We catch up with America's Olympic marathoners one year after their booked their spots to Tokyo. Rupp talks about the adjustments he's made under coach Mike Smith, Tuliamuk wants to run now but is being told to wait two more weeks, plus updates from Molly Seidel and Jake Riley.
Archived Homepage For February 26, 2021
Archived Homepage For February 26, 2021
One Year After The Trials - We Catch Up With The US Olympians
One Year After The Trials - We Catch Up With The US Olympians
"The objective for this season for me is to be able to medal [in the Olympic marathon]....I’m trying to get myself into -- 2:20 or sub-2:20 shape going into Tokyo, and I think if I am in that kind of shape, my chances are pretty good at medaling."
On The Boards
On The Boards
Compare the WRs
Madrid
Madrid
Holloway just finished the greatest indoor hurdling season ever in style - with a 7.29 world record. Perhaps more amazingly, he's never lost a 60-hurdle race in his life over 42" barriers as he extended his win streak to 41 in a row.
*MB: Grant Holloway 7.29 WR
*Great NBC feature on Holloway
- Grant Holloway talks to World Athletics after his WR: "Hurdlers are sprinters with attitudes. Our event is sexier than just a regular fast sprint because we have barriers in our way.” Holloway’s ‘slowest’ winning time in a final this year, 7.41, is a time that no one else in the world has bettered.
- Full Madrid Recap: Tsegay runs 2nd fastest indoor 3k (8:22.65)Other distance winners included Ethiopians Selemeon Barega (3:35) and Habitam Alemu (1:58.94) as Spain's Mariano Garcia (1:45.66) won the 800.
- Black Irish sprinter Leon Reid says he bumped into an American at the Madrid hotel who said, "How can you be Irish, you are black?"
More Sprint News
More Sprint News
- Bianca Knight, who set an NCAA i200 record and turned pro before outdoors of her freshman year but was retired by age 26, has a track and field app BK TRACKSTARS is a mobile application that ranks every athlete, gamifies user improvement and utilizes the latest in technology including artificial intelligence and expert input to help you improve your performance. *BK Trackstars website
More Distance News
- Locals who have volunteered at Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon for the last 50+ years reflect on the race's demise What a shame. The past winners of Japan's oldest annual marathon include Abebe Bikila, Martin Fiz, Paul Tergat, and Wilson Kipsang. This year's race is the last.
- Researcher takes a look at how much 40 5-decade sub-3 hour marathoners declined The results are fascinating. "With consistent training and racing regimens, it is possible to limit the age-related decline in marathon performance to less than 7 percent per decade at least until 60 years old.” Joan Benoit Samuelson was the only woman studied.
Texas Qualifier is Friday/Saturday: Free Stream at 8pm ET
- Texas Qualifier - outdoor meet where people will be going for Trials qualifiers on Friday and Tokyo qualifiers on Saturday - is this weekend and will be streamed for free We were super pumped for the m1500 but Brazier, Centro and Jager all pulled out but there are still plenty of interesting names including Justyn Knight, Josh Thompson, Johnny Gregorek, Erc Jenkins, Robby Andrews, Boris Berian, Ryan Hill, Ajee Wilson, DeBues-Stafford, Sinclaire Johnson, Rachel Schneider, Elle Purrier, Emma Coburn, and Konstanze Klosterhalfen. The free broadcast starts at 8 pm ET on Friday and Saturday nights.
- Josh Thompson will be racing, "“I’m excited. I’m ready to go. I got big goals on my mind."
This Weekend's NCAA Action
Get the links you need to the schedule, results and streaming info for the 4 of the Power 5 conferences that sponsor indoor track and field.
- Day 1 ACCs: Virginia Tech has great day as Antonio Lopez Segura breaks Justyn Knights ACC meet record with a 13:49 win NC State won the women's DMR thanks to Elly Henes’ closing 1600 meters time of 4:33.80.
- SEC meet DMR records fall on Day 1 of SEC champs Ole Miss ran 9:29.35 as Alabama ran 10:59.21.
Administrative News
- Caster Semenya launches appeal to European Court of Human Rights in final effort to defend 800m Olympic title “I hope the European court will put an end to the longstanding human rights violations by World Athletics against women athletes,” said Semenya. Memo to Caster, there is no human right to be a professional athlete. Your natural sporting gender is intersex as you have functioning internal testes and do not have a uterus.
- Tokyo Olympic Organizers says Torch Relay will begin on March 25th but with no cheering "No shouting, no cheering. Please cheer by clapping your hands and maintain appropriate distance in case there is crowding," said one official.
- Brisbane 2032: Alan Abrahamson says IOC's latest announcement means i 2032 "the Olympics will return to Australia 32 years after Sydney in 2000" Abrahamson thinks they shouldn't rush things and should consider Doha where more than 6,500 people have died building the World Cup stadiums.
More US Distance News
- After hip surgery and two hip stress fractures, Emily Infeld is pleased to have PRd at 31:08 last weekend"I had four months of pretty solid training and I’m feeling good overall. I’m just hoping for another four months to make more jumps before the Trials."
- RRW A Year After The Marathon Trials, Atlanta Track Club Gets Back To Racing This Weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway The ATC is geared up to host (safely!) up to 5,000 runners between Saturday night's 5-K, and Sunday's marathon and half-marathon at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, a NASCAR racetrack.
- RRW After Trials Disappointment & COVID, Matt Llano Ready To Race In Atlanta Llano talks about how he was really worried about the potential for heart damage after coronavirus so worked with a cardiologist to come back to training conservatively.
This Week's Podcast
What a show. We recorded this right after Grant Holloway's WR. Our featured guest is Ben True who tells us how he just ran a 26+ second pb of 27:14 at age 35. Yes, the shoes helped but True reveals he's become rejuvenated by paying Dan Curts $20,000 a year to train with him. Plus is a marathon in True's future?
*MB: The Ben True pod - An amazing listen. True reveals he pays Dan Curts $20k a year to train with him
News From The UK
- GB team for European Indoors is released - 800 NR holder Elliott Giles skips out "Elliot Giles has pulled out of the European Indoor Championships to focus on training for the summer season." That's what we call some weak sauce.
*MB: Elliot Giles pulls from Euro Indoors - A retired doctor heard a Seb Coe radio interview and was concerned about the sound of his voice so she contacted him and he's now getting voice treatment
- A detailed look at Frank Horwill's legendary simple race-pace equivalent formula Horwill recognized that an elite man's 1500, 3k, 5k and 10k pbs were all about 4 seconds per lap slower.
Good Mid-Distance Reads
Centro talks about a number of topics including Tokyo 2020, learning the stock market building a gaming PC, and some interesting details on how his training has changed under Jerry Schumacher.
- T&F News: "Sam Tanner Balancing Olympic Dreams And NCAA Goals" Tanner says that his breakthrough season and running 3:34.72 "changed his outlook" on running and realized he can go pro after college.
- World Athletics Profile: Energized By World Indoor 1500m Record, Gudaf Tsegay Sets Sights On Next Target Talking about breaking Genzebe Dibaba's record, Tsegay says, “I had this record in my mind for a long time – maybe six or seven years."
Covid-19 Can't Keep Us Down Forever
- UofOregon is hoping to host April meets at Hayward Field They're encouraged after meeting with County health officials.
- Oregon and New Mexico high schools hold first xc practices in 15 months "Washington and California are back in play, too, with small late winter cross country meets beginning to populate the calendar. Virginia is also getting started, with meets set to begin March 1."
- Track and field action is resuming this weekend in Jamaica with 9 meets
- Maybe It Can: African xc champs scheduled for March 6-7 in Togo is indefinitely postponed
Assorted Distance News
- Oklahoma State Tops Tulsa In OSU Winter Open Dual Meet Lead by individual wins from Isai Rodriguez and Molly Born, OSU beat Tulsa by one point for the men and 19-points for the women.
- RRW: After Trials Disappointment & COVID, Matt Llano Ready To Race In Atlanta Llano talks about how he was really worried about the potential for heart damage after coronavirus so worked with a cardiologist to come back to training conservatively.
- Athletics Weekly Looks Back At The Top 20 Races Of All-Time GB Distance Great Dave Bedford
*Dave Bedford's Finest 100 Races In Chronological Order - Sean Wade Broke Four American Masters Age Group Records This Month After setting men 55-59 records for 12k, 15k and 10 mile during a 10 mile race in early February, Wade ran 26:11 last weekend to break the 8k US record and tie the world best.
Administrative / Trail News
- 1992 and 2000 Olympic 10,000 champ Derartu Tulu elected as president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation She had been the interim head since Haile G stepped down in 2018.
- 2000 people in UK sign petition asking for lifetime bans for abusive coaches and UK Athletics head Joanna Coates seems to agree it's warranted How about for dopers as well?
- UTMB announces elite fields for 2021 Former UTMB champs Courtney Dauwalter of the U.S. and Francesca Canepa of Italy headline the women’s race. 3-time winners Pau Capell François and D’Haene and Xavier Thévenard are in the field as is reigning champ Pau Capell and American Jim Walmsley.
South African Sprint Stuff
- Has Wayde Van Niekerk Made The Right Call To Leave Longtime Coach To Move To Florida? Van Niekerk announced last week that he's leaving his 79-year-old coach Tannie Ans Botha to train with Noah Lyles' group in Florida.
- Tannie Ans Botha Says There Are No "Ill Feelings" Between Herself And Van Niekerk "...Everything is good between us. I am happy that I have contributed something to his professional and personal life."
Super Shoe Opinions
- Cathal Dennehy: "Welcome To The Age Of The Super Shoes" Dennehy points out that the six fastest 800m indoor times in history by Irishwomen were all run in the past month.
- Sean Ingle: "Super Spikes Are Causing A Seismic Shift - So Why Won't Athletes Admit It? Nick Willis acknowledged the shoes let him run a 1200m time trial 2-seconds faster than he expected, but other athletes like GB's Elliot Giles said suggesting it was the shoes is "nonsense and a bit of an insult."
- Euro 800m Silver Medalist Jamie Webb Ditched Super Shoes In Training Because He Couldn't Measure Himself Against Previous Training Sessions
Interesting Distance Reads
- Recommended Read: T&F News: "Craig Engels Ready To Move Up At Least A Spot From 2016 Olympic Trials" Engels talks about his training, how fast he hopes to run in his 5000m race at the Texas Qualifier on Friday, and shares what he has tattooed on his butt.
- World Athletics Profile: Huwe Burton, From Wrongly Convicted Of Murder To Marathoner Burton was convicted of killing his mother when he was 16, but 28-years later was exonerated and ran the 2019 NYC Marathon as a free man.
- World Athletics Looks Back At The Career Of All-Time Mile Great Eamonn Coghlan Eamonn's specialty was indoor mile racing, setting the WR multiple times and winning seven Wanamaker Miles, earning him the nickname "Chairman of the Boards."
Your latest American stars share their insights.
American Record Holders
American Record Holders
Keira D'Amato, the new American record holder in the marathon, was joined by Deena Kastor, who held the record for 15 years.
Sisson was the guest on the LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast after she became the first American to go sub 67 in the half marathon on a record-eligible course. Podcast highlights above. Full pod here.
Woody Kincaid joined us after he broke the American record indoors at 5000. He talks above why he left the Bowerman Track Club. Podcast highlights and link to full podcast here.
Coogan's New Balance Boston team had 3 Olympians in 2021 and 2022 could be the biggest year yet for the program with 2 new additions and the TRACK at New Balance coming on March 1st.
Danny Mackey has taken the Brooks Beasts from an unproven club to the Olympic podium in its first decade.
Dathan Ritzenhein is the first of the top pro coaches to sit down and talk about his club heading into the 2022 campaign.
Best of Jon Gault
Best of Jon Gault
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
LetsRun Classics
LetsRun Classics
‒Galen Rupp talking about his Olympic aspirations.