Des Linden is joining the ultramarathon ranks on Tuesday and targeting the 50km world best which David Monti says should be a World Record. *Discuss: Des Linden going for 50k world record in April
Archived Homepage For April 13, 2021
Archived Homepage For April 13, 2021
Des Joins the Ultra Ranks
Casual AF 💁🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/wcAQ9i7L9C
— des_linden (@des_linden) March 11, 2021
On The Boards
On The Boards
Some More Post-Weekend Results
- AW Weekly Round-Up At the Ethiopian national champs, Berihu Aregawi won the 10,000m in 28:20.2 with Olympic medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet (28:22.3) runner-up and world silver medalist Yomif Kejelcha (28:23.7) in 4th. Getnet Wale won the men's 5000m in 13:34.4 and Lemlem Halu won the women's 1500m in 4:05.1.
- Tony Bowman Breaks UK M85 200m Record With 36.67 He took 4-seconds off the previous record.
- Event-By-Event Top-10 NCAA Marks From Last Week
The LRC crew debated on this week's podcast at what distance a women's world record holder would beat Walmsley.
World Relays Are May 1-2
- Athletics Kenya Names Strong Team For World Relays The team includes former NCAA champ and 1:42 man Emmanuel Korir, world 800m bronze medalist Ferguson Rotich and Commonwealth 800m champ Wycliffe Kinyamal.
- Hosts Poland Name 44-Strong Team For World Relays They're including a team for every event.
- Britain Names Squad For World Relays; No Big Stars They're sending a men's and women's 4x400 and a mixed 4x400.
Random Tokyo 2020 Stuff
- Poll Finds 39.2% Of Japanese Public Wants Tokyo 2020 Cancelled The headline was 72% want the games cancelled or postponed, but that's meaningless as games can't be postponed at this point.
- Tokyo 2020 Expected To Use Hotel As Isolation Facility During Olympics
Tsegay is in sick shape
Deep Marathon In Italy
Ethiopia's Abdi Fufa Nigassa was runner-up in 2:05:57 as nine athletes went sub-2:07 and a crazy 20 went sub-2:09. Tanui's time broke the women's Italian all-comers' record.
America's Sprint Squad Looking Great
Grant Holloway (13.04, +2.2 wind) and Ajee' Wilson (2:00.57 win over Natoya Goule) looked great, but Matthew Centrowitz (6th, 1:50.97) and Robby Andrews (5th, 3:46.89) struggled.
- MB: Time to panic? Centro runs 1:50.97 800!!!
- MB: Centro is... not DONE.
- MB: Centro 800m tomorrow
- MB: Michael Sanuri 3:45 1500M At Mirimar Today
- MB: Kenneth Bednarek 19.65
- MB: Justin Gatlin is back and racing in florida? Is he cheating, or does the sun never set on this man's career?
- MB: Sha'Carri Richardson 10.72 WIND LEGAL
College / HS Results
- NCAA Weekend Round-Up: Alabama's Eliud Kipsang Moves To #7 On The All-Time Collegiate 1500m List With 3:36.00 Other all-time top marks included Karel Tilga in the decathlon (#2 with 8484 points) and Ruth Usoro in the TJ (#2 with 14.50m).
- Japan Weekend Track Round-Up: Keita Sato Breaks 1500m Under-18 National Record With 3:40.36 Kazuki Kawamura won the race in a Japanese all-time top ten at 3:38.83.
- DyeStat Recap: Oregon's Sprint XC Season Ends With "Culmination Day" - Cameron Stein (14:32) And Anika Thompson (17:57) Win Individual Races
- Meet Recap: 2020 NAIA Cross Country Championships
Distance News
- Ben Bruce Embracing His Shift From Pro Runner To Pro Pacer For NAZ Elite NAZ coach Ben Rosario says Bruce has a "knack" for pacing: “If you tell him to run five minutes and 30 seconds for a mile for 10 miles, he’ll be on within a second either way for all 10 miles."
- MB: Jakob Ingebrigtsen just got engaged
- Q&A With Elle Purrier Purrier talks about missing being home on the farm in Vermont when she's away training and racing.
- Emma Coburn Talks To People.com About COVID And The Olympics Coburn: "I knew to just control what I can control and really just, day to day, focus on my training, and that got me through."
Can COVID Just Go Away Now?
- Oslo Diamond League Postponed Due To Covid-19 It was set for two months from now on June 10th, but organizers said it is "impossible to arrange a normal meeting on the planned date" based on Norway's coronavirus reopening plan.
- Australia Withdraws From The World Relays Due To COVID-19 Concerns They said the decision was made because of concerns over the COVID situation in Poland and government quarantine requirements for when athletes return
- Tighter Restrictions Will Be Implemented In Tokyo To Curb New COVID Cases
Distance News
Led by the #1 entrant Eliud Kipchoge.
- Outside: What Makes a Pro Runner Valuable to a Brand? Martin Fritz Huber writes, "Race performance still matters more than social media. For now."
- US HS Outdoor Nationals is set for June 30-July 3 but there is no title sponsor and no location as of yet The meet formerly known as the New Balance Nationals Outdoor has a date.
The Latest Distance News
Let's hope he and Hobbs Kessler race each other at some point this spring.
- Track and Field News catches up with Rachel Schneider whether she'll do the 1,500/10k or 5k/10k double at the Olympic Trials Let's hope she gets some super spikes at 31:09 in old spikes is impressive. She also reveals that she's now engaged to her coach Mike Smith of NAU. *Discuss
- 2:06:35 marathoner Kyohei Hosoya of Japan has gotten faster by following the LetsRun.com training plan - slowing down on his easy days
- Oslo Diamond League won't be held on June 10th due to Covid, date is now TBD
Inspirational Women In The News
Before that she won an NCAA title for Iowa State.
- Charlotte Purdue feels 'thrown under a bus' after Olympics snub and feels it was made based on inaccurate information Notes from the meeting say someone said she was only running 30 minutes a day but she says that's not true.
- Learn about Patti Catalano Dillon - who started her career as a smoking 2:53 marathoner after 6 monhts of running - but twice broke the AR in the marathon and ran 2:27
- Nia Ali will give birth to her and Andre DeGrasse's 2nd child in May and will presumably miss the Olympics Andre DeGrasse will skip the World Athletics Relays as a result as well
- LAURA MUIR: I want to inspire the next generation of runners
- 70-year old British woman runs 3:29:01 marathon
In Case The Trials Are Cancelled - We Tell You Who Should Make The US Olympic Team
With 11 weeks to go until the US Olympic Trials, LRC co-founders Robert and Weldon Johnson and LRC staff writer Jonathan Gault make their picks for who will represent Team USA in Tokyo in every distance event.
*MB: U.S.A. Olympic Team Picks 800 to10,000 -- who ya got?
Olympic Marathon "Full"
The super shoe era has resulted in way more qualifiers than hoped for.
News From The Commonwealth
Video from the service can be seen here.
LRC Contest recap
We love the people who win our contests. Learn more about them.
The Latest Distance News
The 44-year old coach has quite a resume having coached NR holders at 10,000, half marathon and marathon.
Hope We Can Catch Them Beforehand Next Time
- New way to detect banned performance-enhancing substances discovered just ahead of the Tokyo Olympics Scientists at the Florida Institute of Technology has developed a new method that will not only help regulatory agencies detect existing steroids, but will also help them find newly created illicit steroids not yet known to WADA.
- Olympic gold medallists Natalya Antyukh (2012 400h) and Andrey Silnov (2008 hj) of Russia are banned by CAS for 4 years after being named in McLaren Report Neither has competed since 2016.
- Former world indoor 1,500 champ Yelena Soboleva, who has been retired for almost a decade, gets 8 year ban She also set a world indoor 1,500 record of 3:58.28 in 2006.
Have Money To Burn? Considering Buying These Items
On Track Mind - What running 150 miles in a day can teach you about life is out now. Purchase here.
- Armory Foundation is selling 5 NFTs of film of Alan Webb's 1st sub-4 The price is over $7,000 and the minimum hasn't been hit yet.
Hurdlers In The News
- 2018 US 400h champ Kenny Selmon is thriving under new coach Nat Page and ran 48.87 at the first Journey To Gold — Tokyo Outdoor Series meet last weekend Page, the Georgia Tech assistant, was world ranked in both the HJ and 400h.
- Grant Holloway will make his 2021 outdoor debut this weekend in Florida Did you hear Grant on the LRC podcast last month?
Olympic Related News
- 1 day after stating it, US State Department walks back comment that 2022 Olympic boycott is "something that we wish to discuss"
- Cool idea: Germans want to jointly host 2036 Olympic Games with Tel Aviv to help make amends for stain of 1936
- Osaka governor pulls Olympic torch relay off of public roads due to rise in Covid-19 cases He wanted to cancel it entirely but is now considering staging it on a closed route inside a park.
- 2004 hammer Olympic champ Koji Murofushi is battling brain cancer
- 15-years ago Donald Thomas took up the HJ on a whim at lunch and won the World title a year later, now he's looking for his 4th Olympics
Super Shoe Debate Continues
"I've always enjoyed the racing and will continue to. But I want to enjoy and respect times as well, not just cast aside that element. A reset would enable this. The shoes are here to stay, sadly the genie is out of the bottle.”
- The Independent: "Beth Potter’s Brilliant Performance Epitomizes Dilemma Facing Fans Over Super Shoes"
- Beth Potter: "Obviously the shoes help but all athletes now have access to the same level of shoe so it’s an equal playing field."
- The Telegraph Opinion Piece: "Give Me A $250 Pair Of Super Shoes And The Tokyo Olympics Are In Sight"
Help Grow The Sport
Willie Banks as an athlete did his part to promote the sport by jumping far and entertaining (he invented the rhythmic clap). Now he's an administrator and wants your input to try and grow the sport we all love. Fill out a quick online survey to help him out.
COVID News / Debate
- New Hampshire High School Coach Fired For Telling Athletic Director He Wouldn't Have His Team Wear Masks When Racing Brad Keyes: “There’s very little indication that coronavirus spreads outdoors. ...There are kids who have asthma who run. You throw a mask on them it makes it worse. It’s not unusual for a kid to throw up afterward or even occasionally pass out after running a 400 (meter run) or 800. ...I think the fundamental problem with it is that these rules and regulations are being put in place to cover (rear ends), basically.”
*MB: NH hs coach fired for standing up against Gestapo-level mask requirements - how can we help?
- 7,000 Protest Hokkaido University Banning Student Athletes from Competing While Letting Olympic Marathon Test Event Happen on Campus Student athletes argue that the university banning them from competing is too strict and hypocritical considering they're holding a mass participation race on campus.
- MB: Alan and Julie Webb Covid-19 positive, get well soon We wish them a speedy recovery.
- Steve Cram: "We need events back!" “Even the Prime Minister’s talking about the health of the nation in a wider perspective but I sometimes get fed up to the back teeth of hearing that because we all know and understand that, but nobody really wants to support it..."
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
