It's our first full pod for 2025 and we've got our big predictions for 2025 and then hear from 2024 breakout performers Bryce Hoppel and Georgia Bell.
Archived Homepage For January 08, 2025
Archived Homepage For January 08, 2025
Bold Predictions Podcast
One More Look at a Legendary Race
From novice fans to running diehards, there was something for everyone (except perhaps Brits and Norwegians) to enjoy about one of the greatest middle distance races ever run.
Millrose Is About A Month Away
In one year, Bell has gone from begging meet organizers to be let into the field to headlining one of indoor track's most glamorous races. Americans Nikki Hiltz, Emily Mackay, and Elise Cranny are also in the Wanamaker field.
On The Boards
On The Boards
More Weekend Results
- Jake Wightman Returns From Injury By Winning The Scottish Indoor 3000m Champs In 7:44.94 In Glasgow He came in just ahead of his training partner, Thomas Keen (7:45.87). Wightman said he was "just so pleased to be racing again" and that he plans on doing Euro and World Indoors.
- Ethiopia's Telahun Haile Bekele And Olympic Silver Medalist Nadia Battocletti Win Campaccio XC Battocletti is the first Italian to win the race in 31 years
NCAA News
- Ben True Named Assistant Coach At Dartmouth This after True served as the program's interim XC/distance coach in the fall.
- MB: NCAA considering 5 years of eligibility Currently athletes have 4 years of eligibility to use over a 5-year period, although with COVID waivers, many athletes have gotten "five, six or even seven years of eligibility."
- Arkansas Women's Track Hires Former Missouri Head Coach Marc Burns To Coach Distance Runner
RIP
Mann was also a former WR holder in the 440 yard hurdles and 400H.
Weekend Results
- Double Olympic Champ Beatrice Chebet And Olympic 10,000m Silver Medalist Berihu Aregawi Win Elgobiar, Spain XC Race Chebet dominated the women's race as expected while Aregawi just beat out Rodrigue Kwizera by one second.
- Aoyama Gakuin University Breaks Course Record To Win Hakone Ekiden For Second Year In A Row They were up on 2023 winner Komazawa University by 3:14 after day 1, and while Komazawa closed the gap on the second day, they still lost by 2:48 (a lot closer than the almost 7 minutes they lost by last year). *Day 1 Recap
- Ethiopians Dawit Wolde (2:06:06) And Ruti Aga (2:18:46) Run Course Records To Win Xiamen Marathon Aga dominated the women's race while the men's race was close with the top-4 all running in the 2:06 range.
- British Teen Divine Iheme Runs World Age 15 60m Best Of 6.71 The previous record was 21 years old.
US Distance News
- 2023 NXN Champ Addy Ritzenhein Announces Verbal Commitment To NAU Ritzenhein won NXN as a sophomore in 2023 and was 5th in 2024.
*MB: Addy Rizenhein commits to NAU
- MB: Allie Ostrander Signs With Oiselle
- MB: 2:10:53 Marathoner And Former US 25K Champ Parker Stinson Retires Stinson posted, "Thank you to my family for their sacrifices over the last 20 years in my effort to pursue all my goals and dreams."
Fred Kerley Arrested
Click through for videos of the incident. Kerley has been charged with "battery on a police officer...resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct."
- Update 2: Fred Kerley's Estranged Wife Angelica Kerley Speaks Out After His Arrest She was called by his lawyers to speak on his behalf, but instead she said she's going to continue pressing charges. Talking about the alleged domestic abuse incident she said, "...He takes his arm and he wraps it around my neck and he proceeds to choke me so hard that I can't gasp for air. And I'm not going to lie, at some point, I thought that he was going to kill me."
*MB: Fred Kerley allegedly chokes out ex-wife
- Fred Kerley Tweets Bear Emoji After Release From Prison
- Update: The judge in the case has said, "Sergeant, this could have been handled a different way" and Kerley has also been charged for a previous domestic incident involving his then-wife with domestic battery by strangulation and strong-arm robbery.
- USA Today: Fred Kerley arrest footage renews familiar questions about police use of force
Upcoming Indoor Action
- 60H World Record Holder Devynne Charlton And Olympic 100H Champ Masai Russell Announced For Millrose Games On February 8 Field also includes US indoor 60H champ Tia Jones.
- World Indoor Champ Molly Caudery And Olympic Bronze Medalist Emmanouil Karalis Announced For Perche Elite Tour Pole Vault On January 24
Links We Liked
- MB: Chris Miltenberg used to brag that UNC didn't race BU, then he changed his mind and his two guys ran 7:30..... UNC used to brag they peak when it matters most but when your top duo can break the collegiate record by 6 seconds you probably should time-trial.
- Gjert Ingebrigtsen denies he ever abused Jakob & told police he'd 100% remember it if he di + claims instead he basically carried Jakob on a "golden chair"
- Karsten Warholm reveals his comeback from tendinosis is going way better than he could have imagined “I’m a good month ahead of the ‘best-case scenario.’ The plan was to start sprinting again in January, but I’ve been doing it for two weeks already,” Warholm shares.
- Quincy Wilson is thriving on and off the track Bullis HS where teachers rave about his character and.... handwriting Did you know Wilson commutes 1.5 hours each morning to attend the private school? Despite his prowess, he may go the NCAA route and has alreayd visited - Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.
- Jimmy Carter insisted the US boycott the 1980 Olympics and soon realized it was a BIG mistake
- Did you know Faith Kipyegon's husband was also an Olympian? In fact, they met at the 2012 London Games where he ran on the relay with Rudisha.
Unlike other Publications, We wait until the year is over to hand out our awards
Unlike other Publications, We wait until the year is over to hand out our awards
We actually hand out six awards in this piece - overall Athlete of the Year, Runner of the Year, and Distance Runner of the Year - but Chebet swept all three for the women, edging out SML. For the men, our Runner of the year goes to Grant Holloway over Rai Benjamin and our Distance Runner of the Year is Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
From world records to unlikely breakthroughs to one very strange session of Kenyan parliament, Jonathan Gault recaps the highs and lows of running in 2024.
Year in review podcast
The LRC crew has it's annual 2024 trivia challenge and takes a look at an incredible year of track and field.
Japan's #1 Corporate Ekiden is In The Books
You can watch the final 90 second above. The performance of the day came from 2:05:12 marathoner Yohei Ikeda "who dominated the Second Stage with a 1:01:48 for 21.9 km, 59:33 half marathon pace." He's going for the Japanese 60:00 half-marathon record in February.
More Links That Passed Our Human Vetters
- MB: Florida's Robert "Raven" Kraft has run the same 8 mile loop on the beach every day for 50 straight years
- Michael Johnson says Grand Slam Track's tv partner will be announced in January
- What Citius' best quotes of 2024 tell us about the year to come They have 4 quotes of the year - one from Jakob Ingebrigtsen, one from Dave Smith, one from Ryan Crouser and one from Noah Lyles.
- Transgender DIII star Sadie Schreiner is having trouble finding a D1 team Thankfully no one seemingly wants Schneider as a transfer for their women's team. The biological male has pbs of 24.12 and 55.07 but those times suck for a men's team.
New Year Results
- Olympic 10,000m Silver Medalist Berihu Aregawi And Jacob Kiplimo Decide To Tie At San Silvestre Vallecana 10k Rather than fight for the win, they crossed the line together in 26:32, although the win ultimately went to Aregawi. In the women's race, European 5000m bronze medalist Marta Garcia got a surprise win over marathon WR holder Ruth Chepngetich (31:19 to 31:32).
- Ethipia's Telahun Haile Bekele (27:59) Sets CR, Italy's Olympic 10,000m Silver Medalist Nadia Battocletti (15:31) Retains Her Title At BOclassic In Bolzano, Italy
- MB: Allie Ostrander Runs 4:47 Mile With Her Dog (video) Pretty impressive for such a little dog.
Another Record For Chebet
Chebet took 19 seconds off the previous record, which she set at the same race last year, to cap an all-time great 2024 season during the she won world xc, two Olympic golds and became the first to break 29:00 on the track and 14:00 on the roads.
2024 Recaps/Awards
- Keely Hodgkinson Gets MBE In British New Year Honors List Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson Thompson also received MBEs.
- Canada's Olympic 4x100 Named Canadian Team Of The Year For Their Gold Medal Run In Paris
- World Athletics' 2024 Review: Relays World Athletics ripped the US men's 4x100 as they wrote, "Since 1995, the US has failed to earn a medal at 11 consecutive global championships either because of bans, disqualifications or dropped batons."
- IOC President Thomas Bach Delivers New Year Speech He celebrated having gender equality at the same Paris Olympics where he defended allowing an XY boxer win women's gold.
- MileSplit's Top HS Track & Field and XC Moments From 2024 They broke down the top moments month-by-month.
2025 Is Here
- World Athletics: 10 Things To Look Forward To In 2025 Tokyo will host the 2025 World Championships with summer while China will host World Indoors in March.
- Former Heptathlon Olympic Champ Jessica Ennis-Hill Gives Her 10 Athletes To Watch In 2025 Keely Hodgkinson, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and teen sprint star Gout Gout make her list.
Sponsorship News
- MB: Emily Infeld out at Nike She had been sponsored by Nike since 2012.
- Tokyo 5000m Olympian Rachel Smith Leaves HOKA
RIP
- Athletics Deaths In 2024 - We Said Goodbye To Some Amazing Athletes This Year Marathon WR holder Kelvin Kiptum and all-time great Henry Rono top a too-long list.
- Runner's World: How President Jimmy Carter Brought Running To the White House Carter was a runner in the 1970's, often running up to 7 miles at a time and is the only serving president to run in a competitive road race (granted he DNF'd). He is also infamous among athletes for imposing the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
*MB: RIP Jimmy Carter 1924-2024
Distance News
- The Telegraph Talks To GB's 17-Year-Old 800m Olympian Phoebe Gill About Her Paris 2024 Experience And Juggling Athletics With Academic Goals She's currently preparing for her "A-levels" exams and thinking about what universities to apply to.
- Ritsumeikan University Wins Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, Ending Meijo University's 6-Year Streak
- 2025 Hakone Ekiden Preview - Koku Gakuin Goes For The Triple Crown
- World Athletics 2024 Recap: Cross Country Jacob Kiplimo and Beatrice Chebet won World XC gold in March.
There is some stuff going on right now
- In his first individal race of school year, Quincy Wilson runs US #2 600 time of 1:17.19 He ran 1:17.36 last year but it nowhere close to the 1:15.58 by Will Sumner in 2022.
- Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden Preview in Pana Meijo University has won the biggest women's race 6 straight years but seems very vulnerable this year.
- Japan New Year Ekiden Preview: Toyota going for 3-peat
- The BOclassic in Bolzano, Italy has been awarded a World Athletics Heritage Plaque (category: ‘Competition’) to celebrate Tuesday’s 50th edition The race was started in 1975 was inspired by the Saint Silvester Road Race in São Paulo, Brazil,
- Uganda has started construction on a new stadium and it will be named for their Olympic legend -Akii-Bua It will seat 20,000 and the govt is paying $130 million for it.
- Nebraska is spending $10.5 million to upgrade its track and field facilities
Other News
- Noah Lyles Shows Some Humility While Praising Usain Bolt When someone on a podcast called Lyles the fastest man on the planet, Lyles responded, “I’m the world’s fastest man [at the moment], you get it with the title of being the Olympic champion. Technically, the world’s fastest man, and the fastest man alive, is Usain Bolt.”
- Toyota Going for the Repeat - Japan New Year Ekiden Preview
End of Year Stuff
- MB: The ultimate Christmas Eve news dump. USATF finally posts 2023 tax returns and tries to explain why their net assets have dropped $13 million in two years In 2022, USATF net assets were $548,002, but that has swung negative $4.9 million. What happened?
- MB: Who was the BEST 1500/Miler this year? Ingebrigtsen? Hocker? Kerr?
- 2024 T&FN Men’s Athlete Of The Year — Mondo Duplantis
- Japan Running News's Ten Most-Read Stories of 2024 From Kiyoto Hirabayashi's 2:06:18 collegiate record in the marathon to Asics apologizing for a typo on the Tokyo Marathon shirts, Brett Larner has you covered.
- The 5 most read stories of 2024 at Athletics Illustrated From WikipediaGate by Camille Herron to Ruth Chepngetich's WR.
- FloTrack 2024: Top Workout Wednesdays Of The Year From Jakob I to Parker V.
- Flotrak's top interviews of the year
Need a Job?
LA2028 is hiring and most of the jobs pay over 100k At this point in 2020, Paris 2024 had 379 employees while LA 2028 is much leaner, with less than 180.
Sprint News
- It's official: Legendary Jamaican coach Glen Mills is coaching 100mh WR holder Tobi Amusan and enjoying it “It has been a joy working with her because she is a true professional,” Mills shared.
- 'I don't make enough money...'- Olympic champion Noah Lyles says it's tough as he doesn't make enough money to hire private security but he's recognized everywhere he goes
- Sha'Carri Richardson: Why my heart is my brain and my emotions are my superpowers
- Trevor Bassitt reflects on his journey to the Olympics
This Week's Pod
Jasmines Jones and Nico Young are our guests and before them we break down the latest in the running world.
Doping News
- NY Times: Questions Emerge About Data Used By China To Defend Against Doping Allegations When 23 elite Chinese swimmers tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics, WADA accepted the explanation that it was due to contamination and didn't take any action against them. The science behind that explanation relied largely on "hastily arranged human trials" that have never been made public, but have been seen by some experts, one of which said, "Their conclusions are not intellectually honest. They make a conclusion that is not backed up by what they found in their study. If you submitted this to a scientific journal worth its salt, that conclusion would be laughed at.”
- WADA Publishes Data Confirming That Drug Testing Deters Doping We definitely didn't need a study to tell us that. But what was interesting is that as a result of that, most EPO cheats who are caught, are caught in-competition the first time they're ever tested. The reason being that "an athlete who has never been tested before has a much lower perceived risk of being caught than an athlete tested regularly."
- MB: Hicham El Guerrouj “Interesting” Comments About EPO in Morocco El G says "easily" run 3:23-3:24 for 1500m in modern footwear and that he's "never seen or heard of that EPO problem in Ifrane. No one has ever come to see me to offer me anything."
GST
GST signed Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone & Gabby Thomas as Racers, but many of the sport's biggest names such as Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson have yet to commit to the series.
- Grading the 2025 Grand Slam Track Women's Racer Groups In the women's 100 hurdles, the entire 2024 Olympic podium has signed up to be GST Racers in 2025.
Seb Coe Meets With The Media For His Year End Review
In what might have been his final annual year-end media call, Coe raved about SML and talked about his love of XC. As for SML, he said he's "only seen one performance in an Olympic stadium to rival that" and that was Rudisha in 2012. Coe's tenure as World Athletics president could end next year if he is elected as IOC president.
A legend speaks
Rai Benjamin delivered on all fronts in 2024 and was snubbed in the Athlete of the Year voting, but the things missing on his resume now are the world record and a 42-second relay split.
Non Distance News:
- World Athletics offers 25 athletes year-round protection on some of their social media platforms, using artificial intelligence, after they were identified as highly targeted individuals for abuse during major events. The good news is this is a tiny problem. Of 1.4 million posts they analyzed, only 254 accounts were "verified to have sent abusive or threatening content have been escalated to the relevant platforms" and only "two serious cases" were "highlighted to authorities after the accounts had been identified and evidence gathered."
- NFL's 7th best rusher in 2024 Chuba Hubbard was a former Canadian youth track star He ran 10.55 at World Youths way back in 2015 at age 15. “Track and field was my first sport and my first love,” Chuba Hubbard told Canadian Running. “It was always the sport I thought I’d have a future in, until I went to university.”
- Rhasidat Adeleke pinpoints areas of improvement for next year - strength "I was doing a lot more of the short (spring) training and that initially didn’t necessarily work out with the strength part when I came to my 400 meters because in 2023 you know I ran my race very differently."
More Distance News Of Note
The elite-only race that was held in December 2020 during the COVID pandemic is returning in 2025 with room for 500 fast amateurs. Same lightning fast course in Chandler, AZ, but the race will be open to elites and non-elites (a non-elite marathon on Saturday and elites on Sunday). The site says the non-elites will be "treated like pros" and Rosario hopes the pro race is "the deepest, fastest marathon in the United States."
*MB: Return of the Marathon Project.
- RW: Runners Are Asking: Is My Agent Worth The Fee? There is a trend of veteran runners, including Clayton Young, Des Linden and Olympic Marathon Trials 4th placer Jess McClain, going off on their own and negotiating their own contracts rather than giving 15% to an agent. Parker Valby used her father, Kyle Valby, as her agent and he says that after she signed with New Balance he heard from 17 athletes (collegians and pros) asking about representation.
- New Study Finds That Super Spikes Help Less At "Faster Average Running Speeds" Not surprising considering we've seen a way more dramatic shift in elite times at the longer distances than the 800m.
- MB: Olympic 800m Silver Medalist Marco Arop Wins Half-Marathon In 1:11:16 Arop says he's been running about 30 miles a week.
Fisher Speaks
After earning his first global medals in 2024, Fisher is not content to rest on his laurels. "There were two guys better than me in both events," Fisher says. "So there's still a carrot out in front of me." Plus his coach Mike Scannell explains how they will attack the 2025 season, including Grand Slam Track.
Get Your Millrose Tickets Now
America's best miler will race America's best long-distance runner at 3,000 meters in one of the crown jewels of the 2025 indoor season.
LRC Podcast
Double Olympic medalist and American record holder at 3000, 5000, 10,000m Grant Fisher joins us to announce he's running the Millrose Games 3000 vs Olympic gold medallist Cole Hocker and then to discuss his 2024 campaign and plans for the future.
Blanks = NCAA XC x 2
Just before Blanks chases a 5,000m pb and collegiate record in what is likely his final NCAA race at Boston University on Saturday, he told LetsRun about the key session of his 2024 XC season -- one he described as "probably the best workout I've had so far in my career."
Big Changes at HOKA NAZ Elite
Almost 11 years after founding NAZ Elite, Rosario is leaving for a new venture. A number of athletes are also leaving the team, including Aliphine Tuliamuk, Krissy Gear, and Kellyn Taylor.
- RW: Major Changes Coming to Northern Arizona Elite "It’s basically everybody that’s old [is not being renewed] if we want to put it bluntly,” Taylor said. “It’s literally, there’s nobody older than 28 on the team now."
- Ben Rosario Resigns as Executive Director, Veteran Marathoners Reportedly Won’t Get New Contracts in 2025
- Ben Rosario's public farewell statement
- MB: NAZ Elite - Major Changes Coming in 2025
Valencia Marathon
The 2023 world half marathon champ missed Kelvin Kiptum's debut record by just 12 seconds. Ethiopia's Megertu Alemu, who was 2nd in London last year and 3rd in Chicago (4th in London this year), won the women's race. Kenenisa Bekele was with the leaders through halfway and in the top 10 at 30k but ended up a DNF.
- Biya Simbassa 2:06:53 for #4 American all-time in Valencia
- Official 2024 Valencia Marathon Live Discussion Thread
- Sabastian Sawe 2:02:05 Marathon Debut! Next Kelvin Kiptum? Two Hour Marathoner? Sawe is now the #5 man in history and the 2024 world leader. The times were quick as two guys broke 2:03, 10 broke 2:05 and 30 broke 2:10. Megertu Alemu won the women's race in 2:16:49 as three broke 2:19
- Edward MF Cheserek- 2:05:24 If Cheserek were American, he'd be the American record holder at 13.1 and 26.2.
- Edward Cheserek Is Working On His US Citizenship, But It May Take 5+ Years
- shoe companies have ruined running
Graham Blanks Podcast
Hear from the repeat NCAA XC champ.
A Final Look at NCAA XC
But before we switch over to indoor track, we had a few final thoughts to share about the 2024 NCAA XC championships, including explaining why track is not the same as cross country, revealing the top-20 finisher who called his shot on the LetsRun messageboard, letting you know about two runners who did something on Saturday that hasn’t been done since Matthew Centrowitz, before we give you a way-too-early look ahead to 2025 NCAAs.
Noah Lyles Speaks to LRC
The Tyreek Hill race may be coming together. Lyles has interesting comments on Grand Slam Track, the 100 vs the 200 and whether the sport of track and field wants to change. *Podcast here
NCAA Women
BYU won its second title in the Diljeet Taylor era as Alabama's Doris Lemngole moved up one spot from last year to win the crown.
NCAA Men
Graham Blanks joined the Gerry Lindgren, Steve Prefontaine and Conner Mantz club of repeat American winners as the year of Ed Eyestone continued with a BYU victory.
NCAA Talk
- The Offficial 2024 NCAA D1 XC Championship Thread
- When BYU starts recruiting Africans, its over for everyone else
- NCAA XC 2024 is ruined
- Why is BYU so dominant?
- NAU women are the biggest failures of all time
- James Corrigan did NOT finish in BYU's top 5
- Dave Smith is a bad coach
- USA USA USA! AMERICAN BORN TEAMS WIN NCAA XC 2024
- Who is that Furman guy?
Paywalls Lifted
Last year, nine Kenyan men and a record seven Kenyan women earned All-American honors at the NCAA XC champs. The total could be even higher at this year's meet. We explain the reason behind the trend and wonder if there should be an age limit. Is it fair to have a 28-year-old freshman join the team who has a PR faster than the American record?
NCAA track and field/XC is about to be radically changed. Roster caps are coming -- are you ready for a max of 10 people on a men's SEC roster? But the opportunity to give out way more scholarships is also coming. Will the net change be great or catastrophic, leading to the "the slow death of men's track & field" as one SEC coach worries.
More Distance Results
(link updated) He broke the previous record of 41:05 which was set by Joshua Cheptegei at this same course in 2018 and then tied by Kiplimo here last year.
*MB: Jacob MF Kiplimo!
- France’s Etienne Daguinos Sets European 10k Record With 27:04 In Lille He broke the previous record by Jimmy Gressier by 3 seconds. World 1500m bronze medalist Narve Gilje Nordas was 5th in a Norwegian record of 27:31. Kenya's Christine Chesiro won the women's race in 29:56. *Results
*MB: Etienne Daguinos, 24, France, destroys the Africans with 27:04/10km
- From Last Weekend: Courtney Olsen Breaks Women's 50 Mile Record At The Tunnel Hill 50 Mile In Illinois She ran 5:31:56 (6:38 pace) to take more than 8 minutes off the previous record from 1991.
- 19-Yr-Old Kazura Munakata Breaks Japan U20 Record To Win Ageo City Half Marathon In 61:38
Jonathan Gault pays tribute to two legends
Simpson and Centrowitz, who both 1st medalled in 2011 and retired in 2024, leave the sport as two of the faces on the Mt. Rushmore of American 1500m running after piling up a combined eight medals at global championships. And despite not ever finishing in the top 3 on the yearly 1500 list (Simpson's best was 4th, Centro's 9th), they will be remembered as two of the better milers of their generation.
Tim Rowberry Interview Highlights
Rowberry began as a pacer and errand boy at the Nike Oregon Project but has since coached Hassan to six medals across the last two Olympics. He dives into their relationship and why he's looking to expand his training group -- and land a coaching contract from a shoe brand.
World Marathon Majors Soon Will Be Dead....... Unless
Expanding the number of world marathon majors to nine is an absurd idea unless the majors make one simple change that will instantly keep them being compelling, elite sporting events.
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
