Boston Picks Its 2021 Date

LRC 2021 Boston Marathon Is Scheduled For October 11; All Six World Marathon Majors To Be Contested In 6-Week Span We break down what it all means, tell you what to expect with the weather and tell you and why this could be a great thing for American marathoning.
*MB: Boston 2021 Date Selected – October 11th

Florida 2020?

Florida Offers To Host Olympics If Tokyo Backs Out A letter from Florida’s chief financial officer to IOC president Thomas Bach cited the strength of Florida’s vaccination roll-out, its economic re-opening and sports events it has hosted during the pandemic. *Full Letter *Discuss

More Olympic News:

• Tokyo 2020 Concerns Continue As COVID Vaccinations Yet To Get Underway In Japan Vaccine rollout in Japan isn’t expected to start until late February. The delay is due to Japan requiring domestic trials before the vaccine can be approved.
• The Telegraph: “Why Cancelling The Olympics Would Be ‘Catastrophic’ For Sport” From athletes to governing bodies to fans to the city of Tokyo, many people would be negatively impacted.
• The Telegraph Reports That The IOC Is Working With The World Health Organization To Get All Athletes Vaccinated Ahead Of Tokyo Games However, athletes would not skip ahead of vulnerable groups.
  *IOC And WHO Pledge To Help NOCs With Vaccine Access Prior To Tokyo
• World Health Organization Says Olympic Athletes Should Not Cut Line For COVID Vaccine They said the focus should be on “populations that are most at risk” like elderly and health care workers.
• Tokyo 2020 Torch Relay May Be Forced To Divert Away From Public Roads In Japan

NCAA News

• MB: Christian Noble 13:37 at Magic City Elite – DII National Record
• Arkansas Men Are #1 In First NCAA DI Indoor Rankings Of The Year North Carolina A&T, LSU, BYU and Tennessee round out the rest of the top 5.
• Arkansas Women Are #1 In NCAA DI Indoor Rankings Texas A&M, Georgia, Texas and Alabama are ranked 2-5.
• NY Times: Hammered By Pandemic, NCAA Revenue Falls By $600 Million Cancelling March Madness last year reportedly cost the NCAA more than $800 million and even after insurance and cutting expenses, they still posted a $56 million loss.
• Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks Of The Week

HOKA Project Carbon X 2 *Results *Stream Race Replay Here

LRC VIP Jim Walmsley Just Misses 100k World Record By 12 Seconds – Video Reaction Show The LRC staff was yelling at the TV during the final 400 urging Jim to get the record.

Walmsley Is Upbeat After Race: “Definitely feels like one of the more special runs I’ve had. I got everything out of myself today, dug real deep, and fought all the way to the line.” “I don’t feel like I gave up, but it was tough to see the seconds tick by. It’s a little bittersweet, but definitely awarded with an American record today, and those don’t come very often … A 45-minute PR. It was a pretty amazing day.”

• MB: Official Jim Walmsley missed the 100k world record by 12 seconds after running for 6 hours
• MB: Official Race Discussion Thread
• MB: HOKA 100km WR Challenge – Bold Predictions ONLY!
• MB: Women’s 100km Record Is Insanely Fast

More Weekend Road Action Pat Tiernan (62:38) and Molly Seidel (69:20) win half marathons in Vegas

Tokyo 2020 News

LRC Articles

LRC SC How Many US 1,500m Titles Would Nick Willis Have Won If He Was An American? He’s gone sub-4 for 19 straight years and won 2 Olympic medals but our research reveals there is only 1 year we are certain he’d have won a US title but 6 or 7 more where he would have been the betting favorite (Sub. required).
*MB: If Nick Willis was American, how many National titles would he have won?

Great News LRC London Marathon Plans On Hosting A Record 50,000 Runners In-Person In October A year after hosting an elite-only edition in St. James’s Park, London is accelerating its plans to reach 50,000 entrants in 2021 – its largest field ever. We chatted with London race director Hugh Brasher today about his plans for his 2021 race. He also had some interesting things to say about Valencia and the LetsRun.com track talk podcast.
*MB: London Marathon announces they are planning on having their largest in-person race ever with 50,000 runners

4 Recommended Reads / 1 Recommend Listen

Podcast Track Is Back, Guest Jim Walmsley On 100k World Record Attempt X 2 Ultra marathon star Jim Walmsley is our featured guest. He talks about trying to break the 100km world record at HOKA Project Carbon X 2 this weekend. Plus Andrew Bumbalough was on. During the regular show we talked about a ton of people, including Athing Mu, Nick Willis, Alexa Efraimson, Brianna Rollins-McNeal, Erriyon Knighton, Mark Wetmore, Imogen Stewart, Brynn Brown, Sydney Thorvaldson and Joe Biden.

• RIP Ireland’s Athletics Community Is Shocked And Saddened As Sub-4 Miler And 2:12 Marathoner Jerry Kiernan Dies At 67 – “One Of The Greats” – Coghlan Leads Kiernan Tributes Kiernan was 9th in the 1984 Olympic marathon and seemingly beloved by all. *Great Video Tribute
  *Ciara Mageean Raves About Her Former Coach: “He had this special ability to meet anybody at their level.”
• A Look Back At How Indoor Track And Field Was Super-Popular In The US 50 Years Ago SI wrote at the time, “There are few spectacles in the world of sport to compare with an indoor track meet for color and movement and excitement.”
• Nic Bideau Talks About How He Trains His Studs And Reveals Stewart McSweyn Didn’t Run A Single 400 Under 60 Before His 3:50 Mile “I am often telling athletes that speed work is overrated but Stewy takes it to a whole new level.”
  *MB: Nic Bideau says Stewart McSweyn didn’t run a single lap under 60 seconds before he ran 3:50 in the mile
• Meet The 33-Year-Old Who Is In Charge Of Coaching New Zealand Shot Put Sars Tom Walsh (29) And Val Adams (36) A great profile of Dale Stevenson.

Olympic News

• Tokyo Olympics “Will Take Place This Summer” Even Without Vaccinations, Organizers Say
• British Olympic Head Says, “It wouldn’t be appropriate to ask athletes to be fast-tracked” For COVID-19 Vaccine. We don’t agree with that. If Japan wants to require vaccinations of all Olympians, we think the 11,000 athletes should get priority as entertaining billions of people is worth it. *Discuss

Women’s Non-Distance News

• After sparingly racing in 2020, Dina Asher-Smith will run indoors for 1st time since 2018 starting with Karlsruhe 60m next weekend
• Olympic HJ Champ Maria Lasitskene Says She’s Not Taking COVID-19 Vaccine Over Side Effect Fears “As an athlete I really worry how the vaccine can affect my body and my physical shape.”
• US PVer Katie Nageotte Talks About Her Struggle Bouncing Back From COVID-19 She says it’s taken about a month to feel more like herself in training and and that she “felt like Bambi” during her first vault session back.
• Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Talk About Motherhood, Sexism And Tokyo Talking about being a parent and a pro, Felix says, “I can’t even remember a time when I just had to train. It baffles me that there was once a time period where I trained, rested and that was it. That had to be amazing.”
• 6 Minute Mini-Documentary On 2-Time Olympic Champ Sandra Perkovic: “I want to be remembered as the best female discus athlete ever.”