December 19, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Marathon Project Watch Live 10 AM Eastern Or Tape Delay 7:30 PM NBCSN Full Coverage Here

LRC Will Sara Hall Break Deena Kastor’s 2:19:36 AR In The Marathon On Sunday? Her Coach/Husband Ryan Hall Says Sara’s Training “Has Gone Phenomenal” Let this serve as your official American record alert. Ryan Hall: “This has been the fittest I’ve ever seen her. Every buildup she gets better and better.¨

More Marathon Project Coverage

RRW: Will Keira D’Amato’s Breakout Year Have A Fairy Tale Ending At The Marathon Project? D’Amato’s PR is 2:34:34 from the trials, but she wants something more in line with half marathon PR (which on paper is worth 2:24). She at least wants to beat her husband’s 2:31 best.
DyeStat: Martin Hehir Will Go From COVID-19 Front Line To The Marathon Project Starting Line Hehir is a 4th year medical student and spent several weeks working in an intensive care unit with COVID-19 patients.
DyeStat: CJ Albertson Cherishes Return To Competition At The Marathon Project After Several Unique Record-Setting Performances Albertson is now the WR holder in the indoor marathon, treadmill marathon and 50,000-meter track race.
Podcast: The Marathon Project Organizer Ben Rosario Anticipates Something Special On Sunday
TheXC.org: The Marathon Project Course Is Wonderfully Weird
Women’s Running: Why You Should Watch The Marathon Project On Sunday

A Historic Race Will Be No More: Japan’s Oldest Marathon: Lake Biwa To Be Discontinued After 2021 Race A bit surprising in marathon-mad Japan but other more popular races are expected to replace it on the calendar.

Russia Gets Olympic Ban Reduced

Russia’s Olympic Doping Ban Cut From 4 Years To 2, But Falg Barred From Next Two Games We don’ t see how this is a huge deal. Russia has been banned since 2016.

USADA Head Travis Tygart Says Russian Ruling A “Catastrophic Blow To Clean Sport”

More Distance News

Athletics Weekly Video Interview With Sam Atkin After His Major 27:26.58 Breakthrough Atkins talks about starting the race as a pacemaker, his goals for next year and his twin sister being Miss Great Britain.
*MB: Sam Atkin is officially everyone’s hero. After his 13:18/27:26 double, it’s revealed his twin sis is Miss Great Britain (pics)
DyeStat Lengthy Video Interview With USA XC Champ Natosha Rogers Rogers talks about having a near-death experience when strong winds knocked a 500-pound chest into the pool she was swimming only missing her by inches.
Italy’s Giovanna Epis Secured Olympic Qualifying Mark With 2:28:03 PB To Win Italian Championships
AW Weekly Round-Up: Ian Crowe-Wright (14:23) And Izzy Fry (16:24) Win PB 5km Winter Series

Jamaican Sprint Stuff

Usain Bolt Says That Raising A Child Is Teaching Him The Patience He Would Need To Become A Coach “You will get athletes and you will have to tell them the same things over and over and over again. I wasn’t one of those athletes, but it’s hard for a coach. I’m not going to say that I made it easy for my coach. He had to shout at me at times.”
Yohan Blake Still Wants Olympic Gold “I always said that this is going to be my last Olympics because to wait every four years, it is not easy.”
Briana Williams Will Make Her Season Debut This Weekend In The Bahamas She will compete in the 150m and 300m. Yohan Blake will be at the meet as well.

Olympic Protest Debate

InsideTheGames: “Who decides what protests are allowed if Rule 50 is removed?” Obviously athletes from different countries and cultures are going to have different views on what is appropriate.
The Telegraph: “Ban On Olympians Taking The Knee Prevents Division Of Athlete Community”

US Distance News

Athletics Illustrated Interview With Scott Fauble Ahead Of The Marathon Project Fauble talks about his start in running, his disappointing race at the Olympic Trials and thoughts ahead of this weekend’s race.
*MB: New Scott Fauble interview
Outside Magazine: Scott Fauble Seeks Redemption at the Marathon Project “I’d like to win. Pretty simple. I think the time, like everything else, will fall into place if I can be at the front and compete for the win.”
Women’s Running Q&A With Rachel Schneider About Moving Up In Distance Schneider made her 10,000m debut two weekends ago in California with a 31:09.79 victory. She now has the Olympic standards for 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m.
The Marathon Project Announces Brooks As Official Sponsor

Give The Gift Of LetsRun.com This Holiday Season

Malcolm Gladwell Speaks

LRC Malcolm Gladwell Opens Up On His Love Of Running, Saving Track And Field, Nike, Alberto, Galen, Super Shoes, Doping And More In a wide-ranging conversation, Gladwell, who describes himself as a “serious mediocre” runner, doesn’t hold anything back and shares some strong opinions about doping, super shoes, Nike, and those in charge of the sport. A must listen/read.

Marathon Project Previews *Full Coverage Here

LRC Women’s Marathon Project Preview: Will Anyone Go With Sara Hall? How Fast Will Keira D’Amato Run? Hall is planning on running the first half in 69:40, while the next group is slated to hit halfway in 71:30. Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce, Emma Bates and D’Amato are among the US stars chasing PRs in the desert.

LRC Men’s Marathon Project Preview: With A Fast Course & Perfect Conditions, Will Sunday Be A Historic Day For US Marathoning? There have only been six races in history in which multiple Americans have broken 2:10 (the record is four guys under 2:10).
*MB: Marathon Project predictions

More Marathon Project News

RRW: A Win Would Mean More Than A Fast Time To Fauble At The Marathon Project Fauble with his 2:09:09 PR has one of the fastest in the field.

After Coming Up Short At Trials And Then Getting Covid, Emma Bates Looks To Conclude A Difficult Year With Something Good Dyestat.

Other News

No Spectators Will Be Allowed At NCAA Indoor Championships At The University Of Arkansas Same goes for the NCAA XC Championships scheduled for March 15th in Oklahoma.
World Athletics Profile: How Three Different Sports Helped KC Lightfoot Become A Top Pole Vaulter The USA Champs 3rd placer credits dirt biking, baseball and cliff/bridge jumping to helping him in the PV.
European Athletics Launches Six Part Documentary Mini-Series “My Story” Five of the episodes will be on Mondo Duplantis, Karsten Warholm, Nafissatou Thiam, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Sandra Perkovic (sixth episode is TBD).
*Episode 1 (4-Minute Video): Duplantis: “I want to be the best to ever live.”
Year In Review: 2020 World Athletics Continental Tour

Updates From Asia / Middle East

Former World Athletics Council Member Ahmad Al Kamali Banned For Six Months And Fined $6,000 For Gifting Watches 1984 Olympic 5,000m champion Said Aouita claimed they were Rolexes, but Al Kamali claimed, and the AIU seemed to confirm, the watches were only worth $40-50.
Japan Olympic Marathon Trials Winner Shogo Nakamura Announces He’s Racing The Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon On February 28
Two-Time World HJ Champ Mutaz Essa Barshim Backs Doha For Bid For 2030 Asian Games

LetsBobsled.com

Good Read: “Broken Leg” Sprinter Manteo Mitchell Is Now A Bobsledder Olympic 4 x 400 silver medalist Mitchell is famous for breaking his fibula during the 2012 Olympic prelims. He hasn’t given up on Tokyo 2020, but is also looking to Beijing 2022 as a bobsledder.
Former GB Sprinter James Dasaolu Made His Bobsled World Cup Debut Last Weekend Dasaolu is #2 on the British all-time list with a 9.91 PR from 2013.

Jenna Hutchins Runs 15:34 *Watch Hutchins 5k Record

LRC Jenna Hutchins Runs 15:34.47 To Break US Girls High School 5,000 Record Hutchins broke Katelyn Tuohy‘s 15:37.12 mark by leading the entire last 8 laps. *Replay
*MB: Jenna Hutchins Runs 15:34 at Five and Dime To Break Katelyn Tuohy’s 5000 US HS National Record

MB: Shea Foster of SELU goes from 15:00 5k to 28:40 10k in 9 months?!

More Results From Youngsters

HS Junior Reinhardt Harrison Of Tinman Junior Elite Runs 4:05.70 Mile Rojo is trying to figure out why he’s running a mile in December.
College Soph Emma Wilson Of Huntington (NAIA) Runs 32:38 10,000
2-Time CA State XC Champ Riley Chamberlain Runs 10:24 3,200

COVID Stuff

New York Cancels High School Indoor Champs Due To Coronavirus
Reuters: COVID-10 Leaves Sporting Holes That Will Never Be Filled There will forever remain some blank spaces on the wall for 2020.
NY Times Writer Argues That College Athletes Getting COVID “Proves That They Are Workers” The debate over paying college athletes is one thing, but this writer gets a little dramatic when he says, “Collegiate athletes are now pawns in a high-stakes game with life and death consequences.”
NY Times: “College Sports Has Reported at Least 6,629 Virus Cases. There Are Many More.” The NY Times says many universities have kept their case counts from the public.

Kenyan News Of Note

Previous Marathon Project Coverage

Jared Ward Wants To Run 2:08 At The Marathon Project He says the fast pace at the start of the London Marathon (where he ran 2:12) told him he could run 2:08 with the right training.
RRW: The Marathon Project Gives Elite Athletes A Lifeline During The Pandemic 54 men and 44 women will line up on the 6.86km looped course in Chandler, AZ.
CBC: The Marathon Project Could Yield National Records, Tons Of PRs Sara Hall has said the course is “very, very fast.”
Canadian Running: Five Reasons Why The Marathon Project Will Be The Race Of The Year We laughed at their first reason: “It’s one of the only races of the year.”
Could The Canadian National Record Go Down At The Marathon Project? Cam Levins is in the race and holds the current record at 2:09:25.
Pre-Race Podcasts: *Cam Levins *Rory Linkletter *Natasha Wodak *Ben Preisner

GB Distance History

Good Read: AW: Eric Shirley’s Rise From Rags To Running Royalty The 1956 and 1960 Olympic steeplechaser is still putting up results today as a 91-year-old.
*MB: Great Story about English Olympic Steeplechaser Eric Shirley
AW: In Praise Of The European Cross Country Championships They take a look back at some highlights from past championships including Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe.
Athletics Weekly Looks Back At Kelly Holmes’ “Dream Double” Gold At The 2004 Olympics

(Former) Collegiate News

South Carolina’s 2019 NCAA 400H Champ Quincy Hall Turns Pro Hall is giving up his final season of eligibility, but will continue to train with the South Carolina team for the 2021 season.
Former Stanford Track Captain LaShawndra Pace Is Now A Global Health Policy Expert And Part Of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force Pace was captain in 1999 and specialized in the 800 (2:09.22 PR) but competed from 400m up to 1500m.
Huntington University Coach Nicholas Johnson Arrested On Multiple Charges Of Child Seduction And Kidnaping Johnson was entering his third season in 2020 as the head men’s and women’s cross XC coach at the NAIA school.
*MB: Huntington Uni drama
Group Of Athletes From Historically Black Colleges And Universities Have Filed A Lawsuit Against The NCAA For Its Academic Standard Requirements One of the athletes said, “All schools are not created equal. So how you going to hold every school to the same standard …”

Tokyo 2020 News

Tokyo Governor Says There Are “No Circumstances” Under Which The Olympic Will Be Cancelled “Citizens of the world are seeing the Tokyo Games as a symbol that humanity will have defeated the coronavirus, that will lead to the Beijing Winter Games and then the Paris Games after that.”
New Survey Says A Third Of Japanese Residents Want Tokyo 2020 Scrapped Due To Fear Of Foreigners Causing COVID Spike
Social Distancing And Online Streaming Part Of The Plans For Postponed Tokyo 2020 Torch Relay

More Distance News

Runner’s World Picks Their Most Iconic American Races You Should Add To Your Bucket List With 34 races, this is definitely a pretty solid list.
Scottish Distance Runner Sarah Inglis Talks Ahead Of Her Marathon Debut At The Marathon Project In Arizona Inglis is a PE teacher living in Canada and jokes that half her kids can’t understand her because of her strong Scottish accent.
Kinda Lame: Jake Smith Broke Steve Jones’s 34-Year-Old Welsh Half Marathon Record “After Only Being Welsh For Four Days” … And then switched allegiance to England.
Athletics Weekly Looks Back At Roger Bannister’s First Sub-Four Mile Talking about the moment he broke the barrier, in his auto-biography Bannister said, “I felt like an exploded flashlight with no will to live; I went on existing in the most passive physical state without being quite unconscious.”
Joshua Cheptegei’s 10,000m WR (26:11.00) And Letesenbet Gidey’s 5,000m WR (14:06.62) Are Ratified By World Athletics
MileSplit: RIP Colorado Legend Rich Martinez, 57 Martinez still holds the official Colorado high school 1,600m record of 4:10.98 from 1981 (although it has been broken unofficially by Cole Sprout and Cruz Culpepper).

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.