Category Archives: Morning Run

The Morning Run: January 31st

Posted on January 31, 2013 by | Comments Off

Because before the Super Bowl, you and your friends can gather on the couch for some tape delayed indoor track….

-Jason and I recorded a rather lengthy podcast this week.  Listen here. 

-Doctors say a supplement was to blame for Claire Squires’s death during the London Marathon last year.   Squires allegedly put a scoop of Jack3d in her water bottle before the race. Jack3d is the same supplement that got Michael Rodgers a 9-month ban in 2012.  

-In today’s “What They Won’t Be Doing” segment, Jessica Ennis says she will skip indoors and Vivian Cheruiyot will not defend her World Cross Country championship.   

-Kenyan javelin thrower Julius Yego is the subject of a great CNN video feature.  Awesome visuals in this piece.

-British Athletics announced their qualifying procedure for the World Championships.  It is 7 pages long and is quite convoluted.  I’m not sure why more countries don’t mimic the American policy.  It has yielded overwhelmingly positive results at Olympics and World Championships and is relatively easy to understand for most events.

-RunBlogRun interviews USATF CEO Max Siegel.  There is lots of business/marketing jargon, but Siegel does tease that USATF has “some exciting announcements coming in the next few months.”

-John Steffensen, best known for taunting in the third person and doing the Cat Daddy, has been suspend for 6 months by Athletics Australia. His federation didn’t take kindly to his claims that he was racially vilified and discriminated against.

-Aries Merritt is out of Saturday’s New Balance Grand Prix after suffering a cramp in training.  I’m guessing the sold out crowd probably wish they knew this before they bought tickets

-Drug testers came to Kenya to take the blood of many of their best athletes.  Fingers crossed that no deer antler spray was found.

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The Morning Run: January 28th

Posted on January 28, 2013 by | Comments Off

-Remember at the end of Without Limits when it says that at the time of Steve Prefontaine’s death, he held every American record between 2,000 and 10,000 meters? After running 3:50.92 for the mile indoors on Saturday, Galen Rupp is reaching that level of American dominance.

-Mary Cain continues her record book reconstruction tour and easily takes down the high school mile record at the New Balance Games.

-In Glasgow, Duane Solomon set the American record in the 600, Bernard Lagat won the 3,000 and an unknown defeated Carmelita Jeter in the 60.  You can find all of the videos here.  In the team competition, Russia and the United States tied with 58 points. Run-off or coin flip?  Neither?  Boo.

-Mo Farah will run the New Orleans Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in February.  Sure he beat the Bekele brothers, but how will he fare against 9 guys racing in Mardi Gras costumes? 

-First, Dayron Robles was sitting out 2013.  Then, he was retiring.  Now it sounds like he may just be doing some sort of NBA/NFL style holdout and plans on returning in 2014 for a new country. If Cuba is looking for a trade, it is definitely a buyer’s market for hurdlers right now.

-Jesse Squire highlights two overlooked performances of the weekend, Lawi Lalang in the 3,000 and Cas Loxsom in the 600, in his Weekly College Awards. 

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The Morning Run: January 24th

Posted on January 24, 2013 by | Comments Off

Because this picture is awesome (via @atoboldon) 

-Track and Field News reports that Wallace Spearmon will move up to the 400 this summer.  Spearmon said previously that he was going to run the 200 and the 400 in 2013.  If he completely abandons the 200, Americans will have a huge hole to fill.  Spearmon was the only Olympic finalist in London and 100-meter stars Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Ryan Bailey don’t appear to be keen on attempting the double this season.  Add in the questionable health of Walter Dix, and the Jamaican dominance in the 200 looks to be even more pronounced in the near future.    

Spearmon’s 400 potential is an interesting question.  His best time dates back to 2006, where he ran 45.22.  The 400 is not nearly as deep as the other sprints, but at age 28 Spearmon will be at the older end of the spectrum in an event that is currently dominated by a 20-year-old.  If nothing else, Spearmon could provide some help in the 4 x 400 where the Americans were upset by the Bahamas in London.

-Usain Bolt will run in the Oslo Diamond League meet on June 13th. I’m very grateful for the head’s up, but wouldn’t it be better if we could get the start lists for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix first before we look to a meet that is more than 5 months away.

-The Tokyo Marathon will feature 2:04 tempo runner and the world’s most overqualified second place finisher, Dennis Kimetto.  

-Jim McDannald continues to work the Pac-12 broadcast beat.

-Ken Goe’s links also include an update on the Pac-12’s policy and what it means for the indoor meets in Seattle this winter.

-The Turbaned Tornado will retire from racing after the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24th.

-This weekend’s action: Galen Rupp racing a mile in Boston, Bernard Lagat, Carmelita Jeter and several other A-Listers in Glasgow.

-Yohan Blake has a new, expensive watch that he will be wearing this season.

What it has:

-Asymmetrical case

-Handwound tourbillon movement

-“Beast bridges”

What it doesn’t have:

-GPS

-100-lap memory

-Airtight/bulletproof protective case, which would seem to be necessary for a $620,000 watch being worn during an athletic competition.

-Our podcast from Wednesday where Jason was in “studio” with me.

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The Morning Run: January 18th

Posted on January 18, 2013 by | Comments Off

Because you can’t spend all your time reading about Manti Te’o….

-Jim McDannald of Track Focus reports that the Pac-12 is currently blocking Flotrack, Runnerspace and any other outside enterprise from streaming or archiving meets that are hosted by a Pac-12 school.  This decision gets even more puzzling when you consider that the Pac-12 may not even broadest these meets themselves.  This was the case at last Saturday’s University of Washington Indoor Preview.  Because of the large amount of college/professional meets that Pac-12 schools host, this policy would blackout fans from watching several marquee meets that have been previously available for viewing.

The development of propriety conference networks, and the huge amount of money that follows, is often cited as the savior of non-revenue sports.   It is interesting that these same networks could play a role in limiting the publicity of their schools and their athletes.

-Mo Farah will run one, and only one, indoor race this season.  Meanwhile, training partner Galen Rupp will race for the second time in 2013 at next Saturday’s BU Terrier Invite.

-Tirunesh Dibaba and Matt Centrowitz are the latest entries to the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.

-Ken Goe’s Thursday links include a look at the relationship between Oregon’s football and track and field programs.

-Jesse Squire presents his College Notes.

-Our podcast from Wednesday where we discuss Mary Cain, the Boston Marathon field, Andy Murray’s acceleration and much more.

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The Morning Run: January 15th

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | Comments Off

Because at least Lance Armstrong isn’t involved in track and field…. 

-Thanks to friend of the podcast Julian for notifying us that Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is running indoors for what appears to be the first time in her career.  She told the Jamaican Gleaner over the weekend that she will use the indoor season to prepare for outdoors and will presumably race the 60-meters.  Does this mean we might see a women’s sprint world record this winter?  Discounting relays, hurdles and oddball events like the 100-yard dash or the 150-meters, the most recent women’s sprint record is from February 9, 1995.   That year, Irina Privalova of Russia equaled her mark of 6.92 in the 60-meters from 1993.   By comparison, virtually every men’s record has been broken (and re-broken) during that same time period.

Could Fraser-Pryce break the 18-year drought?  Perhaps, if she gets enough chances.  Her start and drive phase are the strongest part of her race and she has already run, according to the awesome, but highly addictive alltime-athletics.com, 6.88 en route to her win in the 100-meters at the 2009 World Championships.

She could run into some problems finding ample opportunities.  The IAAF lists only six “IAAF Indoor Permit” races this season, three of which are on the same weekend.  Of course that doesn’t include the Millrose Games and other non-IAAF affiliated meets, but I’m guessing she will want to attempt it at a bigger budget meet.  All this to say, Millrose should pay her a bunch of money to race for the record against Chris Johnson, Denard Robinson and Adrian Peterson.

-The international field for the Boston Marathon was released today.   Things got a bit tougher for Ryan Hall, Shalane Flanagan and the rest of the Americans.

-Alan Webb explains his new training under Jerry Schumacher of the Oregon Track Club Elite group in Portland.  Schumacher is Webb’s fifth coach since high school.

-Ken Goe’s links from Monday.

-The next stop on the Mary Cain Show will be Boston for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.

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The Morning Run: January 14th

Posted on January 14, 2013 by | Comments Off

Because USATF’s tiebreaking procedure is easier to understand than Jodie Foster’s speech at the Golden Globes.

-Sixteen-year-old Mary Cain ripped apart the American high school 3,000-meter record at the University of Washington Indoor Preview on Saturday.  Cain, who lives in New York but is coached by Alberto Salazar, ran 9:02.10 beating the existing outdoor record by over six seconds.  When considering conversions, she also bested all the existing high school records for the 3,200-meter and 2-mile.  The record itself isn’t a shock.  She already holds the 1,500-meter American high school record and held her own in the 800-meters at the Olympic Trials this past summer.   What is surprising is how fast she is running this early in the season.

Assuming that Salazar is using the same cautious and methodical approach that he has taken with Galen Rupp, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume Cain can run much faster.  With modest improvements, she would be an immediate contender outdoors in the United States, especially in the 5,000, which currently lacks depth.  But before we get too far, let us remember all the phenoms in track and field who ran their best races and times before they reached the drinking age and were never heard from again.  Cain appears to be an exception.  Her talent surpasses anything we have ever seen in the United States and she has the best distance running coach in the world to provide guidance. Salazar deservedly received much credit for guiding Rupp over a 12-year period from a high school freshman to an Olympic silver medalist.  If he can get Cain anywhere close to that level while avoiding the injuries, burnouts and breakdowns that often fell such a talent, it would be an even greater coaching achievement

-Also in Seattle, the aforementioned Galen Rupp opened his 2013 season with a 3:57 mile and an easy win.

-Brianna Rollins of Clemson set the collegiate record in the 60-meter hurdles running 7.78.  That time is only .06 seconds from Lolo Jones’s American record of 7.72.

-Houston Marathon recap

Weather: Bad

Meb: Sick (DNS)

½ Marathon Winners: Feyisa Lelisa (1:01:52) and Mamitu Deska (1:09:51)

World record: Not close

Americans:  Shadrack Biwott (1:02:23) and Lisa Uhl (1:13:28)

Marathon Winners: Bazu Worku (2:10:17) and Merima Mohammed (2:23:37)

Americans: Andrew Carlson (2:17:16) and Tera Moody (2:39:10)

-Dayron Robles will apparently sit out 2013 in protest over treatment by officials in Cuba.

-Prep Erin Finn is feeling better after running a 10:18 3200 in a workout.

-A judge found Ashley Gill-Webb guilty of throwing a bottle onto the track before the men’s Olympic 100-meter final.  It doesn’t look like jail time is likely but he will have to live with the name “Olympic bottle thrower” the rest of his life.

-Jesse Squire’s Weekly College Awards feature Cas Loxsom and his 1:46 800.

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The Morning Run: January 11th

Posted on January 11, 2013 by | Comments Off

The Morning Run is a compilation of links, news and commentary.

Tennis player Andy Murray became the latest athlete to have his bipedal locomotion mentioned in the same sentence as Usain Bolt.  In this occasion it was Murray’s trainer, Jez Green, comparing his pupil’s acceleration to the fastest man on earth.

He’s been clocked at moving at 10 metres per second over very short intervals, maybe even as short as a single step, which is as fast as Usain Bolt. I’m not saying that he is that fast over 100 metres but he has great acceleration when he is chasing down a drop shot.

It appears that neither Murray nor Green is aware of the Curse of Bolt, otherwise they would have steered clear, especially right before the Australian Open.  Green also said that Murray could run a 400 in 53 seconds, which doesn’t seem too unreasonable.

Jesse Squire previews the weekend’s best matchups.  There are lots of them.

Dan Rather Reports profiles the Kenyan Scholar Athlete Program.

Toni Reavis reflects on a conversation he had with the retiring Felix Limo.

The Bowerman released their women’s preseason watch list.

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The Morning Run: January 10th

Posted on January 10, 2013 by | Comments Off

The Morning Run is a compilation of links, news and commentary.

We posted our latest podcast yesterday. Topics include Ryan Hall running the Boston Marathon, the indoor television schedule, the fight at the Armory and Bev Kearney’s resignation.

Tuesday’s list of top moments of running-related violence neglected to mention Josephat Machuka punching Haile Gebrselassie in the head at the 1992 World Junior Championships. Thanks to reader Matthew B. for brining this to my attention.

An extreme race became too extreme for some participants in Washington and now there are lawsuits. This is just what Bill Bowerman dreamed of when he helped spark the running boom in the United States.

Construction begins Saturday on the first tartan track in Iten, Kenya. Iten is the home of Lornah Kiplagat, Wilson Kipketer, Mary Keitany, Linet Masai, David Rudisha….wait, they got this good without access to a professional track?

Galen Rupp and Matt Centrowitz will run the mile at Saturday’s University of Washington Indoor Preview.

Bernard Lagat, Lawi Lalang, Cam Levins, Evan Jager, Dathan Ritzenhein and German Fernandez are among the entrants for the Millrose Games two-mile on February 16th. Before we get too excited, remember that we will still be in the “I’m still just in my base phase” portion of the season.

Millrose also announced that Jason Richardson and Andrew Riley will race the 60-meter hurdles.

Marathoner Ryan Vail is the subject of a short documentary. He probably is the fastest marathoner/shoe store employee in the country.

Peter Vigneron discusses the role, or lack thereof, that marketability plays in elite athlete sponsorships.

The Bowerman released their men’s preseason watch list. I would put my money on someone who does more than one event. Three of the past four winners doubled and the fourth was named Ashton Eaton.

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The Morning Run: January 8th

Posted on January 8, 2013 by | Comments Off

The Morning Run is a compilation of links, news and commentary.

-Ryan Hall will be racing the Boston Marathon this April.

-Boston’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix added Galen Rupp, Jen Suhr, Dejen Gebremeskel and Hagos Gebrhiwet to their start lists.

-The fight during the boys 4 x 400 relay at the Hispanic Games on Saturday has once again put the issue of violence in running-related events in the spotlight.  Ok, not really.  Runners, jumpers and throwers are by and large a peaceful people and the incidents of them getting physical are remarkably rare.  I couldn’t even find enough good material to make a top five, so here are three notable track and field/cross country skirmishes:

*Note: The United States 4 x 100 relay team assaulting the baton after dropping it on numerous occasions, Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad pushing mascots, and Allyson Felix and Jenebah Tarmoh torturing our emotions were all not considered for this list.
 

In 2004, Florida State’s Antonio Cromartie, yes that Antonio Cromartie, pushed a Clemson runner off the track in the 400.  The gentleman from Clemson was not pleased.

In the 2011 World Cross Country Championships, Ethiopian and Eritrean runners “tussled” down the homestretch before awkwardly sprinting toward the finish line.

And finally, the gold standard.  Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad fight exactly how would expect French distance runners to fight.

-While we are on the topic of violence, Edwin Rotich was tackled, or almost tackled, by a spectator in Brazil and still went on to win Kings Run in Sao Paulo.

-Nichole Porath, a 2012 US Olympic Trials finisher in the marathon, set a world record in the indoor marathon.  She ran 150 laps in 2:57:34 beating the old record by over 11 minutes.  Dizzying.

-No surprise, Veronica Campbell-Brown will not be racing indoors.

-Soon-to-be 2004 Olympic gold medalist Adam Nelson writes about structural changes that could improve track and field.

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The Morning Run: January 7th

Posted on January 7, 2013 by | 1 Comment

The Morning Run is a daily compilation of links, news and commentary.  

-Genzebe Dibaba and Bobby Mack were the big winners at the BUPA Great Edinburgh Cross Country race.  Dibaba beat a strong field which included Meseret Defar, Linet Masai, Sofia Assefa and Vivian Cheruiyot in what has to be one of the smallest fields ever assembled for a cross country race (14 women).

-Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson ran for 99 yards in the Vikings’ playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers.  This isn’t a running story at all until you remember that last week Peterson said he wanted to train for the 2016 Olympics and even claimed that he could beat Usain Bolt.  Peterson’s relatively average performance over the weekend is that latest example of a football player falling victim to the curse of challenging the fastest man in the world.

Consider…..

At the beginning of the season, University of Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson proclaimed he could beat Bolt in a 40-yard dash and after an injured-filled season, Robinson ended the year playing tailback.

-Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans rushed for 2,000 yards in 2009, wanted to race Bolt soon after and hasn’t reached 1,400 yards in a season since.  Although, that hasn’t deterred him from still making wild claims.

Be warned footballers, call out Bolt at your own risk.

-USATF released the schedule for the 2013 USA Indoor Championships.  For the first time, the meet will feature (as an exhibition event) the 400-meter hurdles.  This rarely run race takes an already interesting event (the outdoor 400-meter hurdles) and adds in tight turns and the possibility of real person-to-person contact.  Let’s take a closer look:

How does it work?

Four athletes per race, four hurdles each lap, two laps of the track.  After the second turn, athletes can break out of their lanes to the inside.

Who has the world record?

Felix Sanchez, 48.78

 

What happens if one athlete knocks down a hurdle right in front of another athlete?

I have no idea, but the result should be entertaining.

-Jim McDannald tells you why you shouldn’t be that excited when you hear, “That’s the fastest time in the world this year.”

-University of Texas track and field coach Bev Kearney has resigned amidst revelations that she had an intimate relationship with one of her “adult student-athletes” in 2002.

-The Houston Marathon and Half Marathon takes place on Sunday.  Meb Keflezighi, Feyisa Lilesa, Caroline Kilel, Lisa Uhl, Bazu Worku and Buzenesh Deba are among the entrants.

 

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