The Track Meet Is Friday / Saturday *Schedule/Entries/Results 

MB: Official The Track Meet 2020 Live Discussion Thread
MB: Is Joshua Sealand the tallest 14:10 guy in history?

LRC  The “Track Meet” Preview: Houlihan, Centro, Cheserek & Dozens More Studs Chase Olympic Standards Dozens of the top US-based distance runners are headed west to chase Olympic and Olympic Trials standards.

• New Pro Tyler Day Hoping To Get Olympic Standard But Admits He’s Not Mentally Fresh “Mentally, I don’t feel fresh but on paper I’m doing things (in workouts) I’ve never done before. I want to take a crack at the Olympic ‘A’ standard and hopefully it’s the start of an eventful 2021.”
• Maggie Montoya Looking To Break 32:00 For 1st Time

MB Talk

• Shelby Houlihan racing the 5K at The Track Meet this Friday!! Meet Director says more surprise entries are coming!
• Cooper Teare & Luis Grijalva ATTEMPTING to break Collegiate Record
• Will Teare break McChesney’s 5000m school record?
• BREAKING: NICO YOUNG Racing 5k (13:30 attempt) in early December
• Sound Running Track Meet Preview

Valencia Is Sunday

LRC 2020 Valencia Half Preview: Jacob Kiplimo Vs. Kibiwott Kandie, Round 3; Rhonex Kipruto, & Genzebe Dibaba Debut High winds may prevent the world records from falling, but the racing on Sunday in Valencia should be spectacular. Can Kiplimo close out a perfect 2020 with a win, or can Kenyans Kandie & Kipruto take him down?

LRC The Deepest Marathon EVER Is Sunday The depth in Valencia is ridiculous: 25 men under 2:08, 35 under 2:10, 44 under 2:12. Plus there are some real studs running, from 2:02 man Birhanu Legese and Boston/Chicago champ Lawrence Cherono to NYC champ Joyciline Jepkosgei and World Half champ Peres Jepchirchir.
*MB: Are you ready for the DEEPEST marathon EVER? Sunday’s Valencia Marathon is laughably good.

News From The UK

• Coach James Thie Talks About How Jake Smith Managed To Drop His PR From 62:01 To 60:31 This Year Pretty amazing for a guy who started the year with track PRs of just 14:00/29:01.
• Sir Mo Farah Is Booted Off His Reality TV Show Farah never has been exceptional at super-long events.
• Mo Farah Struggled To Find WALES On A Map During One Show … When He Was In Wales At The Time Apparently, he got it confused with Scotland.
• British Indoor Championships To Be Held Without Spectators
• Grigory Rodchenkov’s Tell-All Book Wins William Hill Sports Book Of The Year Award “The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Putin’s Secret Doping Empire” won the 30,000 pound ($40,233) prize.
• Mondo Duplantis, Sifan Hassan Win Athletics Weekly AOY Awards The crazy thing is they don’t even have world record holders Joshua Cheptegei or Letesenbet Gidey at #2.  We’re sorry. Cheptegei’s season was clearly better than Warholm’s.
• Jemma Reekie And Jake Wightman Win British AOY Awards
• Usain Bolt And Tirunesh Dibaba Voted As The Greatest Athletes Of All Time By Athletics Weekly Readers
  *MB: Fair or Foul: Tirunesh Dibaba named greatest women’s track athlete of all time by Athletics Weekly readers. JJK not even top 3.
• Colin Jackson Hopes Bolt Travels Worldwide To Give “… seminars and insights into the life of a superstar in our sport.”

RIP To A Legend

1960 Olympic Decathlon Champ Rafer Johnson Has Died At 85 The guy lived quite the life. Played basketball for John Wooden, won Olympic silver and gold in the decathlon, acted in movies, lit the Olympic flame in 1984 and even tackled the guy who killed RFK. *Pay Your Respects In This Thread

Ashton Eaton Reflects On Rafer Johnson’s Amazing Life: “Everyone who knew him only had good things to say about him.”

NCAA Stars Go Pro Early / A New Pro Group Forms And Another Takes A Hit

NCAA XC Favorite Weini Kalti Goes Pro And Signs With Under Armour The two-time NCAA champ with PRs of 15:14/32:09 will train in Flagstaff.
*MB: Weini Kelati Signs goes pro, signs with Under Armour

Arkansas Star Taylor Werner Signs With Puma, Will Join A New Group In North Carolina Werner did not have NCAA XC eligibility left.
*MB: Arkansas’ Taylor Werner also goes pro – Sign with Puma and will join a North Carolina based group. Who is coaching it?

HOKA Doesn’t Extend New Jersey-New York Track Club’s Sponsorship That’s not the only big news. Gags and his assistants have split as his assistants have formed a new track club.
*MB: HOKA doesn’t renew NJNY sponsorship. Gags’ assistants split from him and form a new team.

LetsVote.com

• Opinion Piece By USATF Activist Becca Peter: “Vote No On USATF Losing Its Voice In Governance” Peter explains what’s at stake at the closing session of the 2020 USATF annual meeting on December 6th and how the USOPC is trying to force changes on USATF (which will take power away from athletes/members) by threatening decertification. *Video Interview With Peter
• Thomas Bach To Stand Unopposed For Re-Election As IOC President In 2021 Bach has been IOC president since 2013 and his second term will end in 2025.
• Russian Athletics Federation Elects New President, Pyotr Ivanov He is the chief executive of a Russian state high-speed rail company and has also been president of the Russian Triathlon Federation since 2016.
  *Reuters Article
• New RusAF President Speaks To World Athletics Task Force Speaking about the new president, Russian HJer Ilya Ivanyuk said, “I think that Peter Ivanov should be given a chance … but the bitter experience of failures of the former leaders of the Federation does not strongly inspire for a bright future.”

Olympic News

• Not Making This Up: Uber Helping Develop Flying Taxis Service In Time For Los Angeles 2028 Olympics The “Uber Air” service will use helicopter-like vehicles and cost $700 per flight hour to operate (so will be very expensive to use).
• Tokyo2020 To Spend $960 Million On COVID-19 Countermeasures This is part of the $1.9 billion estimated cost of delaying the Games.
• Human Rights Watch Urges IOC Not To Consider Chinese 2032 Olympic bid They China should not be considered unless they free the Uighur Muslims allegedly detained in internment camps.
• CWG: Scotland Will Have 23-Strong Track Team For The 2022 Commonwealth Games In Birmingham

Paralympic Sprinter Blake Leeper Appealing CAS Ruling To Swiss Supreme Court In Attempt To Race Against Able-Bodied Athletes Leeper is claiming that World Athletics’ rules on prosthetic leg length are “racially discriminatory” since their study on leg length used white and Asian athletes, not black.

Have You Purchased Your LetsRun T-Shirt Yet?

LRC The Softest T-Shirt You’ll Ever Wear Is Here For the first time in history,  you can now sport the iconic look of the original LetsRun.com singlet or get one of our 1:59:40 or 1:59:40* t-shirts.