November 27, 2020 | LetsRun.com

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The Latest Distance News Of Note

Recommended Read World 800 Champ Halimah Nakaayi Of Uganda Writes About How She’s Turned Stereotypes On Their Head In Winning Gold As A Devout Muslim From The Central Part Of Uganda “In Uganda, women tend to be undermined a lot, with a belief lingering that we can’t do certain things or that we’re supposed to be below men in the ranks of society.”
Sunday’s Airtel Delhi Half Is Loaded, Will Race Records Of 59:03 And 66:00 Fall On Faster Covid-19 Course? $178,000 is on the line. The women’s race features the half marathon and marathon WR holders in Brigid Kosgei and Ababel Yeshaneh while the men’s race will serve as the debut for Muktar Edris.

More Distance News

Foot Locker Will Offer Three Zoom Calls Featuring Its Greatest Champions Each Of The Next 3 Saturdays The calls will take place each of the next three Saturday’s at 11 am ET. This week’s guests include Jenny Simpson, Meb Keflezighi, Deena Kastor, Jorge Torres, Reuben Reina, Molly Seidel, Weini Kelati, Chris Solinsky, and Cory McGee. *Register Here
Reigning Olympic Champ Faith Kipyegon Says He’s Going To Focus On 5,000 At Tokyo “This is my dream as I seek new challenges in my career.”
13:42/28:46 Aaron Bienenfeld of Cincinnati to do grad year at Oregon
Ollie Hoare Talks About How He Went From 3:37 To 3:34 This Year And Why He Stayed In The US To Train As A Pro He also reveals a sample training week of 95 to 105 mpw.

Previous Distance News

Tokyo Governor Says It’s Not Out Of The Question That The Olympics Might Be Filled With Spectators
Lawrenceville’s Charlotte Bednar Runs #2 Girls Time Ever At Holmdel What’s crazy is Holmdel is where the NJ state meet is every year but the #1 time is Katelyn Tuohy‘s 16:21 – yes, 1 minute faster.
The Stride Report Gives Their Analysis Of The NCAA College Distance Signings
Adidas Version Of The Cheaterfly Shoes – The Adizero Adios Pro – Has A New “Sunrise Bliss” Color Otherwise known as bright green.
Beer Mile WR Holder And Canadian Olympic 1,500 Hopeful Corey Bellemore Opens Up About Being A Male With An Eating Disorder
NXN Virtual Team And Individual Champs Are Crowned Angelina Perez of New Jersey and Charlie Robertson of Oregon were the individual winners while Desert Vista of Arizona and Wickham Distance Project of Florida won the team crowns.

Pro Distance News

Mo Farah Is Getting $401,000 To Appear On “I’m A Celebrity” Reality TV Show Farah is the highest paid 2020 contestant and one of the highest paid ever.
Running Form Analysis Of Letesenbet Gidey’s 5,000m World Record Includes an interesting comparison to the form of previous record holder Tirunesh Dibaba.
7:54 Steeplechaser (#3 All-Time) Paul Kipsiele Koech Is Transitioning To The Marathon The former Olympic bronze medalist ran the Kenyan Mountain Running Champs this past weekend as part of his transition and says, “I am targeting an even better career on the roads than I did on the track.”
December 4: Japan National Championships Distance Entries

Recent 10k Results

Spain’s Fernando Carro Runs 27:46 National 10k Record In Alcobendas This was the first significant road race in Spain since the end of February.
Charles Kamau Wanjiku’s 27:30.09 Highlights Japanese Weekend Track Action It was the second-fastest time ever by a student at a Japanese university.

High School Corner

LRC Tennessee’s Jenna Hutchins Puts Stamp On Incredible 2020 Cross-Country Season With Historic Sub-16:00 5K Hutchins, who finished 9th at Foot Lockers as a freshman and 5th as a sophomore, recorded the first sub-16:00 5k in US girls HS history. Can it be believed?

RW Talks To Jenna Hutchins After Her Sub-16 Run “It was amazing. Having fun was the first priority for me, and to achieve a mark like this that means so much.
Brynn Brown Breaks Meet Record With 16:25.9 At Texas State Meet
*MB: Add Brynn Brown’s 2020 TX State Meet 16:25.9 to the XC Record Books
Lauren Ping Gets Individual Win To Lead Team To Repeat Title At Arizona State Champs Grace Ping was 6th.
DyeStat: Dramatic Final Day Sees Wickham Distance Project Boys And Desert Vista Girls Crowned Nike Cross Virtual Champions The top individual times posted were Charlie Robertson (14:42.20) of Oregon and Angelina Perez (16:39.00) of New Jersey.
DyeStat State-By-State XC Champs Recaps

Hopefully, We Have A Diamond League Season In 2021

LRC Diamond League Announces 2021 Schedule; Pre Classic Will Be On August 21 Due to Covid-19, the season is scheduled to start later than ever (May 23rd) which means there is going to be a crazy tight schedule after the Olympics. At one point there will be 4 meets over an 8 day span and 6 in 20.

World Athletics Statement Says 2021 DL Schedule Is “Strictly Provisional And “Remains Subject To Changes Depending On The Global Health Situation”
BBC: London Will Stage Mid-Week Diamond League Meet In July, But No Meet For Gateshead Gateshead’s International Stadium was supposed to host a meet, but wasn’t included.

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?

Put An Asterisk Next To It – Black Friday Deserves A Black 1:59:40* Shirt

LRC It’s Here: The 1:59:40* GOAT Shirt 1:59:40 is impressive but shouldn’t we admit it needs to at a minimum come with an asterisk next to it? Use code LETSRUN20 to save 20% on all LRC shirts.

Sprint News

Christian Coleman Formally Appeals His Two-Year Ban For Breaching Whereabouts Rules Coleman has requested “sanction be eliminated, or in the alternative, reduced” as he says protocol wasn’t followed. In the other direction, WADA has appealed the rejection of Eid Naser‘s ban. *CAS Statement
The USTFCCCA Takes A Look At The Amazing Exploits Of The Burrell Family The only family in history where mom (Michelle Finn), dad (Leroy) and son (Cameron) all won NCAA 100 titles. Both mom and dad also have Olympic golds.

We Think We’ve Found The Ultimate Covid-19 Running Accomplishment

LRC Last Sunday, American CJ Albertson Ran A 2:09 Marathon On His Treadmill And Added On An Extra Mile For Fun. He Doesn’t Care What You Think About It. “There’s just something about it that is relaxing but also allows you to push hard. And so I don’t have to think about anything, I just get the physical act of running hard and fast. There’s something really soothing about that to me.”
*MB: CJ Albertson (Brooks) 2:10 treadmill marathon

UK Athletics New Head Coach Makes The Media Rounds

Christian Malcolm: “It’s about my abilities, not the colour of my skin.” The 41-year-old does admit he’s a tiny bit young for the job.
*MB: If this quote from the new British athletics head coach Christian Malcolm is true, why do we even need coaches?
Christian Malcolm: Don’t Be Fooled By My Good Guy Image “I am going to have to say no to some people and they won’t like it but it’s about the way you communicate it.”
Christian Malcolm: “I’m definitely no Pep Guardiola.”

More News From The UK

On The Roads

RRW: Connecticut Governor Bans Road Races This move was timed to stamp out any remaining turkey trot races that were still planned as in-person.
Athletics Weekly: How Kew Gardens Won The Race To Stage The GB Olympic Marathon Trials The south-west London venue was chosen due to its flat, sheltered course and “the huge degree of certainty it provided.” Apparently this course is 20% flatter than the London Marathon.
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philly Officials And Brothers, One Who Oversaw The Broad Street Run, Have Been Charged With Embezzlement They stole nearly $150,00 in funds meant for city recreational activities and a youth baseball organization.
Runner’s World On What Factors You Should Consider When Deciding Whether Or Not To Run Your Local Turkey Trot During COVID-19 They talk about masks, staggered starts and whether you should use aid stations.

World Athletics News

Oregon ~~2021~~ 2022 Launch Logo And “Brand Identity” For Eugene World Champs Includes a 1:30 promotional video narrated by Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton.
World Athletics Extends US Media Rights Deal With NBC Sports The ten-year agreement gives NBC Sports exclusive multi-platform rights to World Athletics events in the US until the end of 2029.
There Is Concern That The London Diamond League Won’t Have Top British Athletes Competing Because It’s Too Close To The Olympics It’s 17 days before the track portion of Tokyo 2020 starts, so that’s actually not a bad tune-up for a lot of athletes.
Calendar Announced For 2021 World Mountain Running Association World Cup

NCAA Updates

MB: Cooper Teare 7:44, Cole Hocker 7:45 in 3k time trial tonight
Video: Clemson Athletes Call For Reinstatement Of Men’s Track Program
No Changes To The Top 5 Teams In The Latest Men’s NCAA XC Rankings NAU, BYU, Arkansas and Notre Dame are ranked 1-4.
Updated Women’s NCAA XC Rankings Has Arkansas Stay On Top NC State moved up to #2 and BYU up to #3. New Mexico moved down to 4th.
Ohio’s Josh Park And Bowling Green’s Kailee Perry Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week These were the two individual winners at this past weekend’s Mid-American Conference Champs.

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, whom he paced to her first world record, in the marathon was clean.

LRC LetsRun.com – The Shirt – Is Unveiled – Buy Our 20th Anniversary T-Shirt Here For the first time in history, you can now sport the iconic look of the original LetsRun.com singlet.

Hope You Had A Good Thanksgiving

US Olympic Marathoner Molly Seidel Dressed Up And Raced As A Turkey As Part Of Peachtree Virtual Race
10 People You Meet At A Turkey Trot From the costume guy/girl, to hungover guy to the local celebrity, Lincoln Shryack has you covered.
Molly Huddle Shares Her Family’s Stuffing Recipe
RW: Stop Worrying About “Running Off” Thanksgiving Dinner
*MB: True or false: “The idea that if you run more, you can eat more, or if you run less, you should eat less is totally false. “

Mark Your Calendar Now

LRC The 2021 RAK Half Looks INCREDIBLE: Women’s WR Holders Brigid Kosgei & Ababel Yeshaneh To Battle, World Half Rematch With Jacob Kiplimo Vs. Kibiwott Kandie And Sara Hall Is Entered Mark your calendars; the February 19th race is something athletics fans can get excited about. The marathon WR holder vs. the half marathon WR holder is the women’s headline. For the men, we get a replay of gold vs. silver from World Half. And Sara Hall of the US is making the trip.
*MB: The 2021 RAK HALF Is LOADED. 2 World Record holders, Jakob Kiplimo, Kibiwott Kandie and Sara Hall are racing

Random Stuff

Challenge Daytona Triathlon Offering A Million Dollar Prize Purse Causing Some Debate About Holding Events During The Pandemic Organizers say they are providing a safe environment while some others aren’t sure. The entire event is being held inside the Daytona International Speedway.
Runner’s World: Do Ice Baths Have Legitimate Benefits For Your Recovery? New research found that they don’t help or can even delay muscle repair, although they can help with soreness.

Olympic / Admin News

Tokyo 2020 May Have Strict Limits Inside The Athletes’ Village There are plans to limit how long athletes can stay in the village to reduce crowding. It can accommodate up to 16,500 people, but social distancing measures may reduce that number by 10,000.
Thomas Bach Calls On Countries To Respect The IOC’s And Olympics’ Political Neutrality
Tokyo Governor Hoping For Tokyo 2020 “With Full Spectators Present”
Chicago Tribune: Olympic Organizers Promote Games As Light At End Of Pandemic Tunnel IOC President Thomas Bach suggested that the IOC may pay for coronavirus vaccines for people visiting Japan for the Games, but taking the vaccine would not be a requirement.
Donald Quarrie Is Concerned About The Fairness Of The JAAA Presidential Election Process Quarrie points out how candidates already in the JAAA have a conflict of interest and potential advantages.

D’Amato Breaks US 10 Mile Record

RRW Keira D’Amato DESTROYS American Women’s-Only 10 Mile Record; Runs 51:23 To Smash 52:12 Record At Up Dawg Ten Miler The magical season for the 36-year-old unsponsored mother of 2 continued with her first American record. D’Amato broke the previous mark of 52:12 set by Janet Bawcom in 2014. Molly Seidel was a distant second in the 53-minute range.
*MB: Up Dawg 10 miler is ON! Keira is busting it out!!!