In the 1990s, NASCAR decided they didn't want tires to be the stars and says now “we don’t want shoes to be our stars.”

"Good governance is a matter of unemotional decision making that advantages no particular side, rather elevates the general welfare.  As such, just like the exploration to uncover a better competitive mousetrap never ends, so must the sport’s governors continue to maintain a competitive balance where the medal or prize money distinctions are to be found in the common human condition, not in their equipment, or pharmacological advantages much less choices."

Some interesting stats are that there has been 366 sub-60 half-marathon performances, but only 9 of them are non-African and only 6 of them came before 2000.

From her front running her way to DNFs in high school and college, to her blistering pace setting at Boston 2014, Flanagan has been working her way towards this for a long time.

Reavis' wants Seb Coe to remember as he tries to improve the sport that "people can't root for shoe company logos" and argues with the team component, the NCAA 4x4 would have been "just another tight, but overall meaningless exhibition of track excellence."
*Ken Goe Agrees And Commends Vin Lannana And TrackTown USA On Trying To Build The Team Concept WIth The TrackTown Summer Series

Reavis tries to put Mary Keitany's performance in perspective relative to Paula Radcliffe's runs and talks about the difference between a pacer and an "escort."

Reavis also comments on the lack of emphasis on competition, comparing the current sub-2 hour projects to when Wes Santee, John Landy, and Roger Bannister were all independently chasing the sub-4 mile.

Reavis says the prevalence of rabbitted races has developed a generation of "runners" rather than "racers" and ponders what is in the best long-term interest of the sport.

Want to know what’s going on in the running world? This is your weekly read.

100 years ago, indoor marathons used to be a thing. 100 years from now, regular marathons might be a thing of the past.

Your dog can be a great training partner, but they might be thinking to themselves, “Why are we going so damn slow?”

At the time Solinsky said, "This was a glorified tempo run.  This was just an indication race to see where I was ... This was my debut. No one expected it.  I didn’t expect it!”

"Young legs and hungry hearts bounce back quicker," he writes, but also wonders if all the racing will cut their careers short in the long-run.

Quotes from Rupp, Toni Reavis and Craig Virgin including NOP doping allegation talk. Rupp reveals the OT marathon debut was Salazar's idea. “It took me a little while to wrap my head around it. It’s not something I was really thinking about. ... And so it took me a while. There were times where I would be ‘Am I crazy to be thinking about doing this?’”

The heat could help an underdoge win it or make it like it did for Wesley Korir when he won Boston 2012. Reavis analyzes which athletes should do well in the heat and who may struggle.

"Until a true outsider is brought in with the proper cleanser, the dirt will only find different corners in which to collect."

Reavis wants the IAAF to remember that "stories" not "special effects" are what move people. Reavis also touches on Candace Hill going pro and the FIFA scandal.

Reavis says "we find a sport existing, barely, on life-support, reeling from the toxic shock of massive corruption" and drug scandals. He calls on athletes to take ownership of their sport and unite into a "player's union".

"To this day the athletes continue to look to the outmoded and endemically corrupt national governing body system to come to their rescue rather than unite into a player’s association to conduct the business of what, in the end, is their own profession — even as they work hand-in-hand with the NGBs for national championships and international team selections, which is the rightful role of the NGBs. This is no different than what all other successful sports have done in order to move into a more productive, modern era. So as long as track and field athletes allow themselves to be regulated by interests which are not primarily their own, they will continue to be frustrated and powerless, pawns in a game controlled by international oligarchs who are in it for their own financial and political gain. After all the mendacity and institutional corruption that has been uncovered in 2015, one wonders what it would finally have to take to put an end to this utter stupidity and debilitating irrationality."

 

We had the Diamond League finale and the 5th Avenue Mile last week, but there was a ton of other interesting news and we break it down for you.

Reavis is a long-time friend of Salazar.