Archived Homepage For January 23, 2022

Weekend Indoor Action

MB: Nico Young Runs 3:54.07* (altitude conversion) - Is his 4:02 mile the fastest mile ever run in Flagstaff?

He also ran the 800m an hour later in 1:54.21, placing second behind Luis Grijalva's 1:53.50 (Grijalva was second in the mile in 4:04.18). *Results
*NAU Article: Nico Young Breaks NAU Mile Record At 7000 Feet NAU alum Grijlava was attempting to run the first sub-4 mile at 7,000 feet and he led the first three-quarters of the race, but was overtaken by Young in the end.

MB: Olympian Yared Nuguse drops a 3:54.46 @ Notre Dame
MB: Sparks fly at VANDY INVITE!!! 3 Ole Miss athletes below 4 minutes, 1 D3 runner as well! Ole Miss' James Young lead the way with 3:57.81.
MB: Newbury Park runners run outdoors in Arizona and C Sahlman leads way with 4:05.13
Will Sumner Breaks High School National 600m Record By Two Seconds With 1:15.58
MB: Mario Garcia Romo 2:20.12, Cruz Culpepper 2:20.66 1k At Vanderbilt Invy
Stanford Recruit Gavin Sherry Breaks New Balance Games 2-Mile Record With 8:50.05 (#15 On The HS All-Time Indoor List) His twin brother, Callum Sherry, was 2nd in 9:06.50.

Road / XC Results

MB Gemechu Dida (27:22), Yalemzerf Yehualaw (30:14) win 2022 Great Ethiopian Runs at 7,700 feet of altitude!

Hellen Obiri Starts Her Year With A Win At The Northern Ireland International XC Race She beat out Northern Ireland's Hannah Irwin by 20-seconds. England’s Zak Mahamed won the men's race 7-seconds ahead of Italy’s Iliass Aouani.
*MB: Zak Mahamed (GB) (8:28/14:59), beats I.Aouani (Ita) (13:28/27:45) in cross country international
Samuel Chebolei And Joyce Chepkemoi Win Kenyan Cross Country Championships Chepkemoi won over a field that included world marathon champ Ruth Chepngetich.
Denso Wins Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden; Chikushi Joshi Gakuen Wins HS Division

On The Boards

D'Amato's Cinderella Story Gets Even Cooler The More We Learn About It

LRC Mutual Respect: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor Talk the American Record, American Marathoning, and More

Keira D'Amato, the new American record holder in the marathon, and Deena Kastor, the GOAT who held the record for 15 years, joined us for a live video show. We hope they had as much fun as we did. Watch on demand above.

LRC From Chauffeur to American Record: The Story of The First Time Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor Met

Three years ago, Keira D'Amato was driving Deena Kastor around at the Cherry Blossom race.

LRC D'Amato Ran 3:49:49 and Had to Walk During Her Marathon Debut After walking and stuffing her face with gummy bears of the final miles, D'Amato had to sprint to outkick the 3:50 pace group in her debut at the 2013 Missoula Marathon. Less than nine years later, she ran 2:19:12 to break the American record.

"Cancel everything." -Japan, probably

World Para Athletics Championships In Japan Postponed Until 2024 Due To Covid The championships were already pushed back until 2022 from 2020. Now they're delayed another two years.
Two More 2022 Elite Japan Marathons Canceled Due To COVID (Beppu-Oita And Nobeoka) Both were scheduled for the first half of February.
February 20th Kitakyushu Marathon Canceled Due To "Rapid Spread Of Omicron"
Feb. 20th Shonan International Marathon Canceled Due To COVID

Well Worth 2 Minutes Of Your Time

From chauffeur to American record, the true story of when @KeiraDAmato and @DeenaKastor first met. More greatness from the 🇺🇸 record holders in the full pod here: https://t.co/NzDPayFjDF ) pic.twitter.com/te2YR47ioF
— LetsRun.com (@letsrundotcom) January 21, 2022

Interesting Links

RR Molly Seidel Q&A with TFN

In an excellent interview with Jeff Hollobaugh, Seidel reveals she views her Olympic medal as a starting point and not acareer defining moment, says you'll be sorely disappointed if you expect her to ever break the 10,000 AR, praises Matt Sparks for resurrecting her career, raves about Jon Green and a heck of a lot more.
*MB: Molly Seidel: "[Americans] gonna get our asses handed to us nine times outta ten, if the course is fast."

Edwin Moses is 66 now but is in incredible shape and only weighs 4 pounds more than in his prime Pretty damn impressive for a guy that age who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2017 that left him briefly paralyzed below the waist.
*MB: Edwin Moses - who is in incredible shape at 66 - shares his fitness secret. Diet is key!! "Diet is No. 1.... Excess sugar, salt, sauces, mayonnaise and fried foods, those are the five big no-nos for me."
LRC 2022 Dubai Marathon Postponed Until December Typically staged in late January, the race has a new date in 2022 due to Covid-19 concerns.
Upon further review, Texas Tech's Ruth Usoro didn't shatter the NCAA TJ record over the weekend - Her jump was misreported by 1 full meter Tech's jump coach noticed during film review she didn't land very far into the sand. It was a tough weekend for meet officials at Texas Tech as they also seemed to have missed a false start in the men's 60. *Discuss

Reminder: You Only Live Once

RIP: Kenya's 1st national athletics coach - John Velzian - dies at age 94 The Brit moved to Kenya before independence in 1955 and never left.
*MB: Legendary Kenyan athletics coach John Velzian dies at 94
Former world discus record-holder Rink Babka, who claimed Olympic silver in 1960, has died at the age of 85.

More News

26 minutes with Sean Brosnan (video interview) The architect of the Newbury Park juggernaut talks to Doug Binder.
42-year old Canadian Reid Coolsaet signs with Salomon The two-time Olympian (2:10 pb) is now a masters trail guy.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: How in the World did Keira D'Amato Break the American Record in the Marathon? Was There a Fake NCAA Record Set Last Week?

What a week. Athing Mu returned to action as did Christian Coleman. And the ex-HOKA athletes that finally got super shoes on their feet ran huge pbs in Houston as well. Would Stephanie Bruce and/or Kellyn Taylor be Olympians if they had the shoes?

LC Pro Coaches Tour #1

LRC LetsRun.com Pro Coaches Tour: On Athletics Club Coach Dathan Ritzenhein Looks Ahead to 2022: "The team is very important... We run this almost like a professional sports team."

Dathan Ritzenhein is the first of the top pro coaches to sit down and talk about his club heading into the 2022 campaign. We have him look back at 2021 and ahead to 2022 and he's got some coaching wisdom as well.

NON LRC News that passed the vetting process for Thursday

Patrick Tiernan opens up on 'bittersweet' departure from OTC but is pumped to have joined the Puma Elite "It’s disappointing [Nike didn't make me an offer] because Mark [Rowland] and I were just getting started. The whole staff and team is really special to me — we had a great thing going," said Tiernan whose fiance Angel Piccirillo is part of the OTC. Tiernan is leaving her and the dog behind as he relocates to train in North Carolina with Alistair Cragg's new group.
*Neil Gourley also got tired of Nike resigning him to the OTC and has left for Puma
MB: World Athletics' scoring tables have been updated for 2022 - long distance marks point values reduced due to super shoes Gideys hm WR went from 1326 to 1281 while Kipchoge's marathon WR went from 1316 to 1303.
Sara Hall and Keira D'Amato's record runs get NY Times coverage And Daily Mail as well.
Men's 800 at Millrose will be stacked with Hoppel, Jewett, Saruni, C. Hunter, and others; Donavan Brazier to run 400
Loaded high school fields coming together For Millrose Games
2017 1500 World champ Elijah Manangoi competed for 1st time since ban two weeks ago and says he's learned his lesson

Assorted Distance News

Good Read: World Athletics: "What IT Takes To Become A Kenyan Distance Champion" The author visits Eliud Kipchoge's training camp and analyzes the factors that lead to Kenyan distance dominance. Marc Roig, a 2:18 Spanish marathoner who moved to Kenya and works as a coach/physio for the NN Running teamsaid this of life in Kenya: “When I take my kids to school, I feel ashamed saying I am a runner as many of the dads there have 2:05 marathon PBs. There is even a mother at the school who has a PB similar to mine!"
Athletics Illustrated Q&A With Rory Linkletter Who Broke The Canadian Half-Marathon Record At Houston With 61:08
MB: Ben Flanagan Signs With On; No Official Word On A Training Group *Instagram post
Kyoto Wins 2nd-Straight National Women's Ekiden
One For Our British Visitors: What Are The Fastest And Slowest Parkruns In The UK?

Sprint Stuff

Pretty Cool: 2009 100H World Champ Brigitte Foster-Hylton Is Now An Elite Tennis Player She has won a WATA Amateur Championship and an All Jamaica Open title in Jamaica, but now wants to compete internationally. She says the tennis community was "not very encouraging" when she first started (after she retired from track) and some people said to her face she should stick to track.
Olympic 200m Silver Medalist Christine Mboma Runs And Wins Her First 100m (11.25)
AW Weekly Extensive Round-Up: Steven Gardiner Sets Bahamian 300m Record With 32.06 At The UAB Blazer Invy Behind him, Matt Hudson-Smith broke the UK 300m record with 32.80.

America Records Galore in Houston

Chevron Houston Marathon Madness

LRC Keira D'Amato Runs 2:19:12 to Break Deena Kastor's American Record in the Marathon

Yes, the 37-year-old who took a decade away from the sport is the one who got the record that Shalane Flanagan, Jordan Hasay, Des Linden, and Sara Hall all could not get. James Ngandu won the men's race in 2:11:03 as Frank Lara was the top American in 6th place (2:11:32 debut).

Houston Half

LRC Sara Hall Breaks American Record in Half Marathon with 67:15 in Houston

Vicoty Chepngeno dominated in 65:03, with Fiona O'Keeffe (4th) 67:42 and Emily Durgin (6th) 67:54. Milkesa Tolosa won the men's race in 60:24 as Kirubel Erassa was the top American in 4th (60:44).

LRC: Who are Fiona O'Keeffe and Emily Durgin?!

Re-Ranking Seidel

Upon Further Review, Molly Seidel should be the 10th ranked marathoner in the world

We originally had Seidlel outside our world top 10 but upon analyzing it during Wednesday's podcast, we bump her up to #10.

Major Doping Story

LRC "Is It Safe to Take a Test This Morning?": FBI Investigation Reveals Text Messages From Olympic Doper

The FBI appears to have gained access to Blessing Okagbare's WhatsApp messages and we have now have an inside look at doping in the elite sprint world as a result of the Rodchenkov Act, which makes it a crime to affect the outcome of major international sporting events via the use of performance-enhancing drugs. There are some starting revelations, leaving us to what to know who is 'Athlete 2' who was struggling with a hamstring injury this summer?

Best of the LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast

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MB: Nico Young Runs 3:54.07* (altitude conversion) - Is his 4:02 mile the fastest mile ever run in Flagstaff?

MB Gemechu Dida (27:22), Yalemzerf Yehualaw (30:14) win 2022 Great Ethiopian Runs at 7,700 feet of altitude!

LRC Mutual Respect: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor Talk the American Record, American Marathoning, and More

LRC From Chauffeur to American Record: The Story of The First Time Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor Met

RR Molly Seidel Q&A with TFN

LRC WTW: How in the World did Keira D'Amato Break the American Record in the Marathon? Was There a Fake NCAA Record Set Last Week?

LRC LetsRun.com Pro Coaches Tour: On Athletics Club Coach Dathan Ritzenhein Looks Ahead to 2022: "The team is very important... We run this almost like a professional sports team."

LRC Keira D'Amato Runs 2:19:12 to Break Deena Kastor's American Record in the Marathon

LRC Sara Hall Breaks American Record in Half Marathon with 67:15 in Houston

Upon Further Review, Molly Seidel should be the 10th ranked marathoner in the world

LRC "Is It Safe to Take a Test This Morning?": FBI Investigation Reveals Text Messages From Olympic Doper

American Record Pod: Yared Nuguse and Wood Kincaid Open Up

Webb, Ritz, and Hall

Madeline Manning Mims

Frank Shorter

LRC American Marathon Record Podcast: Keira D'Amato and Deena Kastor

LRC Emily Sisson - The Next US Marathon Superstar?

LRC Woody Kincaid - On His American Record and Leaving Bowerman

LRC New Balance Boston's Mark Coogan

LRC Brooks Beasts' Danny Mackey

LRC OAC's Dathan Ritzenhein

The Rise of Syracuse: How a Cross Country Powerhouse Was Built From Scratch in 10 Years

26:59: The Story of Chris Solinsky's American Record and Upset of Galen Rupp

The Summer of Webb: An Inside Look at Alan Webb’s Magical 2007 Season

Dreams Become Reality: Jake Wightman Stuns Jakob Ingebrigtsen to Win World 1500m Title

Wejo Speaks: Why I Sucked in College

Escorting Paula - How LRC Co-Founder Weldon Johnson Paced Radcliffe To Her 1st World Record

American Strong: How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston

LRC's Robert and Weldon Johnson Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”

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