Hellen Obiri has never run a marathon. Gotytom Gebreslase is the World Champ. Who has the edge? Plus who will be the top American?
Archived Homepage For November 05, 2022
Archived Homepage For November 05, 2022
Rupp said his last few weeks of training have gone well but admitted his buildup had not been ideal. "It was a quick turnaround and I had to really focus on my health." But his goal is always the same, "I would rather win in 2:20 than run 2:07 and get, you know, 10th place."
Hellen Obiri is feeling Good, Keira D’Amato is ready for Marathon #4 this year, plus the World Champion who wants to know nothing about the course.
2022 has been a rough year for Rupp; can he rebound in NYC? Plus will Kenyan men complete their WMM sweep?
Supporters Club podcast. The LetsRun.com crew breaks down the action from New York and discusses Athing Mu and Sydney McLaughlin likely linking up for training and Alexa Efraimson retiring.
Non-LRC NYC Coverage
- Non-binary category at NYC marathon will have roughly 60 runners in 2023 And yet they will receive $15,000 in prize money or $250 per entrant. There should be $0 in prize money.
- 'Only God knows when we can meet,' says world champ and NYC favorite Gotytom Gebreslase, who has been cut off from her parents amid war in Ethiopia
- Q&A with Emma Bates who is happy it's going to be warm in NYC: "We like to think that I’m in sub-2:20 shape right now"
- Outside Online: 10 Reasons to Be Excited About the 2022 New York City Marathon
On The Boards
On The Boards
LRC Exclusives
Engels says he enjoyed his time with UAC but needed to train in a place where he either had consistent training partners or a coach with him every day.
Week That Was
You consider yourself to be a hard-core running fan but do you even know who Seira Fuwa is? You should. Plus will the NYRR's virtue signaling backfire?
- Inaugural World Mountain and Trail Running Champs are this wekeend For the first time ever, all the world's best off-road athletes will come together for a single, spectacular global event when the Thai city of Chiang Mai hosts the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships this week. You can catch all the action live on youtube.
- French police start operations to achieve "zero crime" at Paris 2024
- Kenya's top athletes losing millions to shylocks, shady deals
Big Mid-D News Regarding Two of America's Biggest Former Teen Phenoms
Let's hope this mean's the 400/800 double is in her near future and let's hope Mu and her fans give some praise to Milton Mallard for guiding her to an Olympic and world title.
- MB: US HS 1500 record holder Alexa Efraimson (4:03.39 pb) retires at 25 Efraimson has called it a career after last breaking 4:10 in 2019.
Other News - RIP To A Kenyan Trailblazer
Who will be the first American in New York?
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This Week's Pod
Listen in player above or on your favorite podcast app here.
Parker Valby Hype Train
Parker Valby Hype Train
Who Wins NCAA XC?
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Kenyan News
- RIP: Kenya's First Olympic Medalist Wilson Kiprugut Passes Away At 84 Kiprugut ran 1:45.9 to win 800m bronze at the 1964 Tokyo Games. He then went on to win silver at the 1970 Mexico City Games. *World Athletics article
- List Of The 10 Richest Kenyan Athletes Not surprisingly, Eliud Kipchoge tops their list, but one non-distance man made it into the their top-10 as Julius Yego sits #4.
- Hellen Obiri Talks About Making Her Marathon Debut In NYC “I know New York is a tough course, but I hope my experience on track, road, and cross-country will help me navigate the ups and downs. I also plan to get advice and tips from my coach (Dathan Ritzenhein), who competed in the race several times in the past.”
Other News Of Note
- These Are The Most Drug-Tested American Runners In 2022 800m runner Olivia Baker tops the list at 17 times followed by Shelby Houlihan with 16 times and Shadrack Kipchirchir and Nell Rojas with 15 times.
- Former Olympic Pole Vault Champ Sergey Bubka Won't Seek Another Term As Ukraine National Olympic Committee President
- GB Sprinter Adam Gemili Dropped From To Level UK Athletics Funding Gemili struggled in 2022, not making the final at Worlds or Commonwealth Games. European 400m champ Matthew Hudson-Smith and 100m runner Daryll Neita have been promoted to the top level funding.
World Athletics News
- The Bahamas Wants The World Relay Champs To Return There For 2024 World Athletics should give it to them. Stop giving events to countries that cancel them.
- World Athletics Announces Nominees For 2022 Men's Rising Star Award List includes US's Erriyon Knighton.
- World Athletics Announces Nominees For 2022 Women's Rising Star Award No Americans made the list, but there are two Kenyan distance runners in Jackline Chepkoech (CWG steeple champ) and Faith Cherotich (world U20 steeple champ)
- World Athletics Indoor Tour Will Add 21 More Meets In 2023 That makes 54 meets total on next year's calendar.
Agnes Tirop Updates
- Prosecution Opposes Plea Bargain Bid In Agnes Tirop Murder Case Through his lawyer, Ibrahim Rotich applied to be allowed to plead guilty for a lesser charge as part of "the healing process."
- The Telegraph: Mary Ngugi Is On A Mission To End Abuse In Kenyan Athletics She is establishing a women's only running club in Kenya.
NCAA News
- Stanford Stay #1 In Latest NCAA Coaches' Poll As No Changes To There Are No Changes To The Top-5 After Conference Weekend BYU, NAU and OSU are ranked 2-4. *Regional Rankings
- NC State Women Still Ranked #1 After Conference Champs Weekend #2 through #4 also remained the same with New Mexico, OSU and NAU. *Regional Rankings
- Twin Pole Vaulters Hana And Amanda Moll Commit To Washington Amanda is the high school indoor and outdoor record holder while Hana won World U20 Champs.
Time To Find A New Host?
- 2023 World Relays "Postponed" Until 2025 Due To China's Strict COVID-19 Rules China will host now in 2025 instead, but they haven't yet chosen the host for 2024. The World Relays were supposed to act as qualification for 2023 Worlds, but now the top-8 teams from Eugene 2022 are automatically qualified, plus the top-8 teams on the performance lists. *World Athletics release
Road Results
- Brimin Kipkorir Misoi (2:06:11) And Selly Chepyego Kaptich (2:23:11) Take Crowns At The Frankfurt Marathon
- Morocco's Taoufik Allam (2:11:30) And Ethiopia's Nigist Muluneh (2:28:32) Win Dublin Marathon Martin Hoare (2:20.22, 7th place) and Courtney McGuire (2:32.52, 3rd place) won the Irish national titles. *Results
- Kyle B King (2:19:19) And Chelsea Baker (2:42:37) Win Marine Corps Marathon (link updated) *Results
- Meijo Wins Record-Breaking 6th-Straight National University Women's Ekiden Title Collegiate 10,000m NR holder Seira Fuwa continued her return from injury by winning her stage.
Cool XC News
How does a pro team cross country race that is World Athletics Gold Label with thousands of running insiders in town ready to watch sound? HOKA NAZ Elite, Hansons-Brooks, the Brooks Beasts, Puma Elite, Empire Elite, US Army, Taylor Made, On Athletics Club, McKirdy Trained, and Railroad Athletics confirmed.
NCAA Conference Champs
NCAA Conference Champs
One of the best days in US running is the last Friday in October as it’s NCAA conference championship day. We break down all of the exciting action for you here.
- Nico Young, Elise Stearns Lead Another NAU Sweep At Big Sky Young dominated in 22:31.5 as the NAU men put 7 in the top 10.
- Casey Clinger And Aubrey Frentheway Lead BYU Men And Women To West Coast Conference Sweep The men put 6 in the top 7 places.
- Charles Hicks Leads Stanford To Dominant Men's Win At PAC 12 Champs It came down to a tie breaker on the women's side with Colorado getting the win over Utah and Colorado's Bailey Hentenstein taking the individual crown.
- GoStanford.com: Charles Hicks Leads Card To Title
- Princeton Men Defend Heps XC Crown They only beat out Harvard by 3 points who went 1-2 individually lead by Acer Iverson. *Results
- Harvard Women Beat Out Princeton By 9 Points To Take Heps XC Win Harvard's Maia Ramsden won individually. *Results
- Alabama Men And Women Sweep SEC Conference Titles The men's team competition was super close as only 4 points separated the top 4 teams. This was the Alabama men's first win in 13 years and the women's first win since 1987. Florida's Parker Valby won the women's race in 18:25 over Mercy Chelangat (18:33). Alabama's Victor Kiprop won the men's race (22:38).
- NC State Women Win 7th Straight ACC Title In Close Battle With Notre Dame They beat out Notre Dame by 4 points as Katelyn Tuohy won individually in 19:08.
- Wake Forest Men Win Their First ACC XC Title Since 1994 They put 4 in the top 8 to win handily over Syracuse. Notre Dame's Carter Solomon won the individual race.
- Wisconsin Men Win 5th Straight Big Ten XC Title
- Michigan State Women Win Their Third Big Ten XC Title In Four Years
- OSU Men And Women Sweep Big 12 XC Titles For Second Year In A Row
- Amelia Mazza-Downie's Individual Win Leads The New Mexico Women To Their 15th Consecutive Mountain West Title New Mexico dominated with 5 in the top 10 while Air Force lead by Sean Maison put 5 in the top 8 to win the men's title.
- Cal Poly Men And Women Sweep Big West Champs
- NCAA.com's 8 conference takeaways
- USTFCCCA’s conference Musings
Conference Champs MB Talk
- Nico Young Dominant
- Jump on the bandwagon now. Parker Valby is officially a SENSATION!!! Should we hand her the NCAA 5000 and 10,000 records now?
- Parker Valby will beat Katelyn Tuohy by 30 seconds at Nationals
- NC State and Tuohy will not win Nationals (OK State and Valby will)
- Brosnan killing it at UCLA!
- What is the Pac-12 Tiebreaker?
- NESCAC 2022 XC Thread
- NC State wins thrilling battle with Notre Dame
- Ivy Cross Country Heps 2022
- Let's bow down to John Hayes and the Wake Forest men who DOMINATED ACCs today. 44 points.
- ACC Mens Cross: ND and WF are overrated. Why VT is the real squad to look out for
- It's 2022 NCAA XC conference weekend -what are you most looking forward to?
Looking Ahead To NYC Next Weekend
- Hellen Obiri Running To Win NYC In Her Marathon Debut Obiri is now part of the On Athletics Club training in Boulder and being coached by Dathan Ritzenhein. Ritz is very high on her training saying, “[Obiri] could honestly train with the men’s team for much of the long training. She’s doing things which are really incredible, and it’s inspiring for them and me to see.”
- MB: Sara Hall is officially OUT of this year's NYC marathon She's been struggling with an IT band injury for the last two months.
- Drew Hunter And Weini Kelati Aim To Defend Titles At USATF 5k Champs On November 5 Hunter is up against Hillary Bor, Mason Ferlic and Abdihamid Nur while Kelati faces Jenny Simpson, Emily Infeld, Emily Lipari and Natosha Rogers.
Sunday Road Action
- After Picking Up Running Later In Life, 37-Year-Old David Mansfield Feels A Bit Of "Imposter Syndrome" Racing For An Irish National Title At The Dublin Marathon He only started running 10-years-ago, but broke three hours in his marathon debut and ran a 2:16:08 PB earlier this year.
- Eight Sub-2:10 Men And Eight Sub-2:25 Women Set For Frankfurt Marathon Gebru Redahgne (2:05:58) and Selly Kaptich (2:21:09) are the fastest in the fields.
- Japan National University Women's Ekiden Preview
Big US Mid-D News
Clip above is the LetsRun.com team discussing the news on Tuesday's Supporters Club podcast. Yesterday, Engels went to Instagram to explain the move and express his thanks to Coach Julian. "My goal is to be the best American miler and to enjoy the all the adventures along the way and I think a change for me was necessary for this to be possible."
Links We Found Interesting
- NY Times: Nnenna Lynch seems like a perfect candidate to lead the NYRR — except for a failed drug test and the NYRR has a zero-tolerance policy. Lynch who is supposed to be the next head of the NYRR board served a 3-month ban for pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in decongestants and which she said was proscribed by a doctor for asthma.
*MB: Fair or foul: NY Times: "New York Road Runners Chose Her as Its Next Chairman. In 1996, She Failed a Doping Test." - 'Wonder Twin powers, activate!' Joe and Ahsley Kovacs are the proud parents of twins - LetsRun.com
- Who should be World Athletics Women's Athlete of the Year? So many women were special including Faith Kipyegon, Tobi Amusan and SAFP. All we know is Sydney McLaughlin shouldn't get it as she didn't compete enough. Think about it, a baseball player who plays 110 games is never MVP.
- TFN's 2022 Girls High School All-America Team
- Mexico launches official bid for 2036 Olympics
Marathon News
- Recommended Read Get to know one of the greatest marathon talents the world has ever known - Yalemzerf Yehualaw Her coach reveals that he's purposely keeping the 23-year-old's mileage low (180 km a week) and training her like a half marathoner so she can have a long career. She cites Haile G - whose pool she often swims in - and Eliud Kipchoge as inspirations.
- Frankfurt Marathon is this weekend - Two 2:05 guys/2:21 women will battle
- Nairobi Marathon is this weekend - former London & NY champ Priscah Jeptoo headlines at age 38 Two million KSH go to the winner which is nearly $17,000.
How Would You Attack The Doping Problem?
Instead of just complaining about anti-doping it's time to try and do something about. Submit your best anti-doping proposals.
Sprint Stuff
- Kenny Bednarek Q&A Talking About His Start In Running Through Olympics And Worlds Bednarek says his mom first put him in cross country because he had ADHD and needed a way to get rid of his excess energy. He also shares a story of a dental emergency he had two days before winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Says "At This Stage Of [Her] Career" She Is "Chasing Fast Times" She already has a bunch of global titles, but wants to know she went as fast as possible before hanging 'em up.
- GB Sprinter Rio Mitcham Is Also A Rapper Who Made It Through The First Round Of "The Voice" Mitcham made a rap video about Euro Champs where he was part of the GB 4x400 that won gold.
- Q&A With Multi-Time Olympic Champ Elaine Thompson-Herah Thompson-Herah says she wasn't good at all in high school and was only a "reserve" for her high school team at Jamaica's "Champs."
Road News
- UK Road Round-Up: Jessica Warner-Judd Wins Leeds Abbey Dash 10k In 32:29 In the men's race there was a M45 age-group record as Alastair Watson ran 29:41 for 9th place.
- We've Been There: London Marathon Race Website Crashes Due To Too Much Traffic Tons of runners tried to access the website at the same time to see if they got into the 2023 race.
- Athletics Weekly Q&A With Former International New Zealand Runner Roger Robinson Who Is Still Going Strong At 83-Years-Old Robinson, who is married to Kathrine Switzer (the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon), set a masters record when he ran 2:20:15 at the 1984 Boston Marathon and recently ran 1:28:57 at age-83 to win his age group at the Great South Run 10 Mile.
- MB: Was the Linz Marathon course short? Ethiopia's Fikre Bekele won the race in 2:06:16, but was it a full marathon?
Negative Running News
- Sad News: Ohio High School XC Runner Dies From Tragic Tree Accident After Race Our condolences to his family and team.
- Statement From Team Of Japan Runner Who Fractured Her Femur During Ekiden Race The statement read, "This incident came out of nowhere, but it shows that the team management's monitoring of the fine details of her condition was inadequate. We apologize for having worried race officials and fans."
*MB: This is the most horrific running injury I've ever seen. Japanese runner breaks thigh mid-race (graphic video)
Euro Athletes Of The Year
- Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Mondo Duplantis And Femke Bol Crowned 2022 European Athletes Of The Year European Athletics apparently couldn't choose between Ingebrigtsen and Duplantis so gave them both the award. *WA article
- European Athletics Gives Brief Season Highlights And Quotes For Their Athletes Of The Year Ingebrigtsen says he and his fiancée Elisabeth are getting married after the Diamond League final next year. He also talks about his friendship with Mondo Duplantis.
- Lithuania's Mykolas Alekna (Discus) And Greece's Greece's Elina Tzengko (Javelin) Were Named European Rising Stars Of The Year They both won European gold this summer as 19-year-olds.
Our Weekly Recap
Valencia was fantastic as usual and should we be worried about four Kipchoge pacers being popped, including one from his own training camp?
Get Your Votes In
National and conference voting for the 2022 conference action now open.
Has Kenya found a new super drug? What is going on?
And have the Kenyans found a new super drug? Kipyokei is one of 10 athletes in the last two years to test positive for the same substance, triamcinolone acetonide, a drug once used by Lance Armstrong and Brad Wiggins. Why are they suddenly all testing positive for it now?
- MB: Has Kenya found a super drug? 2021 Boston champ is one of 10 Kenyans to test positive for triamcinolone acetonide since 2021
- 23 Kenyans Have Been Banned For Doping In 2022 2:23:40 marathoner Betty Wilson Lempus (won the Paris Half in 65:46 last year) was also banned and both she and Kipyokei were charged with obstructing the AIU’s investigation by providing false information or documentation.
Disturbing Stuff
Allegations regarding the Huntington University track and field team where Nick Johnson used to coach and his wife Lauren Johnson now coaches continue to come out thanks to the great reporting by David Woods and continue to get more grim. Two national champions for Huntington claim their coach gave them unknown injections and have asked that their national titles be invalidated. One claims she was raped by Nick. Police reports show Nick, who had already pled guilty to a felony after admitting to impersonating a University of Oregon staffer so he could take a teen recruit on a trip where the teen told police many sexual acts took place, has admitted to having sex with two other athletes and his wife admitted she didn’t tell anyone at Huntington as she didn’t want them to lose their jobs. She’s now the head coach. If that’s not bad enough, there are now allegations of PED usage. Did PEDs cause the Johnsons to leave the Oregon Track Club?
- David Woods' Indy Star Expose: Christian college coach created a culture of doping and sex, star runners allege.
- Gregg Doyel Indy Star: Coach goes to prison, so Huntington hired his wife
- Huntington University places head cross country coach and assistant on leave
- MB: Coach-athlete sex, rape and PEDs at Huntington University? Nick Johnson scandal gets grimmer thanks to David Woods
Guest Post
Long before Eliud Kipchoge was running 2:01:09 in the marathon he was running 10 minute miles with a former Boston Marathon champion.
The series used the elites to build themselves up as the majors in our sport but now is forsaking the pros once the image is established. In the process, they just screwed Eliud Kipchoge out of $200,000 after the fact as the cut is effective immediately. Wow.
Kipchoge loving the LetsRun Shirt in Berlin
NCAA XC Predictions
20-year-olds rarely win NCAA XC, but Jonathan Gault says Young and Tuohy will changing that in 2022.
NCAA XC Previews
NCAA XC Previews
NAU is loaded once again. But so is Stanford, and OSU should be dangerous on its home course. Who will win it all in '22?
NC State loses two of its top five but could still be better than they were in 2021.
50 Years after 1972 Olympic Marathon Gold
Frank Shorter joined us for a fascinating talk about his 1972 Olympic gold, his training, the massacre at the 1972 Olympics, Steve Prefontaine's snow skiing abilities and a lot more.
Guest Post
Shorter was asleep on the balcony of his Olympic Village apartment when he heard the first gunshots. Why was sleeping out there? Ask Dave Wottle.
2024 Will Be Here Before You Know It
The Trials were supposed to be awarded by July 14. USATF's Adam Schmenk told us why that decision has been delayed.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen listens to the Letsrun podcast. Why don't you?
History was made 20 years ago
And he ran his marathon PB to boot.
Ross Tucker Speaks
We paid one of the top sports scientists in the world to analyze the Shelby Houlihan doping case and CAS ruling. He has 2 pieces for us, the piece above is an opinion piece where he answers our questions. In a 2nd more technical piece, Ross goes through the CAS decision step by step and outlines in clear terms exactly what Houlihan argued and why he thinks CAS ultimately (correctly) ruled against her.
The new and improved LetsRun.com forum is here. Read about the new features. Or just check them out yourself.
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
