#GoodForTheNewsletter⏱

Lap 60: Sponsored by Tracksmith

Tracksmith is an independent running brand inspired by a deep love of the sport. Their Spring Collection is now available and features staples thoughtfully designed for this season of training. From their versatile Session Tops cut from a soft stretch knit, to Lane Five and Reggie Short Tights perfect for racing a marathon, these pieces are built to work as hard as you do.

For new customers, you can get $15 off of an order of $75 or more in the month of May, by using the code Lap at checkout.

THE Oregon Relay 🦆

I’ll tell you what is undoubtedly good for the sport — debate! Generally there isn’t much to get fired up about in April, but when the Oregon T&F social media accounts dropped this teaser, it became the most polarizing topic in our little corner of the internet since we were all trying to figure out what color that dress was.

For some quick context, the On Athletic Club announced six weeks ago that they’d be attempting to break the 4 x Mile World Record* at the Penn Relays this coming week. Quietly, and behind the scenes for months, the meet organizers have been lobbying for all the best professional and college teams to come together to take a crack at the 15:49.08 set by an Irish all-star team in 1985. They had some takers, but none as likely to give the OAC an honest race as the team apparently being assembled out in Eugene, for a separate event a week earlier.

The controversy was exacerbated by the irony of the poster. You can’t “call all challengers” a few days before a race after opting out of participating in a much more publicized and famous event. I am not certain when the Oregon Relays began, although I am confident it wasn’t before 1895. And while there may have been hundreds of fans lining the track, there weren’t thousands packing out a stadium.

With this news breaking, I was temporarily glad that every white guy decided to start a podcast during the pandemic, because we got to hear how the move was received by the OAC, directly from the OAC, and specifically Olli Hoare. What opened as an emotional rant turned relatively logical. Essentially, they want the rivalry, but know this sport isn’t always as black and white as we want to paint it. 

My favorite talking point has become that there are too many meets and opportunities for athletes — this is a good example. And while it isn’t necessarily fair to put the burden of popularizing the sport on a few athletes, it is equally as understandable for fans to be upset that the biggest names constantly find ways to not line up against one another. Part of being a professional athlete is dealing with some criticism and compared to having beer bottles thrown at you in the outfield of Yankee Stadium, having to read a few annoying tweets is relatively mild. I’d surmise it was not the athletes’ decision to actively avoid competing, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re now the target of vocal disapproval.

I like Hayward and the new stadium is one of the most comfortable and enjoyable places you could ever watch a meet. But there are other cool venues! And when there are certain meets that act as pillars of the sport then we need to embrace them. The tradition that is the Penn Relays transcends our bubble of diehard fans. Because of that, it should 100% be on the radar of all top athletes, to showcase the best possible presentation of track as entertainment. Would it be impossible for World Athletics to integrate the World Relays into the program? The 4 x 800, DMR and 4 x mile are currently homeless anyway.

I digress — admittedly at the start of the race my feeling was that it’d be a shame for another team to swoop in and steal the thunder a week before the OAC’s longer established turn. But then as I was watching things gradually changed. The leadoff leg, Matt Wisner, is an 800m specialist and was thought to be the weakest link (the announcer’s words, not mine!) or biggest question mark. He validated his role rather quickly, handing off in under four minutes. And while the race against lights and the clock is not quite as exciting as one against another team trading blows, it’s always a treat to watch these guys run. Teare looked fantastic on his way to running 3:53, and for a moment it seemed like there was a possibility he’d climb out from under the deficit.

The 4 x mile sounds easy on paper. There have probably been dozens of teams of men who’ve crunched the numbers of their personal bests and assumed they’d smash 15:49.08. With its collective pedigrees, surely OAC is in the same boat. But the OAC is far from a shoe-in to break it on Friday, and appropriately their best competition will come in the form of an Irish team of modern times. (Unfortunately the college section featuring Ole Miss and Texas will be run separately on Saturday.) One or two subpar laps — which is common when only racing a clock — is enough to falter the entire operation. If only there was another team who could help keep things honest!

While it is definitely irritating for fans’ voices to resonate loudest when questioning decisions professional athletes are making in regards to their own career, it’s coming from a good place. If loving Cole Hocker outkicking a star studded field is wrong, then I don’t want to be right! And do you know what’s #goodforthesport? That Cooper Teare can’t take a piss without us all talking about it. 

Still, while it may be #badfortheirseasons, part of me is hoping for an off-the-top-rope, last-minute entry from the Men of Oregon, just for the craic.

Hamburg[lar] of records 🍔

As far as recurring characters in the ever expanding Lap Count Cinematic Universe, Yalemzerf Yehualaw is quickly becoming one of the most prominent. Every time she lines up there are fireworks. 

Remember when Yehualaw ran a 31:17 10K at the Great Ethiopian Run at the start of the year and the discussion surrounded just how fast that’d be at sea level? Well, since then she set the world record for 10k (29:14) and this weekend in Hamburg delivered the fastest debut in marathon history. Her winning time of 2:17:23 is 93 seconds faster than Paula Radcliffe’s first crack at the distance and if my memory serves me correctly, she ended up improving quite a bit.

There are many ways to respond to disappointment, but I’d argue Yehualaw’s way is the best. Since finishing fourth place at the Ethiopian 10,000m trials in 30:20 — the 29th fastest time ever — Yehualaw hasn’t missed. How’s that for shaking it off? It might help that at 22 years old, there will likely be more Olympics in her future. After all, 2:17:23 is number six on the global, all-time descending order list, and is also the Ethiopian national record.

All of this said, despite her accomplishments, the running world has been slow in giving her adequate recognition. Hopefully she heads stateside for a race soon, especially as she has been studying English for the last few years. Yalemzerf is regularly putting out heat on her Instagram, but currently has fewer followers than David Ribich, who doesn’t even have the Division II record for 1500m.

And I know it’s such a classic move to complain about race coverage, but this was the most egregious and neglectful act by a TV producer I have ever seen. There are cameras all over the finish-line area: watch this and try not to punch a hole through your wall.

On the men’s side, the race came down to a sprint finish, which, like the first three quarters of a non-blow-out basketball game, makes the preceding 26 miles meaningless. Kenya’s Cyprian Kotut, the 2021 Valencia Marathon champion, held off Uganda’s Stephen Kissa in a final clocking of 2:04:47 to 2:04:48. Whatever Kotut’s coach did in this build up should be copy and pasted in the future, as his training partner, Evans Chebet, also won a reasonably hyped up race in Massachusetts last week.

Kissa’s first time running the distance was good for a Ugandan national record, and fourth-place finisher Victor Kiplangat was also under the mark. (And for what it’s worth, which might not be much, their training partner, Joshua Cheptegei, liked an Instagram post of mine from July this week and I swooned. He was likely doing some research after my 26 minute long love letter to him.)

Ultra impressive 🇱🇹

They say it’s best to keep moving up in distance as you get older, but maybe Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin can stop now. This weekend, the 40-year-old broke the 100 kilometer world record, covering the distance in 6:05:40. 

That’s obviously a long time to be running and sounds fast, but what exactly does it mean, for us less ultra-seasoned fans? Let me put it in perspective: he ran at a pace of 5:53/mi for over 62 miles! Sorokin’s time was almost four minutes faster than the previous record and this feat adds to his previous 100 mile, 12 hour and 24 hour world records.

According to a recent New York Times article, Sorokin only started running in 2013. He picked up the sport to lose weight and get healthy, but now he is testing human limits by pissing in water bottles while running. Even in the world of ultramarathons, every second counts!

In partnership with WCH OREGON22

In less than 80 days the best athletes in the world will be heading to Oregon, but are you? The likes of Mondo Duplantis, Yulimar Rojas, and Grant Holloway will be competing in your backyard at the World Athletics Championships – but Team USA needs our support! Athletes like Devon Allen, Taliyah Brooks, and Raevyn Rogers have traveled the world competing on the biggest stages, but there’s no place like home: NEXT STOP OREGON.

No trouble in the Noble Double 💫

On Friday night at the Oregon Relays, Lee University’s Christian Noble ran 3:36.00 to break the Division II 1500m record. Then an hour later, he doubled back to run 13:35, good for 5th in the 5000m. Hey, if you’re a small school from Tennessee that’s sent an athlete across the country, you might as well get your money’s worth! Besides, at this point it’s a safe investment. Noble is well-versed in the  impressive double that sets an NCAA record. At the BU Last Chance meet, he ran the mile in 3:56.10 and then returned in the 3000m in 7:50.98 for two fresh all-time Division II marks.

If you have ever seen me hyping up Lee University on social media and wondered why, here’s a little backstory. Christian’s coach is a former athlete of mine. I was perusing the LetsRun message boards 12 years ago while dealing with an injury, and responded to a post from a recent college graduate who was seeking a new coach to guide him.

Caleb Morgan had just finished up at Lee himself — which at the time was an NAIA school — and with no legitimate experience to my name, he gave me the reins to start writing his workouts. Caleb didn’t run quite as fast as Christian now has under his coaching, but he improved! Along the way we were in constant conversation about training theory and how to best develop under-trained athletes. Mark Zuckerberg stayed up all night inventing Facebook so that we could use it to stay up all night talking about aerobic threshold via its messaging platform.

Then two years later, Caleb became Lee’s head coach at just 25 and suddenly found himself responsible for a lot of kids’ careers. We collaborated weekly on what each of the workout groups would do and experimented until we found a formula that worked for his athletes and training venues. Like every smug college runner who thinks they know everything, I spoke with the utmost confidence about what everyone should be doing. And then Caleb, who has always been an incredible motivator, tireless recruiter, and adept communicator, found a way to turn our ideas into something that his athletes could believe in.

In the years that followed, my input became less necessary and gradually faded into the background. Christian’s freshman year was the last time that I would still get the occasional text about structuring a taper or confirmation as to why so many good runners were doing so many hill sprints. I haven’t seen the training logs in a while, but I can guarantee you the way Christian became the best distance runner in Division II history is with loads of long intervals with short rest. Groundbreaking stuff — but it’s not just one guy!

Lee’s 1500 men: 3:36 - 3:43 - 3:47 - 3:50 - 3:52 - 3:52… and 5000 men: 13:24 - 13:46 - 14:18 - 14:21 - 14:24 - 14:30… and Celine Ritter has run 9:11 for 3000m and 15:58 for 5000m. 

I asked coach Morgan what disadvantages a Division II runner on his team has compared to those in the highest division — he said not much, except they race with a chip on their shoulder.

This week in our Friday morning premium newsletter we’ll be speaking with Tinman Elite’s Reed Fischer, who just ran 2:10:54 PB at the Boston Marathon.

Rookie on the trail — Garrett Heath

Not every track runner is cut out for the trails. But if you remember watching Garrett Heath at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country meet between 2014 and 2016, then you’ll know he is. Who else has run away from the likes of Kenensia Bekele, Asbel Kiprop, and Mo Farah? (When Garrett stayed at my place a couple months ago I pulled up the race on YouTube at 2AM and forced him to commentate.)

Garrett’s career on the oval has more or less come to its conclusion at 36 years old. But with a range of 1:47/3:34/3:54/7:37/13:16/27:56, then it makes sense that he’ll be able to extend his abilities a bit further and over rockier terrain.

This weekend at the Canyons 25K, Garrett made his debut on the trails and won the race by over a minute. Not a bad start! We caught up with him to hear more about how his burgeoning trail career is going.

As you're making the decision to step away from the track and enter this new chapter of your career, what drew you to the trails as opposed to the more traditional road route? 

When I talked to Brooks, I pitched doing both. But recently, I’ve realized if I’m going to the trails then I need to put all my eggs in that basket. If it doesn't work out and I break on the downhills, then I'll try the roads. I may eventually do a half-marathon, though I am happy for now. It's a different challenge from anything I’ve done.

I have to imagine training has changed. Are you approaching this with the same level of vigor that you did in your track career? 

Training is completely different, in addition to also adding in working at SOS Hydration full-time. I'm running probably 20% less miles a week, but focusing on hitting the trails and vert, the ups and downs. I don't know what the best way to train for trails at this point is, but I'm basically in this perpetual fall training mode doing hills, fartleks, and tempos. I’m going to the mountains near Seattle once or twice a week to do as much hill running as I can.

Now that you’re no longer training with the track-focused Beasts, do you have a new coach or training partners?

So I just recently started working a bit with Joe McConaughy, who's another Brooks trail athlete that does some trail coaching. It’s not like the Beasts because it’s very individual, but I am receiving guidance for what workouts look like in this new world. It's much different than the track where you’re trying to peak for a U.S. Championship and then the Olympics. There's a bunch of different good races scattered throughout the year.

You're the most accomplished track athlete in recent U.S. history to make the transition to the trail. Do you feel some pressure because you're representing all your friends who watch trail races and thought, “Oh, I could do that?” 

Not completely, because I think there are those who are really underestimating trail running and think they could just step in and take over. They have no idea what they'd be getting into and would get absolutely annihilated. But the feedback I got early was to prepare to be horrible at first and to proceed with caution. It's not the track – there is another skill set here that you need to develop over time. 

Maybe there haven't been a ton of track athletes who have transitioned over, but there have been some good ones who did it successfully like Jim Walmsley, Joe Gray, Adam Peterman and Max King. It's hard to feel a ton of pressure right off the bat because it is so underestimated by the track world. I don't even know if it's even considered at all. 

If you were to grade your debut as a 5000m time, what would you give yourself?

Probably like, a 13:35, if that makes any sense.

Are there plans to move up in distance or are you staying on the shorter side of the trail scene?

I was originally thinking the 25K was my max, but now I can see how the 50K could be enticing. I'm not remotely tempted to go beyond that at this point because it becomes something completely different. Then it’s a mental game. Plus the suffering and recovery post-race — you could be out for an extended period of time after.

On the track, everything has been so measured for so long that if you're off by a few seconds it’s surprising. If I think I'm in shape to run 63s to go 13:07, but actually run 13:20 that’s a total misestimation of fitness. And on the trail every course is so different and time doesn’t mean anything, so it’s all effort based. It’s cross country to an extreme, where someone may rip a hill and you have no idea if they’re going to die or about to win the race. We have so much less to gauge off.

Then ten miles into a race you may feel great, but it’s on a technical aspect so you have to wait. There’s a gamesmanship to racing people rather than just going against the clock. And that’s in the 25K, which basically makes me a sprinter.

What else did you learn from your first experience?

The day before we went out to do a pre-race shakeout and see some of the course. After a half mile I had to turn around and run somewhere else or my quads would have been destroyed for the race. There was no way to run it easy. So my course knowledge was everything I could gather from the elevation map. 

I was a minute and a half behind at one point from the leaders, but I was in an all out chase on the uphills in the second half. It was my first time power hiking in a race, and I just took advantage of any flat sections — that was new.

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

• NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy ran a personal best of 15:14 for 5000m to win the Virginia Challenge by 12 seconds — that’s an NCAA lead and without doing any research, has to be one of the fastest marks ever on the east coast in April.

• Olympic 400m champion Steven Gardiner won again! The time in a world leading 44.22 at LSU. His only loss since 2017 at the distance came at the World Championships where he finished in second.

• High school sensation Sadie Engelhardt ran 9:50 for 3200m to set a new freshman class record. That’s faster than I ran…

• Georgia’s Matthew Boling went 19.92 (-0.9) to become the NCAA leader at 200m.

• Mason Ferlic won the steeplechase (8:23.92) at the Oregon Relays. Nick Willis posed the question asking if there’s any faster PhD student out there. Well, China’s Sing Bingtain ran 9.83 for 100m and wrote his dissertation about it.

• Don’t worry, Devon Allen is still serious about track. He ran a world leading 13.12 (+1.1) in Maryland.

• The 2021 NCAA 100m champion, Cambrea Sturgis, ran a wind-legal personal best of 10.87 (+1.8) for the world lead. There have been a lot of fast times this spring, though many have been windy.

• Brittany Brown ran 10.66 (+3.2) for the fastest wind-aided time of the year. Entering this season, the 2019 200m world championship silver medalist best 100m was 11.21!

• Dom Scott returned home to win the South African 5000m championships over Caster Semenya in a time of 15:28 to 15:31.

• Jessica Hull and James Hansen won the 3.827k race around Melbourne’s famed Royal Botanic Gardens to win “Run the Tan” in times of 11:46 and 10:44, respectively.

• To celebrate the release of their Metaspeed Sky, Asics held a series of races in Spain that was highlighted by Eilish McColgan’s 14:45 to set a new British 5K record.

• At the USATF 1 Mile Road Championships on Tuesday night, Emily Lipari won the women’s race in 4:33 and Vincent Ciattei won the men’s in 4:04. (Press Release because it’s midnight and tomorrow is my first day back at work after paternity leave.)

Thank you so much to Tracksmith for sponsoring this week’s newsletter! Tell your friends to buy their clothes and subscribe to The Lap Count.