In this week's weekly recap, we give unsolicited career advice to CJ Albertson and Jim Walmsley, wonder if Letesenbet Gidey is the second coming of Paula Radcliffe/Eliud Kipchoge, and say goodbye to two track stars who died way too young.
Archived Homepage For October 26, 2021
Archived Homepage For October 26, 2021
Valencia Half
Valencia Half
The 5000 and 10,000m WR holder ran 62:52 today in her half-marathon debut. Wow.
Jonathan Gault tries to put Letesenbet Gidey's amazing WR in perspective for you. Is she the greatest women's distance talent ever? Or was it the shoes? Or something more sinister?
- Official thread: Set your alarm clocks now (2:30 am ET Sunday). The women are going for the WR in Valencia.
- Gidey just ran the single greatest female running performance ever... Give her the black page! Letesenbet MF Gidey 1:02:52
- Valencia Half Marathon, quick visual, top 10 men, and Gidey, 1:02:52.
- Frank Lara going for Ryan Hall's American record in Valencia
On The Boards
On The Boards
Rest In Peace
- Agnes Tirop's Funeral Attended By Over 4000 Mourners Attendees included Faith Kipyegon, Hellen Obiri and Joshua Cheptegei as Tirop was burred at her parents' house on what would have been her 26th birthday. *2nd article
- Ecuador Soccer Stadium Hosts A Burning Chapel To Receive Sprinter Alex Quiñónez's Coffin
*Alex Quiñónez Was Killed Alongside His Friend, Ecuadorian Singer Jojairo Arcalla Outside A Shopping Center - World Athletics: RIP Prolific Track Photographer Jean-Pierre Durand, 66
Rotterdam Marathon
Kenya's Marius Kipserem lead early, but ended up losing to Abdi by 28-seconds. Kenya's Stella Barsosio won the women's race in 2:22:08. *Discuss
More Weekend Action
The men's side was a nail biter as Simbassa finished with the same time as runner-up Futsum Zienasellassie while Sam Chelanga was 1-second back in third. Morley won the women's race by a good margin over Erika Kemp (1:24:00).
- MB: Jordan Hasay Wins Santa Barbara Wine County Half Marathon In 1:20:05 *Results
- Harvey Lewis Breaks the Big’s Backyard Ultra Record The 45-year-old ran a 4.1667-mile loop every hour for 85 hours, totaling 354.169 miles.
- Japan Corporate Team Shiseido Breaks Princess Ekiden Course Record
- Meiji University Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Half Marathon
- USTFCCCA College XC Weekend Recap No big NCAA results this weekend.
Farah Update
- Mo Farah Says He Thinks He'll "Be Long Gone By [Paris 2024]" He says you could see him there as a coach though.
- Mo Farah Says Listening To Lionel Richie's Music Helped Inspire Him To Comeback From His Foot Stress Fracture Farah is healthy now, but says it will be months before he’s 100% fit.
Tragic News
Quiñonez's death comes during a state of emergency in Ecuador which was announced by the president to try and stop a surge in crime. Quiñonez had a 19.87 PB and held national records from 100m to 400m. He missed the Tokyo Games this year as he was provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures.
Short Course
Yehualaw's 63:44 at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon in August came on a course that was 54m short, meaning the WR is now Ruth Chepngetich's 64:02.
Friday's Updates from Valencia
Frank Lara is hoping to go sub 60 minutes in the Valencia half marathon on Sunday.
UKA In A Bad Spot
Performance director Sara Symington has also left. *The Times *Independent
*MB: UK Athletics in turmoil after CEO Joanna Coates resigns after 20 months on the job
Interesting Reads
- US Olympic Trials qualifier Meghan Roth had a heart attack between miles 7 and 8 at 2021 Boston Marathon, but a fellow runner gave her CPR and she's doing well now
- Dad accidentally runs Manchester Marathon... yes really He signed up for the half but got there at the wrong time when the marathon was starting so he decided to do that.
- #30 Montana State men's cross country team is ranked for 1st time in 17 years They were 12th at Prenats.
Free Tax & Training Advice
- An inside look at how Nike founder Phil Knight is giving a fortune to his family while avoiding billions in U.S. taxes. Part of Bloomberg's look at the "hidden ways the ultrarich pass wealth to their heirs tax-free."
- Have a Disappointing Marathon? The NY Times says you need to learn to "reframe it" like Ryan & Sara Hall, Reed Fischer and Scott Fauble
- Former British summer and winter Olympian Craig Pickering writes about how coaching with so much data can be good (and bad) "We can often manipulate the numbers to support whichever message we desire."
Distance News
Link fixed. A fascinating piece by Jeff Benjamin. *Race video
- MB: Shannon Osika joins Pete Julian’s group The 4th placer at the US Trials in the 1500 (4:00 pb) was in search of training partners and has left long-time coach Mike McGuire.
- After failing to make the Olympics on the track, Ben Flanagan thinks he'll be focusing more to the roads soon
- Harvey Lewis broke WR at last week's 2021 Big Dog's Backyard Ultra with 85 laps (353.5 miles)
- MB: Big Dog's Backyard Ultra - 3 left, have gone 325 miles, running for 78 hours - can someone run until they die
- 10 Storylines to Follow at Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational 2021
- Jury selection resumes slowly in Ahmaud Arbery slaying trial
- Senators pay glowing tribute to Agnes Tiropo
Kipchoge Update
Cathal Dennehy is in Kenya and watched Kipchoge do 8 x 1600 + 8 x 400.
Recent LetsRun Videos
Recent LetsRun Videos
Sprint / Hurdle News
She's had great success there in the past, having won a World Jrs, three NCAA titles and a US title in the city.
- Q&A with 100 hurdle champ Jasmine Camacho-Quinn who says things have been 'crazy' since the Olympics but she'll soon be focusing on "perfecting my craft" She's got an endorsement with Buchanan's Whiskey which is neatly celebrating Hispanic-Americans as 200 percenters - 100% American & 100% Hispanic.
- Big 12 indoor 400 champ Ashton Hicks (45.60 pb) has transferred from Ok State to LSU and is loving it
- It's Black history month in the UK and long jumper Jazmin Sawyers isn't sure how much progress is being made “I don’t know how much progress we're actually making when you see the racial abuse the England footballers got during the European Championships [after England lost on penalties in the final]. Black people can be national heroes but, once they do anything wrong, the racist abuse comes out."
- Anti Olympic group NOlympicsLA publishes syllabus to show why Games should be scrapped
- Stephen Francis thinks 2019 LJ champ Tajay Gayle may end up being a star sprinter "I suspect that he will be in the position to challenge for the title of fastest Jamaican [in 2022.]”
- How the NCAA system has helped churn out the best of Nigeria track and field stars
LRC Exclusives
A year ago, Bates was training in Idaho preparing for a pb at the Marathon Project. That pb would not come, and she would wind up leaving Idaho for Boulder following her divorce. Now, however, she's thriving with Team Boss after a runner-up finish at the Chicago Marathon. Audio and written highlights.
We recap the week in running for you and wonder why 2022 Boston is also planning to have a reduced size.
*MB: Kenya has had 3 World/Olympic champions die in their 20s in the last 10 years, when (if ever) has this happened to an American?
MB: Galen Rupp will run Eugene World Championship marathon in 2022 Sarah Lorge Butler confirmed the news with Rupp's agent, Ricky Simms.
Non-Distance News
- Elaine Thompson-Herah has begun pre-season training at Mico University College She's currently being coached by her husband and Jamaica’s 1984 world 400m champion Bertland Cameron and still wearing Nike which makes sense as most deals don't end until the end of the year.
- Elaine Thompson-Herah is conferred with Order of Distinction and Commander Class
- Elaine Thompson-Herah Says She's Watched The Video Of Her Olympic 100m Gold "A Million Times" And That She Could Have Gone Faster "I could have run 10.5, if I was not celebrating. I didn't realize I'd done the pointing. I think my body knew I wanted to win so badly. If I could run it back over, I would run straight to the line. That is the thing I could fix - the start was great, the transition was great, just that last 10 meters."
- "How Italy Got Ahead In The Sprints" A detailed look at what went into Italy's golds in the 100m (via Lamont Marcell Jacobs) and the 4x100m.
- GB's Olympic PV Bronze Medalist Holly Bradshaw Talks About Dealing With Hurtful Criticism Because She's Bigger Than Other Athletes Bradshaw, who competed in Tokyo with a modified rowing uniform, says one of the top Google searches for her used to be "Holly Bleasdale (her maiden name) fat."
Interesting Distance News
- Japan High School Builds 330m Greenhouse Indoor Track The entire track is enclosed in vinyl greenhouse material. The coach asked the high school to build it so the team could train during the very snowy winter.
- Oregon Firefighter And Paramedic Helps Save Collapsed Runner During Boston Marathon In a crazy twist, after he had started to help other bystanders perform CPR, he realized he actually knew the runner from Minnesota via mutual friends.
Salazar, Cain, Nike Discussion
- Podcast Talking With Kara Goucher And Others About Nike And Alberto Salazar - "A Running Scandal And The Price Of Power At Nike" Goucher says she saw teammates faking dehydration to get IVs at big competitions: "My coach would joke about how to fake it to get these IVs. My coach asked me to take a prescription drug that I didn't have a prescription for to help me shed weight faster ...I saw stuff that was absolutely against the rules. And it was being treated like it was no big deal."
Latest Agnes Tirop News
- Agnes Tirop's Husband To Spend 20-Days In Prison While The Murder Is Investigated Police say Ibrahim Rotich was arrested while trying to flee the country after he made a tearful phone call to his family saying he had done something terrible. He crashed his vehicle into a truck in a car chase with police.
- Amsterdam Marathon Champ Angela Tanui Pays Tribute To Agnes Tirop In her post-race interview she said, “I was running today with a white ribbon on my lapel, which is a sign of mourning my compatriot because she is someone I knew very well and were in the same management. I was running thinking about her and I wanted to do well as one way of honoring the champion."
- Kenyan Athletes Eulogize Agnes Tirop Olympic 5000m silver medalist Hellen Obiri, 2017 World XC silver medallist Alice Aprot, and former 5,000m Commonwealth Games champ Mercy Cherono were among those to pay tribute to Tirop.
General Olympic News
- Insanity: Cook Islands Olympians Finally Return Home From Tokyo 2020 After Stringent Quarantine Travel Rules Through New Zealand Athletes and their Olympic Committee president haven't been home in over 13 weeks after being forced to quarantine for over two months in New Zealand.
- IOC Express Concerns Over FIFA's Plans For Biennial World Cups The IOC is worried about how this could clash with other major sports, but do they get a say?
- Obstacle Course Racing Moves A Step Closer To Olympic Sport Status After Being Awarded "Observer Status" (A Prerequisite For Olympic Inclusion) They shouldn't celebrate too much though as there are plenty of other fringe sports in this category such as dodgeball, jump rope and
strippingpole sports. - IOC President Thomas Bach Is "Concerned" About France Sucking At The Tokyo Games The idea is apparently that Paris 2024 will be successful if French athletes are successful. France's medal tally in Tokyo was their lowest since 1992.
Drama At Beijing 2022 Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony
- Protestors Disrupt Flame Lighting Ceremony For Beijing Winter Games Three activists snuck into the site and ran towards the torch holding a Tibetan flag and a banner that said, "No genocide games."
- Beijing 2022 Receives Olympic Flame In Low-Key Handover With Very Large Police Presence There was tight security after human rights protests disrupted the lighting ceremony.
- This Didn't Age Well: IOC Brushes Aside Concerns About Possible Protests At Beijing 2022 Torch Lighting Ceremony
- Beijing 2022 Flame Lighting Ceremony Overshadowed By Human Rights Protests In Ancient Olympia
- Two Protesters Arrested Night Before Torch Lighting Ceremony
NCAA / HS News
- NAU Men Stay #1 As Iow State Jumps Four Places To #2 In Updated NCAA Rankings Colorado moved up four spots to #3 and Stanford down to #4. BYU and Notre Dame both dropped down out of the top-5. *Regional Rankings
- New Mexico Women Take Over #1 Spot In Latest XC Rankings NC State and BYU dropped to 2-3 and Colorado moved up to #4. *Regional Rankings
- T&F News Chooses Hobbs Kessler As Their HS Boys Athlete Of The Year Kessler was voted unanimously by their 20 person panel.
- Pole Vault Record Setter Paige Sommers Chosen By T&F News As HS Girls Athlete Of The Year She narrowly beat out 2:00.78 800m runner Roisin Willis in the voting.
- RIP Longtime Rhode Island HS Coach And Hammer/Weight Throw Advocate Bob Gourley
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
