Monday Morning Decathlete (Special Tuesday Edition)

The Boston Marathon's traditional Monday date pushed this week's column back a day.

What did we learn this week?

NBC/Universal has shown its true colors.I planned on starting off this column writing about what happened in the Boston Marathon—and A LOT happened. From the perspective of a fan, though, the biggest news was not about the athletes or what they did.

The biggest news was the tremendous difficulty many of us had in seeing the greatest Boston Marathon of all time. The fact that one of the USA's biggest Olympic-oriented events was so difficult to watch tells us a lot about NBC/Universal, specifically that the corporation is harmful to domestic Olympic sports such as track and field and road running.

The race has, in the past, been on national television. To say that this year's race was on national television is an exercise in semantics. It was on Universal Sports TV, which is not regional, but it most certainly not available everywhere in the country. NBC has not put its full force behind getting the channel wide distribution. The majority of fans simply do not have television as a viewing option for the race.

The only real viewing option for the majority of fans is the companion website, UniversalSports.com, which can only be described as amateur at best. There is no end to the list of problems the site has at almost any time a track fan wants to watch one of their webcasts. Monday was even worse than usual.

Superfan Daily: Glider Gloves

It's winter.  You wear gloves.  You use an iPhone, iPad, or similar touch-screen device, but have to take off your gloves to use it.  So do I.

Recently I bought* a pair of Glider Gloves, which have conductive threads woven into them and allow the wearer to use said touchscreen device without baring skin to the elements.  How did they perform?

My iPhone was very responsive to the gloves when I first put them on.  After a six-mile run, during which I built up a decent sweat, they still worked but not quite as well.  As gloves they're pretty good, but not anything you'd want to use under extreme situations.  Yesterday afternoon's weather in Toledo was nothing bitter for the lower Rust Belt--30 degrees, windy and overcast--and my fingers were a bit chilly for the first five minutes, but after that were just fine.

The gloves are a basic stretchy knit style and available at glidergloves.com for $24.99.  Athletes, coaches and officials who use touchscreen devices in less than optimal weather would find them useful but pricy.


*I was not compensated in any way for this review, nor did I receive any merchandise.  I'm not opposed to free swag, though--send me some if you've got it.

Track on TV
Sydney 2000: Stories of Olympic Glory, 9:00 PM on Universal Sports (reruns at midnight)
Endurance, 11:35 AM tomorrow on Flix

News Links
Runner's World's Racing News has all the headlines: Usain Bolt, Caster Semenya, Bay to Breakers and more.

Track and Field News released its 2010 women's Performamce of the Year rankings.  Apparently no one gave any thought to Nadzeya Ostapchuk's massive 21.70 indoor throw.

They also just released their 2010 men's Performance of the Year rankings.  David Rudisha is now just the second man to ever go 1-2 (the other is Usain Bolt).

World XC champ Florence Kiplagat will run her first-ever marathon at Boston this April.

Olympic news:
*The IOC is considering auctioning off the US television rights to the next four Olympics (2014, '16, '18 and '20) instead of just the next two.  This means a better chance for ESPN, who had been adamant about such a deal and (in my opinion) would do a much better job than NBC. 
*Japan is seriously looking at a 2020 bid by Hiroshima.

Britain's Guadian newspaper is running a weekly series on training in the Kenyan highlands.  Here is part one.

What's On: The Weekend

Cross Country
The Foot Locker High School Cross Country Championships will be held on Saturday in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
Meet website / Flotrack coverage
Live webcast begins at 11 AM at flotrack.org
Race times: girls at 12:15, boys at 1:00
Let's Run prediction contest

The European Cross Country Championships will be held on Sunday in the Portugese city of Albufeira.
Meet website / Men's entries / Women's entries
EAA Men's preview / EAA Women's preview

Road Racing
The Honolulu Marathon will be run on Sunday.

The St. Sylvester Race will be run on Sunday in Zurich.

The Corrida de Noel will be run on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Indoor Track
The Perche Elite Tour of pole vault meetings comes to the English town of Loughborough on Saturday.

There are a few low-key college meets this weekend.

Outdoor Track
South Africa's Yellow Pages Summer Series will have meets in Coetzenberg on Friday and Oudtshoorn on Monday.

Track on TV
Prefontaine, 11:30 AM Friday on Shotwime Family Zone
Running the Sahara, 2:00 PM Friday on SHO Next
Running, 4:15 AM and 3:15 PM Saturday on Flix
Foot Locker Cross Country live webcast, 11:00 AM Saturday at flotrack.org

What's On: The Weekend

Cross Country
The Budapest Challenge, an EAA Permit cross country meet, takes place on Saturday in the Hungarian capital’s Népliget Park.
Meet website
EAA preview

The fourth meet in the KCB/Athletics Kenya Cross Country series takes place on Saturday in Kangaru-Embu.

The UK will hold its European Cross Country Trials on Saturday in Liverpool's Sefton Park.
Meet website
Athleticos coverage

The Cross Internacional Valle de Llodio, another EAA Permit cross country meet, will take place on Sunday in the Spanish city of Llodio. Leading entries are Teklemariam Medhin, who is riding a two-race winning streak, along with Samuel Tsegay, Kidane Tadese and Josephat Kiprono Menjo.
ABC.es preview (in Spanish)

The strongest lineup of the weekend is at the Cross de l'Acier, another EAA Permit cross country meet, in the French coastal town of Leffrinckoucke. Imane Merga, the summer's dominant track runner, will take on defending World Cross Country champion Joesph Ebuya. The women's competition is also strong, featuring Linet Masai, the defending World 10k champ, along with Meselech Melkamu and Wude Ayalew.
Meet website
Nord Eclair preview (in French)

The International loket.nl Warandeloop, an EAA Permit cross country meet, takes place on Sunday in the Dutch city of Tilburg.
Meet website
EAA preview

Road Racing
The Florence Marathon takes place on Sunday in the Italian city.
Race website
FIDAL preview (in Italian)

The Eldoret KASS Marathon takes place on Sunday in the Kenyan town of Eldoret.
Race website
The Standard preview

High Schools
Three Foot Locker Regional cross country championships take place on Saturday: the Northeast on Long Island, the Midwest in Kenosha WI, and the South in Charlotte NC.
Foot Locker website
Flotrack coverage: Northeast / Midwest / West
ESPN Rise coverage: Northeast / Midwest / South

The California High School Championships will take place on Saturday in Fresno.
Meet website

Track on TV
Bud Greenspan Presents: Beijing 2008 - America's Olympic Glory, 10:40 AM Saturday on Showtime Family Zone
Running the Sahara, 9:15 AM Sunday on Showtime Family Zone

House of Run New York City Marathon preview

This week's House of Run podcast is now available. Yours truly makes an appearance and makes his bold picks for the NYC Marathon: Abel Kirui and Mary Keitany will win, Jared will fail to break 5:00.

Jason and Kevin do a great job with their podcast, in a breezy dry humor. Check it out, it's worth your time.

Chilean Miner Edison "The Runner" Pena on Letterman Tonight

From Deadspin:

How would the average person spend 69 days trapped underground? Edison Peña ran three to six miles daily. Now he's running in the NYC Marathon this weekend. Great. I'll be on a couch, trapped under a pile of wings.

Peña was invited to watch the New York Marathon. He decided he’d rather run, and the NYRR gave him an entry. Read the AP story; it’s good.  Key quote: "he'll probably reject the hero label, insisting that the focus should be on worker safety, faith in God and the restorative power of sports."

He will be the lead guest on tonight’s Late Show with David Letterman. I am definitely recording this one.

Letterman, a runner himself, has been very friendly to distance types. After last year’s NYC win, he had Meb Keflezighi read the Top Ten List. At other times guests have included Alan Webb, Dean Karnazes and Pam Reed.

Letterman hasn’t cornered the market on tracksters. Jay Leno is more partial to throwers, as he was a thrower himself in high school. His Olympic-year guests have included Reese Hoffa and John Godina (against whom Leno competed in a series of silly throws).

What's On: The Weekend

Part 2
International

The Athens Classic Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, will trace the legendary ancient route on Sunday from the plains of Marathon to Athens’ Pathanaikos Stadium, site of the 1896 Olympics. This year marks the 2500th anniversary of the Greek victory over the invading Persians at Marathon. There will be a huge celebration, with approximately double the usual number of entries (12,500) and a really cool finisher's medal.

Kenyans, of course, are expected to dominate the men's race, specifically Jonathan Kipkorir and Jacob Yator. The women's stars are Russians Irina Permitina and Olga Glok and Japan's Eri Hayakawa.
Race website
IAAF preview / Eurosport preview / Competitor.com preview

The Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, will be run in the German city on Sunday. Alfons Juck reports that men’s entries include eighteen sub-2:10 runners, eight of them at sub-2:07:15. Leading women’s entries include World Half-Marathon silver medalist Dire Tune and Ethiopian half-marathon record holder Mare Dibaba.
Race website
IAAF preview


The Marseille Cassis Classique Internationale, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, will be run between the two French cities on Sunday. At 20.3 km, it’s just short of a true half-marathon.

Leading entries are Lelisa Desisa, who has run three quality half-marathons this year with a best time of 59:59, and Deriba Merga, who is a big question mark after dropping out of marathons Chicago and Seoul. Meseret Mengistu, 6th at the recent World Half-Marathon Championships, is favored to defend her title.
Race website
IAAF Preview

Track on TV
Pac-10 Championships Preview Show, 6:30 PM Friday at Flotrack.org
Pac-10 Championships Live Coverage, 11:30 AM Saturday at Flotrack.org
Endurance, 7:30 AM Saturday on The Movie Channel Extra
Prefontaine, 9:00 AM Saturday on The Movie Channel Extra
Running the Sahara, 8:45 AM and 4:35 PM Saturday on Showtime Extreme

Boston Marathon Sells Out!

Entry to the 2011 Boston Marathon opened at 9:00 AM Monday. At 5:03 PM no more spots were available.

This is nothing short of astounding. In 2008 the race didn’t fill until February. In 2009 it was full in January. Last year it took a month to fill up.

This is the Boston Marathon, which has qualifying standards. Not just anyone can get in, you have to run 3:10 (men) or 3:40 (women), with progressive breaks for age past 35. For all but a handful of the 40 or so years since limits were set, you just had to get your entry in before the early-March deadline. Thus the annual Last Chance for Boston race in late February...a race which is obviously a pretty pointless endeavor now.

What’s going on here? The Wall Street Journal decided last week that, like original sin, it’s all women’s fault. I pointed out the fallacy of that argument. To put it simply, even if it’s easier for women to qualify for Boston (and maybe it isn’t, and it certainly isn’t significantly so), they certainly don’t take up more than their share of entries. 41% of US marathoners are women, and 42% of last year’s field were women. A one percent difference does not make a race sell out 20,000 spots in eight hours.

A year and a half ago Amby Burfoot wrote up a history of Boston’s qualifying system, and the issues that created them, but he had no idea how things would turn between then and now.

So why are there so many more people who want to run the Boston Marathon?

More people are running marathons. There were approximately 464,000 marathon finishes in the USA and 1.31 million worldwide in 2009 (“finishes” meaning race results; individual runners could be counted multiple times). The domestic numbers are up nearly 50% since 2002, but the international numbers have more than doubled in the same time period.

Marathon finishers in the US and the world, 2002-2009

Year	US Finishes	% increase	World Finishes	% increase
2002	323,793		643,685
2003	334,417	3.3%	690,876	7.3%
2004	361,985	8.2%	780,390	13.0%
2005	384,621	6.3%	995,601	27.6%
2006	402,299	4.6%	1,004,346	0.9%
2007	406,574	1.1%	1,170,254	16.5%
2008	425,888	4.8%	1,210,322	3.4%
2009	464,293	9.0%	1,310,172	8.2%

Source: arrs.net

Why? That’s anybody’s guess. No one really knows. We do know that gym memberships are down significantly over the last few years, and the conventional wisdom is that the economy is bad and running is growing because it’s cheaper than any other fitness activity. But the growth in marathon numbers has been steady for over a decade, long before the economy imploded. It might be a generational thing, but the growth has been remarkably consistent across both genders and all age groups. It’s just one of those things.

More people are running them faster. Big numbers wouldn’t matter for Boston, with its qualifying times, if everyone ran them slow. But people aren’t. MarathonGuide.com’s time breakdowns only go back to 2005, but in those five years the growth in men running sub-3:00 and women running sub-3:30 has been a lot faster than the overall growth in marathoning.

Sub-3:00 (men) and sub-3:30 (women) recorded in the USA, 2005-2009

Year	Men <3:00	% increase	Women <3:30	% increase
2005	5,400 (approx)	--	not available
2006	7,041	30.4%	5,588	--
2007	6,372	-9.5%	5,402	-3.3%
2008	7,275	14.2%	6,386	18.2%
2009	8,293	14.0%	7,168	12.2%

Source: MarathonGuide.com

2007 was the only setback, probably due in large part to that year’s horridly hot Chicago Marathon. If the trend continues through the end of 2010 – and there’s no reason to believe it won’t – then between 9,000 and 10,000 men and about 8,000 women will run these kinds of times. There weren’t even that many marathoners in the whole country until 1976.

Boston’s limit is about 20,000 runners (plus another 3,000-5,000 for charity runners and sponsor exemptions) and, due to issues of physical space, can go no higher. Looking at the number of US-based runners who beat the toughest standards by 10 or more minutes, plus foreign-based runners, plus older age groups with slower qualifying standards, you can see why there’s a crunch.

Note that overall US marathon numbers have never increased more than 10% in any year since the true boom years of 1974-1984. And that was the time when the Boston Marathon became so overwhelmed that it first required qualifying, and eventually tightened the standard down to 2:50 for men under 40 (since loosened 20 minutes). Consistent double-digit growth in fast marathoning has, apparently, again overwhelmed Boston.

What happens now? Runners World reports that the B.A.A. “will consider re-configuring the qualification and entry process for the 2012 marathon”. Let’s Run is having an unusually productive discussion about it. The only reasonable solution appears to be a time-based one.

There are a lot of options. The standards could be tightened across the board; for example, going back to the early-80s standards of 3:00 for open men and 3:30 for open women. Under this scenario, the race would probably not fill up. The B.A.A. probably doesn’t want this.

Another option would be to have tiered registration openings. In October the race would open to those who have beaten the current standards by ten minutes, and in December to those who have beaten them by five minutes, and in January to everyone else who has met the standard. (This, by the way, is exactly how class registration worked at my university back in the early 90s: academic scholarship students first, athletes and others with time restrictions second, and other tiers after that which I never paid attention to because I was in both of the first two groups.)

Whatever it is, Boston needs to do things differently. The race has always been about qualifications, not timing or luck.

Wall Street Journal, Boston and Women

Registration for the 2011 Boston Marathon opens Monday.  For years, the thing never filled up, but last year it did well ahead of the entry deadline.  This indicates that not only are more people running marathons, but more of them are running them relatively fast. 

Wall Street Journal reporters Kevin Helliker and David Biderman have someone to blame: women.

But there's another possible reason for the surging demand—one that has the potential to kick up a fair amount of controversy. It's the notion that the qualifying standards for women are too soft.

OK, I've heard this before. I did some in-depth research on that a few years back (more on that later). And there's some validity to the argument. But let's see how Helliker and Biderman build their argument.

"Women made up 42% of finishers in the 2010 Boston race—a proportion that is higher than the percentage of all U.S. marathoners who are women."

True.  Oddly enough, they don't tell us what "the percentage of all U.S. marathoners who are women" is.  According to Running USA, for 2009 it's...41%!  So Boston's participation rate in 2010 is a whole one percent higher than the national rate in 2009.  What's the big deal?

Note that for marathoners under 35, women make up 49% of finishers.  Boston is a younger runner's race, as the qualifying times get pretty tough past about 50 or 55.  Female participation at Boston will trend up, as will the nation as a whole.

"The typical gap in major 2009 marathons between the world's elite male and female runners was closer to 20 minutes than 30—and has been shrinking over time."

Well, for Boston's elite runners the gap is actually less than 20 minutes.  But the qualifying cutoffs aren't for elites, they're for the best of the amateurs.  For the US Olympic Trials, which are for athletes somewhere between elite and amateurs, the gap in qualifying times is 28 minutes--2:19 for men, 2:47 for women.  Funnny they didn't mention that.

"Narrowing the gender gap would align Boston more nearly with its counterpart in the world of ultramarathon racing, the Western States 100—a 100-mile race whose slots are highly coveted by men and women alike. Qualifying requirements for the Western States have always been identical for men and women, says a historian of that race, Antonio Rossmann."

This implies that to qualify for Western States, men and women must run the same times.  But Western States doesn't qualify by times.  It has a series of qualifying races.  So the comparison isn't particularly valid.  Funny they didn't mention that.

"Running USA, a research center based in Colorado, has collected raw data from nearly 500 marathons across the country that show a median gender difference of about 28 minutes in finishing times. But similar data also show that while men tend to finish in a long line from fastest to slowest, women divide into two distinct groups—one that's fast and another that's considerably slower.
Running experts say the second grouping, which tends to move as a pack, drags down the median finishing times for all women."

The standard deviation among male and female runners has also been calculated.  It shows that, relative to mean finishing time, there is actually less variation among women than among men.

If you really want to look at this question in depth, it's relatively simple.  Here's what you do.  You take the qualifying time for each age group, male and female, and see what percent of all marathoners achieve it.  If significantly more women do than men, then you're lookig at something unfair. 

Getting that data isn't easy.  I don't have it readily available, and it may have to be compiled.  MarathonGuide.com, however, has broken things down by overall male and female and into half-hour increments.  So we can see that 3.00% of male marathoners in US marathons in 2009 broke 3:00:00 (10 minutes ahead of the under-35 Boston cutoff), and 3.70% of women broke 3:30 (also 10 minutes under).  16.00% of men broke 3:30, while 19.60% of women broke 4:00:00. 

If anything, all this data suggests that the women's standard may need 5 minutes of tightening, and maybe less.  Certainly no more than that.  And the BAA doesn't change standards willy-nilly.  The risk of changing?  Maybe in a few years, the data will suggest it should be changed again.

The tone and the missing and misleading information suggest a bit of a hatchet job to me.

What's On the Weekend

Professionals

The Berlin Marathon, a World Marathon Major, will be run in the German capitol on Sunday. 

Live webcast: 2:50 AM, German News Channel N-TV

Race website / World Marathon Majors site

Previews: IAAF / Universal Sports / Examiner.com: men, women / Mzungo.org / Associated Press / Athletics Weekly

The Vodafone Half Marathon of Portugal, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, will be run in Lisbon on Sunday.

Race website
IAAF preview

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, will be run in the Ontario capitol on Sunday.

Live webcast: 7:30 AM at Flotrack.org

Race website / Flotrack coverage

Previews: Runner's Web / Guelph Mercury

The Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile will be run in New York City on Sunday.  A great field includes Bernard Lagat, Leo Manzano, Nick Willis and Alan Webb, and Shannon Rowbury, Molly Huddle and Kalkidan Gezahegn.
Live webcast: 12:50 PM at NYRR.org

Race website / Flotrack coverage

Previews: Running USA Wire / Track and Field News / Runner's World: men, women / Universal Sports: men, women / Radio New Zealand / WomenTalkSports.com

Colleges

The 25th annual Roy Griak Invitational will be run at Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course on Saturday.

Live webcast: 10:00 AM at Flotrack.org
Meet website / Flotrack coverage / Spectator info & directions
Previews: Gophersports.com: men, women / Minnesota Daily

The Stanford Invitational will be held on Saturday on the Stanford Golf Course (aka "where we let Tiger Woods play golf on our cross country course").
Meet info / GoStanford.com preview

The 73rd Brooks Cowboy Jamboree will be held on Saturday at Oklahoma State.
Meet info / Flotrack coverage
OKState.com preview

All the rest

Track on TV
Diamond League Brussels rerun, 10 AM Friday and 3:30 PM Sunday on Universal Sports
2010 Boston Marathon rerun, 1:30 PM Friday on Universal Sports
Continental Cup Day 2 rerun, 5 PM Friday on Universal Sports
Endurance, 1:45 AM Saturday on Showtime Extreme
2009 Berlin Marathon rerun, Noon and 6:30 PM Saturday on Universal Sports
Diamond League Zurich rerun, 3:30 PM Saturday on Universal Sports
Big Ten Icons: #19 Suzy Favor Hamilton, 12:30 AM and 11:30 AM Sunday on Big Ten Network

Superfan Rankings Update: Marathon

The spring marathon season is not completely over, but the most competitive races have come and gone. Let's see how they stack up.

MEN
My "season" began in December, so Kebede's two major wins (Fukuoka and London) trump a single win by anyone else. Boston winner Cheruyiot is second and Paris winner Tola is third. Tadesse is sixth even with his London bomb; are you going to bet against him in a fall marathon?
1. Tsegaye Kebede
2. Robert Kiprono Cheruyiot
3. Tadese Tola
4. Emanuel Mutai
5. Alfred Kering
6. Zersenay Tadesse
7. Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich
8. Patrick Makau
9. Jaouad Gharib
10. Tekeste Kebede
11. Jafred Chirchir Kipchumba
12. Geoffrey Kiprono Mutai
13. Benjamin Kiptoo
14. Abderrahime Bouramdane
15. Vincent Kipruto
16. Feyisa Lilesa
17. Daniel Kiprugut Too
18. Abel Kirui
19. Siraj Gena
20. Deribe Merga
25. Ryan Hall (USA)

WOMEN
You may be surprised to see the Paris Marathon winner at the top of the rankings, but she won a fairly tough race with a very good performance. London winner Shobukhova is second and Nagoya winner Kano is third. Boston winner Erkesso is all the way down in eighth, reflecting the fact that the women's side of the Patriot's Day classic wasn't very fast or deep.
1. Atsede Baysa
2. Liliya Shobukhova
3. Yuri Kano
4. Aselefech Mergia
5. Inga Abitova
6. Derartu Tulu
7. Mare Ibrahimova
8. Teyba Erkesso
9. Bizunesh Bekele
10 Hiromi Ominami
11. Christelle Daunay
12. Mai Ito
13. Tirfi Tsegaye
14. Kebebush Haile
15. Amane Gobena
16. Firehiwot Dado
17. Askale Tafa
18. Mayumi Fujita
19. Kim Smith
20. Azalech Masresha
44. Magdalena Lewy-Boulet (USA)

What's On: the weekend

Updated on Friday at 11:30 AM

The headliner
The 114th running of the Boston Marathon will begin at 10 AM Monday. Headline athletes include Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Deriba Merga and Abderrahim Goumri.
LIVE TV COVERAGE on Universal Sports from 9:30 AM to 12:30 on Monday (replays at 9 PM and midnight)
LIVE WEBCAST at http://www.universalsports.com/ starting at 9:30 AM on Monday
Race website / Flocast coverage
Universal Sports / Let's Run previews: men, women / Marathon News / Boston Globe / Running Times / Japan Running News

Track & field
Collegiate conference meets
The ACC Championships take place from Thursday to Saturday at Clemson’s Rock Norman Track & Field complex. Indoor champions this year were Florida State’s men by a scant 3½ points over North Carolina, and Clemson’s women by more than 50 points.
LIVE WEBCAST at http://www.theacc.com/ begin at 3 PM on Friday and 3 PM on Saturday
Meet website / live results

The Big South Championships take place Thursday through Saturday at Charleston Southern’s Whitfield Stadium. Liberty is looking to complete a triple-double by winning both men’s and women’s titles in cross, indoor and outdoor.
LIVE WEBCAST ($4.95) at http://www.bigsouthsports.com/
Meet website / live results

Collegiate Duals
#7 UCLA travels to #2 Oregon on Saturday for a men-only matchup. The competition is expected to be very close.
LIVE TV COVERAGE on the Oregon Sports Network on Saturday from Noon – 2 PM local time
LIVE WEBCAST (pay) at http://www.goducks.com/
Meet website / live results
Runnerspace scoring prediction / The Oregonian / GoDucks.com / Eugene Register-Guard

#4 Arkansas travels to #13 Texas on Saturday for a men’s only matchup. The Hogs beat the Longhorns at home in January.
TexasSports.com

More collegiate meets

Invitationals
The Mt. San Antonio College Relays take place from Thursday through Saturday at Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut CA. Tyson Gay and AllysonFelix are scheduled to compete.
Meet website / Live results / Flotrack coverage
Let's Run fan guides: Friday, Saturday
San Gabriel Valley Tribune / Whittier Daily News

The 83rd Kansas Relays take place from Wednesday through Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence KS. Veronica Campbell-Brown and Churandy Martina are scheduled to compete.
Meet website / Live results
University Daily Kansan / WIBW / KTKA / Lawrence Journal-World / Wichita Eagle

International
The fourth Athletics Kenya/New KCC meeting will take place on Thursday in Mumais, Kenya.
The Standard / Daily Nation

The Nagano Marathon will be run on Sunday.
Race website

Questioning the Olympic Marathon Trials Bidding

Joe Battaglia has a long and involved story at Universal Sports about the selection process for the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. It's interesting to read at face value, and reading between the lines is even more interesting.

Quick recap if you're short on the story: the 2008 OT races were held in conjunction with the New York and Boston marathons, held the prior day on separate courses. It was a big success and it was widely expected that 2012 would be similar. Houston beat them out with a bid to host both of the OT races along with their own marathon in January.

When I first heard about it, I wondered if there was any USATF funny-business going on. But I didn't have to read much to find out that Houston won because they had the best bid. They offered to cover all the costs, pay out more prize money than was required, and didn't expect any cut in advertising money from USATF. Add in the time-of-year advantage and you're looking at almost a perfect bid from USATF's standpoint, aside from being outside the major media markets of the northeast. Even that might not be a downside, as NY and Boston already give serious marathon racing outsized attention, while Houston could be seen as a place to take it from near-zero to something.

What's really interesting is that the story was written at all. Ever since the OT site was announced, the NYRRC's Mary Wittenberg has been bitching about it. Not aggressively, since there appears to be little to bitch about, but she's made her disapproval well known. Note that the BAA has said essentially nothing in the press, and they were in basically the same situation as the NYRRC. They aren't as aggressively self-promoting as the NYRRC and/or Wittenberg.

Battaglia doesn't have an axe to grind. He just needed something to write, and he tried to make it look like there were two sides to the story. But there aren't, Battaglia knows it, and doesn't pretend otherwise. New York got beat fair and square.

LATE EDIT: Thanks to pjm for his insight in the comments. There's a thread on this at Let's Run, and I'll just say very few people are jumping to Wittenberg's defense. To be fair, they're not exactly praising Logan either/

What's On The Weekend

Professionals

The USATF Indoor Championships take place in Albuquerque on Saturday and Sunday. TV coverage is on Sunday from 7 to 9 PM on ESPN2.
Meet website / USATF preview #1 / USATF preview #2 / USATF preview #3 / KOAT-TV

Several other nations are having their nationals over the weekend, most notably Russia (Moscow, Friday through Sunday) and Germany (Karlsruhe, Saturday and Sunday).

The World's Best 10k, an IAAF Gold Label road race and true to its name, will be run on Sunday through the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Race website / IAAF preview / EAA preview / Runner's Web

The Tokyo Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label road race, will be run in Japan on Sunday.
Race website / IAAF preview / JRN preview / Nishinippon.co.jp

The Rock'n'Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and Half Marathon will be run during Lent in New Orleans on Sunday. The half marathon features Martin Lel versus Sammy Wanjiru.
Race website / IAAF preview / Flotrack coverage / Runnerville / NOLA.com

The Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet, an IAAF cross country permit meet, will be run in Japan on Saturday. It functions as Japan's selection race for the World Championships.
Meet website (in Japanese) / IAAF preview /Live webcast

The Eurocross, an IAAF cross country permit meet, will be run on Diekirch, Luxembourg, on Sunday.
IAAF preview

The Sydney Track Classic, a stop on the Athletics Australia Tour, will be held at the city's Olympic Park.
Meet website / Live webcast / Flotrack coverage / Sydney Morning Herald

Colleges

This is Conference Championship Weekend. Major conference action:

Atlantic Coast, Thursday through Sunday, Blacksburg VA
Website / preview / Live webcast: Friday 3-7:30, Saturday noon-4

Big Ten Men, Saturday and Sunday, Minneapolis MN
Website / TV: Big Ten Network, March 9, 7 PM

Big Ten Women, Saturday and Sunday, University Park PA
Website / preview / TV: Big Ten Network, March 9, 9 PM

Big XII, Friday and Saturday, Ames IA
Website / preview

Conference USA, Friday and Saturday, Houston TX
Website / preview

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Friday and Saturday, Seattle WA
Website / preview / Flotrack coverage

Mountain West, Thursday through Saturday, Albuquerque NM
Website / preview

Southeastern Conference, Friday through Sunday, Fayetteville AR
Website / preview / TV: ESPNU, March 11, 9 PM

All the rest

What's On The Weekend

Pros

The Millrose Games kicks off the IAAF’s indoor permit series on Friday night. Live coverage on ESPN2 goes from 8 to 10 PM.
Meet website / IAAF preview / USATF preview / Flotrack coverage

The Aviva International Match in Glasgow takes place on Saturday. It’s a scored meet between teams representing the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Commonwealth.
Meet website / Ten to follow

The 78th edition of the historic and traditional Cinque Mulini (“five mills”) cross country race will be held in Vallagarina, Italy on Sunday. The athletes actually run through working mills.
Meet website (in Italian) / IAAF preview

The BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe on Sunday is the next IAAF permit meet.
Meet website / IAAF preview

The Osaka International Ladies Marathon takes place on Sunday.
Race website (in Japanese) / IAAF preview / Japan Running News preview / live vido link

College
The best meet of the weekend will probably be the Big XII v. Pac-10 v. SEC showdown at Texas A&M on Friday and Saturday. Three schools from each conference will be competing, with the competition being between the conferences rather than individual teams. Five of the top ten men’s teams (according to the USTFCA rankings) and four of the top ten women’s teams will be there.
Preview / results page / streaming video / Flotrack coverage

The Rod McCravy Invitational is on Friday and Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky.
Preview / results page

The Terrier Classic is in Boston on Friday.
Flotrack coverage

The Pole Vault Summit is in Reno on Friday and Saturday.
Meet website

The Washington Invitational is in Seattle on Friday and Saturday. Dathan Ritzenhein is scheduled to run the 5k.
Preview / Flotrack coverage

The National Invitational is at Penn State on Friday and Saturday.
Preview / results page / Flotrack coverage

It Had To Happen

Some yahoo at CNBC.com named Darren Rovell, who writes their Sports Biz blog, put up a short post titled "Marathon’s headline win is empty". Noting that Meb was not born in the USA,

Keflezighi’s country of origin is Eritrea, a small country in Africa. He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country.

Nothing against Keflezighi, but he’s like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.

As someone at Let's Run pointed out, this is jingoistic, not racist. It's also ill-informed. Track fans know that Meb emigrated at the age of 12, hardly a ringer, and had all the "benefits" of US society.

I'm willing to bet the house that Rovell didn't know the previous American (male) NYC champ, Alberto Salazar, was also not born in the USA and is a naturalized citizen. Heck, for that matter the last American male Olympic marathon medalist before Meb, Frank Shorter, wasn't born in the USA.

And the American medalist prior to Shorter? Johnny Hayes in 1908. Born in New York City...to Irish immigrants. Dirty foreigners!