Will There Be Any Action This Winter?

2021 USATF Indoor Championships Cancelled Due To Coronavirus USATF says their COVID-19 Working Group was working on a “rigorous set of protocols” that would let them hold the championships, but the restrictions in New Mexico were too severe.

LRC Good News: There Will Be A 2021 Indoor Track Season But It Will Look Much Different Than Normal There will be a 2021 indoor season, but college meets will be more exclusive than ever, and USA Indoors is very much up in the air. Thankfully Paul Doyle has stepped up and created the  four-meet American Track League that will air on ESPN as he doesn’t know of a single college meet that will accept unattached athletes.
*MB: New ESPN Indoor Track Series

NCAA News

• Big Ten XC Championships Will Be On January 30th In Indiana Big Ten Indoor Championships are scheduled for the end of February.
• Clemson Gets Pressure From State, Federal Levels For Transparency For Discontinuing Men’s Track The article also says that Russell Dinkins has filed a civil rights lawsuit but Dinkins declined to provide a copy of the suit and Clemson said it’s received no such suit.
• Three Track Athletes Named In 2021 NCAA Today’s Top 10 Awards They are distance runners Nia Atkins, Kayla Leland and sprinter Brittny Ellis.
• Kentucky Track Coach Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene Diagnosed With Coronavirus

Our Favorite Outside Links For Friday

• Both Paula Radcliffe And Zola Pieterse Think The Debate As To Whether Women Should Run The Same Distance As Men In Cross-Country Isn’t Productive They both are more worried about promoting the sport and getting it back into the Olympics.
• With Millrose Being Cancelled For The 1st Time Ever, Now Is A Great Time To Take A Look At The Greatest Moments In Millrose Games History From Paavo Nurmi dominating in 1925 to Carl Lewis setting a LJ world record in 1984 that still stands today, Taylor Dutch has you covered.
• HOKA’s Dani Shanahan Credits Sports Psychologist And 8 X 1,500 Workout For Her 1-Minute 31:22 PR
• Canada’s Ben Preisner Reveals He Ran A 2:15:24 Marathon In Practice Before His 2:10:17 At The Marathon Project
• Love Can Overcome A Lot:Racewalking Couple Of Damian Blocki (Poland) And Alana Barber (New Zealand) Have Been 11,000+ Miles Apart For 15 Months But Their Relationship Is Still Going Strong
• National High School Track & Field Hall Of Fame Announces Its 4th-Ever Class Led By Carl Lewis Marty Liquori also makes the cut.
• NY Times: To Welcome 2021 In A Memorable Way, I Ran From 9 AM On New Year’s Eve To 9 AM On New Year’s Day
• Just One Step – A Documentary On Why We Run Is Now Out On All Streaming Platforms

Previous Distance Articles That We Enjoyed

• RR #1 An Excellent In-Depth Look At Sara Hall And Her Career By Erin Strout Hall thinks she despite becoming a parent, not because of it, but says she was willing to give up running to be a mom. “I see a correlation where my kids feel empowered to go after their dreams. Before kids, I struggled with not always seeing the positive impact of my running on others. It feels really self-centered. The upside now is that I don’t have as much of a conflict with that. I see the positive effects in real time.”
• Rd #2 Bob Maplestone – The 1st Brit To Break 4 Indoors – Has Died At Age 74 Maplestone, who beat Jim Ryun to win Drake, attended college in the States and never went back but also never forgot his roots. Quite a character. *More On Maplestone *Even More
• RR #3 Gabriel DeBues-Stafford Says After Joining BTC, She Isn’t As “snappy and speedy as a year ago but I definitely feel stronger.”
  *MB: Debues-Stafford yet another pro that is on thyroid meds? 
• RR #4 Inspired By Pacing And Training With Stars, Nicholas Kimeli Looks To Become One Of The Greats Kimeli talks about pacing Joshua Cheptegei to his 10,000m WR, running 12:51.78 and 26:56.97 PRs in a uncertain year and how his first love was volleyball.
• WA Profile: After Steady Rise, Marathon Ace Birhanu Legese Sets Sights On Olympic Marathon Gold And Then WR Glory Remember, this is the guy who had broken free of Bekele when Bekele came back and ran 2:01:41.
• NY Times: To Welcome 2021 In A Memorable Way, I Ran From 9 AM On New Year’s Eve To 9 AM On New Year’s Day
• Athletics Weekly Looks Back At 20 Of Jim Ryun’s Greatest Races And Asks If He Was “The World’s Deadliest Ever Finisher?”

Free Training Tips

• A Look At The Training Of Nathan Martin – The Fastest American-Born Black Man Ever (2:11:05) Pretty darn good for a guy who ran 29:57 in college.
• Half Marathon Training With Canadian Record Holder Andrea Seccafien – How About 7 X 2k At Half Marathon Pace?
• Struggling With Your Running? Remember, Sometimes The Process Needs To Be The Goal
• Here’s How To Pick Some Process Goals

Recent Results

• Redshirt Freshman Sam Tanner Runs Fastest 1,500m In UW History Tanner, who currrenty is being coached by LRC poster Craig Kirkwood, ran 3:36.44 to win the Tauranga Twilight meet in New Zealand.
• AW Weekly Round-Up: GB’s Mark Pearce (7:52.36) And Ireland’s Ciara Mageean (8:54.66) Win 3,000s At Manchester Indoor Meet
• Little-Known Emmanuel Kiprop And Everline Chirchir Win Ol Kalou Cross-Country Race In Kenya
• Shanghai Held A 6,000-Person Half Marathon On January 1st All runners were tested for COVID-19 beforehand.

Post-Hakone Ekiden News

• Second Stage Course Record Breaker Vincent Yegon Named Hakone Ekiden MVP He ran 1:05:49 for the 23.1km section (that’s 60:07 half marathon pace).
• Hakone Ekiden Broadcast Breaks Records With 41.8% Peak Viewership Rating And Audience Of 65 Million The increase in viewership is likely thanks to people being encouraged not to watch the race in person due to coronavirus.