Shalane Flanagan Shows Her Cards Before Boston, Alisha Williams Gets The “A” And Kemoy Campbell Sets A Jamaican National Record

The Week That Was In Running: March 25 – March 31, 2013

by LetsRun.com
April 3, 2013

We didn’t get last week’s weekly recap of the 2013 World XC Champs out until mid-day on Friday, and as a result, many of the regulars who read it on Wednesday may not have seen it. So click here if you want to read last week’s Weekly Recap.

Last week, we spent a lot of time comparing the junior boys and senior men’s races at World Cross-Country. Our belief that junior boys winner Hagos Gebrihwot might have won the senior men’s title got a boost the other day when the junior boys bronze medallist Muktar Edris beat senior men’s silver medallist Imane Merga at the Media Blenios 10k Road Race in Dongio, Switzerland. And it wasn’t even close. Merga lost by 13 seconds.

More: Ethiopia’s World Junior XC Bronze Medalist Muktar Edris Beats Imane Merga At Media Blenio 10k Road Race In Dongio, Switzerland

This week we analyze Shalane Flanagan’s Boston chances, compare Kara Goucher to everyone’s favorite Cinderella FGCU, try to make sure Alisha Williams isn’t overshadowed yet again, give praise to Alexi Pappas and Kemoy Campbell, and get fatherhood advice from Nick Willis. Along the way, we give you confirmation that the World XC course was short. Plus Japhet Korir’s mom, Treniere Moser and a new way to cheat in the shot put. We conclude by telling you how LetsRun.com is being used to educate journalists in Africa/the Middle East – no joke!!!

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Shalane Runs 31:04

There biggest US result of last week was Shalane Flanagan‘s 31:04 10,000 at Stanford, where her training partner Kara Goucher also ran 31:46.

What do we make of it?

Can Shalane Flanagn finish on the podium at a major again? *2010 New York City Marathon Photos

Well, while McMillan’s conversion calculator says a 31:04 is only equal to 2:25-high for the marathon and 69:16 for the half marathon (and Flanagan ran 68:31 in February in New Orleans), we think it’s a good sign. Despite the conversion charts, we think she’s likely fit enough to at least still dream of winning Boston in a few weeks.

How can that be?

1) She may have only run basically 31-flat for 10,000, but if she’s training properly for the marathon, she’s in better shape than that time indicates.

We remember a conversation we had with LetsRun.com coaching guru John Kellogg way back in 2000 about what someone needs to run for 10,000 to be able to win the Olympic men’s marathon title. JK’s response was, “They need to be ABLE to run 27:30, but they actually only need to run 28:30.” Of course, recent elite marathoners have been much faster on the track than those in 2000, but Sydney gold medalist Gezahegne Abera actually only has a recorded lifetime 5,000 best of 14:03 (no 10,000 mark available) and silver medalist Erick Wainaina has PRs of 14:04 and 28:40, underscoring the fact that you don’t always have to have excellent recent performances at 10,000 to run a great marathon.

The point? When training for the marathon, you aren’t necessarily 100% sharp at 10,000; in fact, it might be better if you aren’t.

So Flanagan ran basically 31-flat. But it was her first race in a long while and she had no competition/rabbits. With a rust buster under her belt and some specific 10,000 training and in stacked field with rabbits, is it impossible to think she could maybe run close to 30:30 in a PERFECT, knock it out of the park race?

We don’t think it is.

Well, when Shalane Flanagan ran 30:22 in Beijing, she won a bronze medal at the Olympics. And that type of fitness would give her a chance in Boston considering London has the biggest names and only three women in Boston have run faster than 2:22 for their careers (2013 Boston marathon field here).

2) We’re not sure how good conversion charts are for women.

Women do better on the charts the longer the distance gets. According to McMillan, a 30:00 flat 10,000 equals 2:20:45 for the marathon. Well, guess what, only five women in history have ever run faster than 30:00 for 10,000 but 23 have run faster than 2:20:45 in the marathon. Yes, we know with Wang Junxia‘s world record being so far out there at 29:31.78, there is little financial incentive for a woman to run 29:50 for 10,000, but you get our point.

As for Goucher, it also was encouraging as she continues to move in the right direction after coming back from injury, and the result was a marked improvement on the 71:49 she ran for 13.1 in New Orleans just over a month ago. Goucher herself seemingly recognizes that her contending for the win in Boston this year would be like FGCU – a #15 seed – contending for the win  in the NCAA basketball tournament, but hey, FGCU at least gave fans a few minutes of excitement, didn’t they?

More: *2013 Stanford Recap

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Most Improved US Woman??? Alisha Williams Overshadowed Yet Again???

Last year, American Kim Conley turned heads by improving more than a minute and making the US Olympic team at 5,000. Conley’s stunning year and Olympic berth overshadowed the drastic improvement of fellow American Alisha Williams.

Last year, under the guidance of Scott Simmons, Williams went from 33:17 to 32:03 in the 10,000, where she finished 5th at the Olympic Trials (post-race video interview with Williams here) and from 15:45 to 15:24 in the 5000 – all at the age of 30 while working a full-time CPA job. Very impressive.

This year, the improvement for Williams is continuing again.

A happy Chelsea Reilly after winning the 2013 USA Indoor Track and Field Championship 3000. *Race coverage here

Williams was very impressive at Stanford.  She knocked another 15+ seconds off her PR  and won by 2+ seconds over 2012 NCAA Cross-Country champion Betsy Saina in a World Championships A qualifier of 15:09.73.

However, despite her continued impressive improvement, Williams may lose out on the unofficial “Most Improved” American award yet again. The third placer at Stanford was former Cal-Berkeley runner Chelsea Reilly.

This winter, Reilly was the surprise of the indoor season for US pros as she captured the USA indoor 3,000 crown in her first year as a pro even though she never scored at NCAAs as an amateur.

At Stanford, Reilly started her outdoor season right where she ended her indoor season – on fire. Coming into Stanford, Reilly’s PR was 15:57.53 from last year. Now it’s 15:13.24 – more than 44 seconds better.

Congrats to both women for their improvement and their “A” qualifiers.

If you are a fan of Williams, we did an interview of her prior to the non-existant 2013 ING New York City marathon, which Williams thought she was going to run. We never published it on LetsRun, so we decided to embed it below for your enjoyment.

More: *Alisha Williams 15:09 5,000 At Stanford Invite

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Other Stanford News – Alexi Pappas 9:46 / Kemoy Campbell 13:32

In terms of the rest of the Stanford action that is worth mentioning, former Dartmouth/Oregon runner Alexi Pappas ran a 9+ second PR of 9:46.73 to become the very early 2013 world leader. In the process, she defeated 2013’s previous world leader Rachel Sorna of Cornell and picked up a “B” qualifier for the Moscow World Champs (9:43.00 is “A” and 9:48.00 is “B”).

Not a whole lot of note happened on the men’s side. The biggest results came in the 5,000, where NCAA 3,000 runner-up Kemoy Campbell of Jamaica and Arkansas got the win in 13:32.82.

That time is a new national record for Jamaica, as it broke the 13:33.10 set by Mark Elliott way back in August of 1989. Campbell, who ran a Jamaican junior record of 3:42.80 way back in 2008 as an 18-year-old, is starting to have a Steve Prefontaine type ephiphany – he may love the 1,500 but he’s probably better suited at the longer events.

As Campbell told Runnersworld: “I like the 1,500, but my coach says I’m better at the longer distances, and I’m kind of starting to believe that. Over time, I think I’ll be changing to the 3,000m and up.”

Campbell’s love for the metric mile isn’t completely over. He’s hoping to go run 3:37.00 (IAAF “B”) and see if he can’t go to Worlds in the 1,500.

More: *2013 Stanford Recap *5 Minutes With Kemoy Campbell *Campbell Clocks Fast Time Over 5,000 *Record-Breaking Campbell Targets World Champs

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Stat Of The Week

#8 – Spot held on Arkansas Top 10 list for 5,000 occupied by Kemoy Campbell, who is now the Jamaican national record holder at 13:32.82. Normally 13:32 puts you at least near a school record for 5,000 – not at Arkansas.

Arkansas’ top 10 runners at 5,000:

The Arkansas 5000 all-time list is a hard one to crack. Former AR in steeple Dan Lincoln is only #9.
*More 2004 USA indoor photos

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A New Way To Cheat In Track & Field

Here is a excerpt of a recap of the final day of the New Zealand track nationals from the New Zealand Herald:

An embarrassing oversight by officials on the final day of the track and field nationals in Auckland led to the men’s shot put event having to be replayed.

Canterbury’s Tom Walsh won the event with a throw of 19.80m – just 3cm short of his personal best – before officials discovered an underweight shot had slipped into the throwing implements.

As there was no way of knowing which of the competitors had thrown with the lighter shot, event management were forced to replay the event – much to the athletes’ frustration.

Who needs steroids or HGH when you can just throw a lighter shot?

As for us, our takeaway isn’t the same as the writer of the piece, Dana Johannsen. We don’t feel it’s an embarrassing oversight by officials. Rather, we feel it’s an embarrassment for the human race that someone would want to win a national title by throwing a lighter shot.

Is it just us or does everyone feel the older you get, the more corrupt the world seems? We’ve just been beaten down by year after year of cheating stories – A-Rod, Lance, Regina, etc.

More: Athletics: Red faces as shot replayed

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Quote Of The Week I (that wasn’t quote of the day):

“I was very blessed to have a Dad who always loved his wife, and supported his kids whatever they chose to do. He sacrificed so much of his time and career to raise us, and most importantly gave us a foundation of faith from which I was able to develop my own. If I can be even half the Dad my father was that would be great.”

– 2008 Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis, who will be a father for the first time soon, responding to a question in the NZ Herald, “So you’re about to be a Dad – what kind would you like to be?”

Nick’s father did a great job as the family lost Nick’s mom to cancer when he was just four.

LRC friendly reminder – Father’s Day is June 6th this year in the US (Nick, looks like you’ve got plenty of time as Wikipedia says “in New Zealand, Father’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September and is not a public holiday.”).

More: Twelve Questions: Nick Willis

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Quote Of The Week II (that wasn’t quote of the day):

“I went into a frenzy as my son defeated the Ethiopian. I almost broke the television screen trying to convince him to keep the pace high as I prayed, let God give my son a chance to beat the tough Ethiopians this time.”

“And since Japhet is a child of God, he won the race. He has made us proud and I will reward him with a bull.”

– Zeddy Lang’at, the mother of 2013 World Cross-Country champion Japhet Korir, describing her reaction to her son’s win to The Standard.

LetsRun.com friendly reminder to Japhet: Now that your mom has given you a bull, you’d really better not forget Mother’s Day this year.

Mother’s Day in the US is May 12, but don’t panic, it looks like it’s later in Kenya – June 30th.

More: World Cross team arrive home to a rousing welcome

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Quote Of The Week III (that wasn’t quote of the day):

“I’m putting together some pretty awesome workouts right now. I’m being optimistic again. Before Alberto, I was ready to retire. It’s nice having pretty much the best coach in the world telling you, ‘I think I can help you.’”

– Multi-time USA 1,500 champ Treniere Moser, who has mentally been rejuvenated at age 31 after being picked up by Alberto Salazar, talking to Runner’s World. We’ll see if her results are rejuvenated as Moser, who ran 4:03 in 2006, hasn’t broken 4:07 since 2007.

She has upped her mileage from 65 to 70 mpw to 80 mpw, so there is reason to think things could be better.

More: Treniere Moser Teams Up With Alberto Salazar

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Quote Of The Week IV (that wasn’t quote of the day):

“The great thing about this sport is what you put in you’re going to get out. It’s just the nature of the sport.”

– High school coach Gary Moore of Hillhouse (Ct.), who coaches 52.67 400 runner Precious Holmes, talking in a Journalregister.com article.

More: Hillhouse’s Precious Holmes, Staples’ Henry Wynne a record-breaking duo

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LetsRun.com: Educating Journalists Around The Globe

Video Of The Week / The Most Awesome Thing Ever / This Week’s Sign Of The Apocalypse (Depending On Your Viewpoint)

Over the years, some of you have wondered if we here at LetsRun.com are journalists. Since our founding, we’ve been called a tabloid, the gutter press, and crappy bloggers, but despite that, we’ve managed to pick up an award for journalism.  To be fair, winning a track and field journalism award these days shouldn’t be too hard as not that many entities exist to cover the sport.

Whatever we’re called, we take our responsibility to cover the sport seriously, and most importantly we’re credentialed at the Olympics as journalists.

While in Poland for the 2013 World Cross-Country Championships, LetsRun.com was told that we are being used to educate the press in the Middle East /Africa about how to properly cover track and field.

Apparently, the IAAF conducts media education seminars across the globe to try to expand the coverage of track and field. One of the sessions at these seminars is how to do video analysis of a race. The example they have been giving to journalists in Africa / the Middle East?

LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson explaining from his home that while Usain Bolt false-started at the 2011 Worlds, it was only done so after Yohan Blake twitched first. So when you start seeing dark video analysis from people’s homes in Africa, blame  Rojo.

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What About The Sport?

We are always looking for innovative ideas to make track and field more popular. Here’s one from a 2012 Olympic long jump bronze medalist.

“I’m not proposing this approach to every long jump meeting but how about having some competitions based on cumulative scores across all three or six jumps in the competition?”

–  2012 long jump bronze medalist Janay DeLoach.

We like the idea. We’ve always thought it would be neat to have an 800 or 1,500 where the competitors are brought out one after another and they just run time trials against the clock. Do you have any innovative ideas? Email us.

More: Olympic long jumper DeLoach wants to see some perspective

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2013 Allstate Sugar Bowl Crescent City Classic *Top 500 Results

We don’t really have a lot of time left to talk much about the race but wanted to mention that the road race debut of 12:48 man Isaiah Koech went very well in New Orleans over the weekend. How that guy was only 11th at the Kenyan XC Trials is beyond us.

More: In Road Race Debut, 12:48 Man Isaiah Koech Wins In 27:32 – Sets Unofficial 8k WR In Process At 21:54
*For 2nd Week In A Row, Ethiopia’s Hiwot Ayalew Blows Early Lead And Finishes 2nd – Last Week At World XC – This Week At Crescent City The race was won by Kenya’s Alice Kimutai in 31:50 to Ayalew’s 32:05.
*Kevin Castille Just Misses American Masters Record In 10k – Runs 29:39 At 2013 Crescent City Classic

Other News Of Note:
Usain Bolt’s In Shape: Runs 14.42 For 150 Meters On Beach In Brazil – Just Off The 14.35 WR He Ran In May Of 2009 *Race Video Of Bolt *Pics Of Bolt
Texas Relays: MB: 35-Year-Old Doc Patton Runs 9.75 With 4.3 Wind

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Recommended Reads

Columnist: Nothing Can Erase What Paula Radcliffe Has Achieved But Her Race Is Run

“That Pre Thing”: Steve Prefontaine Was Far From The Fastest Or Most Decorated American Distance Runner Ever, So Why More Than 30 Years After His Death Does He Still Matter?

Twelve Questions: Nick Willis

LRC Meet Eritrea’s Teklemariam Medhin – LetsRun.com’s Athlete Of The Week T

Ryan Hall Shares His Tips For High School Runners; Attributes To Success To Smart Coaching And Slow/Steady Progression In Mileage “When it comes time to decide how many miles in a week you should run, the most important thing to remember is that is better to be 20 miles a week undertrained then 1 mile per week overtrained.”

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Quotes Of The Day & Last Week’s Homepages:

Note: To see a particular day’s homepage, click on the hyperlink of the date. The hyperlink below the date on the quotes will take you to that particular article – not that day’s homepage.

(April Fools Homepage Here)

Monday 4/1:

“Our legal team has been telling us for years that not allowing EPO was discriminatory. Up until now only the rich have been able to do high/low training. Rich people can afford to use altitude tents or live in Flagstaff and drive to Phoenix to train – that’s not possible for the poor. So by allowing it, we are just leveling the playing field between the third world and developed world.”

– Unidentified IAAF spokesman explaining to LetsRun.com on condition that he remain anonymous as to why the IAAF will be legalizing EPO later this week after the April 1st Holiday concludes.

Sunday 3/31:

“I definitely cannot run now. It is giving me some problems and it would not be fair to me to go out there and push it. I really wanted to give the crowd a good performance today I tried my best that I could do hopefully they are happy.”

– Jamaica’s Asafa Powell after experiencing hamstring tightness and almost pulling out of the 2013 Stawell Gift, where he ended up running the 1st round (12.24 for 120m) before seemingly pulling out of Sunday’s semifinals. All of this just a day after he said his best days were ahead of him.

Saturday 3/30:

“To me, Usain is Usain. He’s doing wonderful. He deserves all of the attention he gets. For a man that’s running so fast, he deserves it. I never feel I’m living in anybody’s shadow. I never feel that, ‘Oh, I deserve this amount of attention.’ No I’m fine.”

– Jamaica’s “other” 100m Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce talking about how she doesn’t feel overshadowed by Usain Bolt.

Friday 3/29:

“It was horrible to see that athlete do a lap of honour and prance around with her country’s flag. It made me feel sick.  … Athletes work so hard and you give up your whole life to compete at an Olympic Games. You deserve the right to be able to stand on that start line and know you are going to get a fair race.”

– GB’s former World Championships 1,500 silver medallist Lisa Dobriskey talking about watching Turkish doper Asli Cakir Alptekin celebrating her 1,500 win at the London Games last summer. At the 2008 Games, Dobriskey was 4th, losing out on a medal to Nataliya Tobias, who later got a 2-year doping ban. On that she said, “For me in Beijing it was soul-destroying. Then later you find out the athlete who came third has tested positive, but her ban wasn’t backdated to Beijing. It’s disheartening, really.”

Thursday 3/28:

“Can you imagine the articles that would be written, if, say a Westerner like Galen Rupp or Mo Farah got malaria a month before the race, overcame that and then had to sleep on the floor of an airport for two days just before the race and then went out and won a medal? We’d rightly never hear the end of it. Yet when someone from Africa does it, they often get zero publicity and that’s not right.”

– Excerpt from a LetsRun.com article where we tell you about the incredible performance of Eritrea’s Teklemariam Medhin over the weekend. He and not American Ben True or race winner Japhet Korir is LetsRun.com’s Athlete Of The Week.

Wednesday 3/27:

“After the Games this year, everyone wanted to know how I felt. I kept saying how ecstatic I was to PR in the final. I mean, I never thought I’d run 1:42. But the truth is, the whole thing was eating me up. This is the thing about running. On the one hand, you want to sit back with your feet up and say, ‘I’ve done it. I’ve made two Olympic teams. I was part of one of the greatest races in history.’ But what you have to understand is that elite athletes are some of the most discontented people you’ll ever meet.”

“I really, really felt like I should have won a medal with that performance. I went to my sports psychologist and laid this on him, and he said, ‘If you’d taken bronze, how would you feel?’ And I said, ‘Oh man, I’d be so happy that I got bronze.’ And he goes, ‘But would you be frustrated that you didn’t get silver?’ And I’m like, ‘Of course!’ And he goes, ‘Well, what if you got silver?’ And I said, ‘Well, I would have been pissed off that I came that close to gold.’ And he goes, ‘And if you’d won gold?’ That’s when I realized that even with a gold medal, I would have always worried that in a different year I would have lost to someone better. It’s just the way that elite athletes—in track and field especially—are wired. To always be a little insecure about what you’ve accomplished. In the big scheme of things, I’m the sixth-fastest man in the world at the 800, and I just feel embarrassed about it.”

– Nick Symmonds, talking about his performance at the London Olympic Games where he finished 5th with a PR of 1:42.95, but still walked away not completely satisfied. This comes from a great piece on Steve Prefontaine and why he “still matters”. When asked why Pre draws so many people in, Symmonds said, “He was just a guy who wasn’t afraid to live his life … What kid doesn’t want to sleep with beautiful women and drink beer?”

Tuesday 3/26: 

“It is the most amazing feeling of invincibility, to be able to put on your shoes and head out for a hard run in the hills, and to not feel tired at all makes you feel like you have conquered the land and your body. Anything feels possible after those rare experiences. The rest of the time it is a grind and struggle to survive the hard grind of daily training!”

– New Zealand 2008 Olympic 1,500 silver medallist, Nick Willis, when asked to put into words what “running, at its peak, feels like.”