December 23, 2020 | LetsRun.com

A Final Look At The Marathon Project

LRC Six Final Thoughts About The Marathon Project: 2:09 Isn’t 2:09 Anymore, Des Linden Says America Needs To Join The 2:19 Party, & More Having had a few days to reflect back on the race, one must conclude the event was a HUGE success. But that doesn’t mean the US marathoning is back. Is Marty Hehir the equivalent of a 13:30 5,000 runner?
*MB: The Marathon Project was a HUGE success, but is Marty Hehir the equivalent of a 13:30 5000 runner?

News From Over The Pond

GB Young 800m Star Max Burgin Is Putting School On Hold To Focus On Running The 1:44.75 18-year-old is taking a gap year before going to the University of Leads to train for the 2021 track season.
AW Weekly Round-Up: Ireland’s Tommy Hughes Threatens World M60 10,000m Record The 1992 Olympian ran 34:02.52, just missing the 33:57.16 record.
Athletics Weekly: From 1500m To The Half-Marathon, Marc Scott Has Had A Stellar Year The Bowerman Track Club runner says his favorite performance of the year was running his 13:08 British and European 5000m record indoors back in February.
UK Athletics To Release Survey Pushing For Equal XC Distances For Men And Women Athletics Weekly writer Jason Henderson: “Of course women are capable of racing these longer distances, but do they really want to? UKA is about to find out.”
*The Telegraph: “UK Athletics Praised For Formally Beginning Long-Awaited Push Towards Gender Equality In Cross Country”
Video: Laura Muir Answers Christmas Questions Her favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone.
BBC: Stephen Maguire Stepping Down As Director Of Performance And Coaching At Scottish Athletics

Sprint Stuff

Top Japanese Sprinter Yoshihide Kiryu Now A Believer In Asics’ Spikless Sprinting Shoes An Asics study found that traditional spikes sticking in the track can slow athletes down and they could take 0.48 seconds off in the 100m if they removed the spikes and increase propulsion. The “Metasprint” is now on sale for $380.
Q&A With Andre De Grasse On What He Learned In 2020 And What He Expects In 2021 On the 2020 season being cancelled: “As a father, it’s kind of good because I got to spend more time with my daughter and my family, get to know her more now. Before all this happened, I think I missed stuff.”
T&F News: Keni Harrison Looking For Championships Golds Harrison is the 100H WR holder and was ranked #1 in the world the last three years, but hasn’t yet managed to win an outdoor global title.
Karsten Warholm: “If you have big dreams in sport, you have to live with the pressure.” Episode 2 in European Athletics mini-documentary series. (Video is 4 minutes.)
GB Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith Writes Column About Mental Health Asher-Smith mentions Alexi Pappas‘ recent NY Times video where she talks about post-Olympic depression and how her mother’s suicide impacted her as an athlete.

Tokyo 2020

Tokyo Passes 10,000 COVID-19 Cases In A Month For The First Time Tokyo’s governor said that their health care system is “approaching capacity.”
Tokyo 2020 Budget Rises To $15.4 Billion Following Postponement Of Games
Budget For Tokyo 2020 Opening And Closing Ceremonies Set To Increase They are reportedly planning on boosting the budget by $33.7 million.

The Fans React To The Marathon Project

Pre-Race Marathon Project News

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
Cam Levins: “I’ve been hitting lots of workouts at [Canadian-record] pace or faster.”

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More US Pro News

2021 Millrose Games Cancelled Due To Coronavirus The meet was scheduled for February.
T&F News Chooses Ryan Crouser And Shelby Houlihan As Their USA MVPs For 2020

Watch Out Dopers

Seb Coe Claims Dopers Have A “Greater Chance Of Being Caught” At Tokyo 2020 Than Any Other Games Before Coe explained how the AIU as an independent organization has been very important as they don’t have to be “fearful” of going after “a big name” like Christian Coleman.
The International Testing Agency Rolling Out Long Term Storage And Re-Analysis Program For Samples Collected At Future Olympics
Sean Ingle: “Athletes Need To Understand Why Russia Is So Important To The IOC”

Assorted Distance News

Recommended Watch: Athletics Illustrated Video Interview With Martin Hehir In this 22-minute interview Hehir talks through his 2:08:59, his training, his time at Syracuse and getting back to the track to try and make the Tokyo team in the 10,000m.
Bring Back The Mile Chooses Their Best Mile Moments From 2020 From Cruz Culpepper just missing sub-4 to Elinor Purrier’s US indoor mile record, there were still some great mile races in 2020 even with COVID.
Evans Chebet Hopeful Of Making Kenyan Olympic Squad After Winning Valencia Marathon Given World Athletics’ transfer of allegiance rules, we’re not sure how he is eligible to race for Kenya considering he represented Azerbaijan at Rio 2016 and 2019 Worlds.
USA’s 16:27.02 World 4x1500m Record Ratified By World Athletics Includes quotes by Colleen Quigley, Elise Cranny, Karissa Schweizer and Shelby Houlihan talking about setting the record during COVID lockdowns.

Russian Doping News

iNADO Slams CAS For Sending “Confusing” Message To Athletes By Halving Russian Ban They said it is “difficult to understand” why Russia did not receive the “same sanction of four years that any individual athlete would receive for cheating deliberately.”
USA Today Opinion Piece: IOC President Thomas Bach Enabled Russian Doping “Russia has been making a mockery of the very foundation of the Olympics for more than a decade now, and Bach might as well be the lookout at the door of the lab.”
Opinion: Why WADA Should Appeal To The Swiss Federal Tribunal Over CAS RUSADA Decision
World Athletics Response To CAS Decision On RUSADA They note that this doesn’t change anything with their process with the Russian Athletics Federation.
Reuters: Russia Relieved After Olympic Doping Ban Shortened A statement from the Kremlin said they viewed the overall ruling “negatively,” but were happy Russian athletes would be able to compete at neutrals.
RUSADA Head Says They Have Led The Way In Testing During The COVID Lockdowns

Outside Marathon Project Coverage

IndyStar: Noah Droddy: From Nowhere To The Fastest Indiana Marathon Runner Ever Droddy never made a state meet, never ran at NCAA Champs, but now is 9th on the US all-time list with 2:09:09.
RRW: The Marathon Project Delivers Fast Times, Great Racing
Athletics Weekly Recap: Sarah Inglis Makes 5th-Fastest Debut In GB History With 2:29:41
USATF Marathon Project Recap

Weekend Action

Kenya’s Paul K. Lonyangata (2:09:18) And Ethiopia’s Askale M. Wegi (2:28:31) Win Taipei Marathon
MB: Yuki Kawauchi is BACK 2:10:26 for second at the Hofu Marathon (winner was Tatsuya Maruyama in 2:09:36).
Japan Running News: World-Class Runs By Kenyan Duo Help Sera H.S. Sweep Girls’ And Boys’ Titles At National High School Ekiden
*MB: Kenyan girl runs 14:37 for 5km (road) on Japan High School Ekiden anchor stage!
*Athlete Entered In Sunday’s Japan National High School Ekiden Tests Positive For Coronavirus The athlete won’t be allowed to compete, but their team will.
Jacko Gill Gets Rare Shot Put Victory Over His Rival Tom Walsh 21.05m To 20.14m In New Zealand
France’s WR Holder Kevin Mayer Scores Decathlon World Lead With 8552 Points At The Meeting De La Reunion In France This was his first completed decathlon since breaking the world record in September 2018. Colombia’s Evelis Aguilar scored 6055 to win the heptathlon.
Ash Moloney Breaks Oceania Decathlon Record With 8492 Points To Win The Queensland Combined Events Championships In Australia He broke the 22-year-old record by just two points.

Kenyan News Of Note

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College / HS Corner

Drew Hunter’s Parents, Marc And Joan, Are Stepping Away From Coaching At Loudon Valley High School They are stepping away for the indoor season because of the severity of the COVID restrictions being imposed in Virginia, but they plan on returning for outdoor.
*MB: Hunters Out at Loudoun Valley….????
MileSplit: Police Affidavit Adds Details To Charges Against Huntington University NAIA Coach Nicholas Johnson Johnson, who is married to 2015 World Champs 1500m runner Lauren Johnson, is accused of creating a fake email under another name to communicate with a minor and arrange an out-of-state recruiting visit.
*MB: Huntington Uni drama
New Committee Is Making Pitch To Get Central Michigan University To Reinstate Men’s Track And Field The best thing they have going for them is that CMU needs to add another men’s sport by 2022 or they will lose their Division I status.
Virginia Tech Signs Eight Members To 2021 Recruiting Class Includes Barbora Malikova, a 51.65/2:03.51 runner from the Czech Republic.
The Bowerman: A Look Back Through The Years Last week would have been the presentation of the 2020 Bowerman Award, but the award wasn’t given this year due to COVID-19 cancelling the last track season.

Japan Distance News

January 31: Japan Olympic Team Members Ichiyama And Maeda Lead Osaka International Women’s Marathon Field Ichiyama is the top in the field with a 2:20:29 PB.
New Mixed Gender Japan National University Ekiden Announced for February
Japan Weekend Road Running Review

Marathon Project Full Results Full Coverage Here

LRC Sara Hall Runs 2nd-Fastest Marathon In US History – 2:20:32 – To Win Marathon Project Hall has had a fall marathon campaign for the ages as after finishing second in London just 11 weeks ago, she’s now #2 all-time in the US. Keira D’Amato‘s amazing 2020 continued as well as she’s now #8 all-time in the US at 2:22:56.

LRC Martin Hehir Wins Marathon Project In 2:08:59 As 7 Americans Break 2:10 Hehir, a father of two and medical student who has spent much of the last few weeks treating Covid-19 patients, is now the 7th-fastest American in history.

More Distance News

Bummer: 2021 USATF Cross-Country Championships Cancelled Due To Coronavirus The race was scheduled for San Diego in February.
Gesa Felicitas Krause Will Lead Field For Rarely Run Indoor 2,000m Steeplechase At The PSD Bank Indoor Meet In Germany On February 7 Krause has the world outdoor best at 5:52.80 and the world indoor best is 5:47.79 (but with no water jump).

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.

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.