Reavis Says NCAA Cutting Entire Men’s Teams Is The Result Of The”… trickle-down effect caused by the loss of prestige and reliability exhibited by athletics at the highest international level over the last two decades.”
Canadian NR Holder Malindi Elmore Tested The Saucony Endorphin Pros And Nike Next% And Found The Endorphin Pros To Be Better
*MB: Scientific lab: Saucony Endorphin Pros are a tiny bit better than Nike’s Vaporfly Next%
*Athletics Weekly Reviews Saucony’s Endorphin Pro And Declares, “The ‘nergy return’ provided feels like nothing else.”

Administrative/Olympic News

Bach: Tokyo Olympic “Participants” Encouraged To Get Vaccine
IOC wants Tokyo 2020 Athletes’ Village To Be “Safest Place In Tokyo,” Will Encourage Athletes To Limit Their Stay In It
Famous Jesse Owens’ Olympic Oak Tree Is Showing Signs Of Age-Related Distress, So Its Baby Sapling Will Be Planted
Spanish Athletics Federation Turns 100 – A Look At The Great Spanish Athletes Over The Years Spain didn’t win its first Olympic track medal until 1980. The initialism EPO isn’t mentioned once in the article.
World Athletics Holds Inspiring Women Leaders in Athletics Global Virtual Conference

Will We See 0, 1 Or 2 NCAA Champs This Winter?

LRC Why Are NCAA Indoors And NCAA XC Scheduled For The Same Weekend? And Will They Happen At All? The NCAA XC champs will be held on March 15, just two days after NCAA Indoors. Jonathan Gault spoke to several top NCAA coaches to figure out why the schedule turned out that way – and how they’re adjusting. Many coaches indicated they are likely to blow off one of the championships entirely.
*MB: Several top NCAA xc coaches indicate they are likely to blow off one of the winter champs entirely

Words From Two All-Time British Greats

Seb Coe Wants COVID Lockdown Restrictions In The UK Eased So Kids Can Play Sports He says it doesn’t make sense to close down club sports if schools are open. “Children being together is either safe, or it is not.”

International Distance Results

The 2020 NCAA Championships Were Supposed To Be Saturday

LRC What I Miss Most About the NCAA Cross-Country Championships The NCAA cross-country championships were originally scheduled for this weekend at Oklahoma State. As Jonathan Gault ponders yet another absence from the 2020 sporting calendar, he reflects on what he misses the most about one of his favorite events of the year.
*MB: NCAA xc were supposed to be this weekend. What do you miss most about the meet?

On The Roads

November 29: World Record Holders Brigid Kosgei And Ababel Yeshaneh Added To Delhi Half Marathon Field When they went head-to-head at the RAK Half in February, Yeshaneh ran a 64:31 WR to beat Kosgei’s 64:49.
British Olympic Marathon Trials Set For March 26th In London The race will use similar pandemic “bio-bubble” procedures as the London Marathon with small fields of around 30 men and 30 women on a multi-lap course.
Chicago Marathon Hoping To Return In 2021 After 2020 Cancellation

This Week’s Action

Will The JFK 50 Miler Be Held?

Famed JFK 50 Miler Is Scheduled To Go On This Weekend And The Washington Post Doesn’t Seem Happy About It 1,200 runners will run in waves of 250 that are socially distanced at the start and required to wear masks when around other people.
*MB: Fair or Foul: Washington Post tries to shame JFK 50 Miler into being cancelled this weekend
Camille Herron Headlines Deep Fields At JFK 50-Miler
55-Year-Old Man Becomes First To Run Double Western States That’s 200 miles total in two days, 11 hours, 48 minutes.
There Is A TON Of Action In Japan This Weekend, Highlighted By The Queens Ekiden, The Season-Ending Corporate Women’s National Championships

News From Kenya

Lawrence Cherono Considers Himself To Be “Lucky” To Get To Run Valencia Next Weekend The man has won his last 3 marathons Amsterdam, Boston and Chicago.
Kenya’s World U-20 Trials Start Friday
AK Puts Age Cheats On Red Alert “Anybody entering an athlete with doctored ages will be smoked out during the vetting,” said Barnabas Korir.
Kenyan Olympic Federation Holds Athletes’ Career Fair You can’t run forever.

Another Legal Challenge From Semenya

Caster Semenya Takes Legal Battle Against World Athletics’ Testosterone Restrictions To European Court Of Human Rights Semenya has already lost two appeals, one to CAS and another to the Switzerland supreme court. It’s unclear from this and other articles whether this case could challenge those rulings legally, but it seems Semenya and her lawyers are trying to put public pressure on WA to change its mind.