10,000 reasons to love track ⏱
Lap 53: Sponsored by COROS
No other name in mountain sports carries as much weight as Kilian Jornet. Kilian has dominated some of the toughest trail races in the world and looking forward will be wearing the COROS APEX Pro as he sets his sights on the Hard Rock Hundred and UTMB for 2022.
See how the partnership between Kilian and COROS got started in their latest blog post.
There is no debate 👨⚖️🐐
For those who don’t already know, Eliud Kipchoge is very good at the marathon. With two Olympic gold medals, nine major marathon victories, and perhaps the greatest PR “stunt” in our sport’s history, it is impossible to dispute his status as the greatest to ever do it. And that makes my job as the writer of an opinion-based track newsletter a whole lot harder. What’s the scintillating take here if everyone’s in agreement on the guy’s GOAT-ness?!
Alas. On Sunday morning in Tokyo, Kipchoge etched his name even deeper into the record books as his 2:02:40 winning time established a new Japanese soil record. The time is officially the fourth fastest all-time; two of the spots ahead of it are his own world record (2:01:39) and his London Marathon course record (2:02:37).
From a race organizer’s standpoint, it’s in their best interest for Kipchoge to continue building his legend by winning the race, but he hasn’t exactly been dealt layups in terms of the fields he’s faced. In Tokyo the eventual second place finisher was Amos Kipruto, whose finishing time of 2:03:13 is now tied for ninth fastest ever run. And in third place was Tamirat Tola in 2:04:14, whose resume includes an Olympic bronze medal, a World Championship silver and a best marathon of 2:03:39.
If I may reach for a lukewarm-at-best take to spin here, the one criticism of Kipchoge — remember, I said this is a reach— could be that he has never run a “hard” course. Who can blame him? Running fast is fun! But, with virtually every accomplishment checked, Kipchoge’s new arbitrary goal is to win every marathon major. That would be very cool, even if it’s still a relatively new series. It was founded in 2006 and Tokyo was added to the roster in 2013.
That means he’ll have to race New York and Boston where there is more climbing, and no pacers. Do I think he can win under these circumstances? Obviously. He’s the best at this!
I’m more concerned with the tactical error he made from a negotiation standpoint. Kipchoge’s appearance fee must be astronomical — it’s a competitive market, locking down the sport’s biggest draw. But now that his intentions are public, he needs Boston and New York just as much as they need him. Why pay top dollar if he’s gonna run your race anyway?
Good luck getting in via the lottery system, Eliud! My suggestion would be to do the NYRR 9+1 program to get guaranteed entry the following year. That means your final major win will be on November 5, 2023 — what better way to celebrate your 39th birthday than at the 52nd running of the New York City Marathon?
Padding those stats! 📊
If someone besides Eliud Kipchoge is going to win all six marathon majors, then it’ll likely be Brigid Kosgei. Her win at the Tokyo Marathon in 2:16:02 is now her third marathon major badge unlocked (with five titles overall) and the third fastest time ever. The world record holder even had plenty of fast women behind her — fifth place finished in 2:19:10! But Kosgei still finished almost two minutes before second place.
It feels like the general running newsletter-consuming public is due to wake up to the brilliance that is Brigid Kosgei. The 16 seconds that separated her, earning the silver medal, from Peres Jepchirchir winning gold at the 2020 Olympics might have delayed her gaining the notoriety that she deserves on the biggest of stages. However, father (mother?) time is on Brigid’s side. She’s just 28 years old — it feels like we are in the process of witnessing the chosen one.
While it’s generally not fair to compare anyone to Eliud Kipchoge, consider this: for all that Brigid Kosgei has already accomplished in her career, at the same age, Kipchoge hadn’t even debuted in a marathon. Maybe in nine years we’ll be having a much more heated discussion about who the true GOAT is!
USATF 15K Championships 🐊
I like to joke that my daughter can be anything she wants when she grows up, whether that's an 800m runner or a marathoner. Had I wanted to put even more pressure on her then I should have considered naming her Emily, the moniker that swept the podium at the USATF 15K Championships, which took place as part of the Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Florida.
Emily (Sisson), racing for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics, made a statement via her fifth national title in a dominant 47:28 (winning by 1:19 and the gender equalizer bonus). In second place was the new queen of road running consistency, Emily (Durgin). And in third was Emily (Infeld), who recently announced she is now being coached by Jon Green of Molly Seidel-fame, as part of his newly formed, Flagstaff-based group, the Verde Track Club.
On the men’s side, the race featured Olympians and US road champ staples such as Galen Rupp, Leonard Korir, Hilary Bor, Biya Simbassa, Colin Bennie. Oh, and the eventual winner: a fella by the name of Nico Montanez. Now for those who haven’t been paying attention, then maybe this Mammoth Track Club athlete was a surprise victor, but he shouldn’t have been. Montanez has been rock solid the past couple years, and it was only a matter of time before he claimed his first national title. In 2021 he finished third at the USATF 20k and Half Marathon Championships and he also took bronze at last year’s Gate River Run.
Maybe only just now mentioning Rupp’s seventh place finish is burying the lede, but at this point in his career we should stop being surprised when he lays the occasional goose egg in the middle of a training block.
In partnership with New Balance Nationals
This weekend, New Balance Nationals returns, bringing the very best high school athletes in the country to The Armory. Who will claim this round of the rivalry between Roisin Willis and Sophia Gorriaran? Can Shawnti Jackson best her all-time 60m mark? How fast can the Newbury Park boys run the 4 x mile? CITIUS MAG will be there covering all the action!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't miss a special edition of AFTER THE FINAL LAP. Saturday and Sunday following the meet, we'll be joined by some of the biggest stars in the sport like Emma Coburn, Trayvon Bromell and Cory McGee, as well as some the brightest stars of tomorrow. All the races will be streamed live for free via RunnerSpace.
6.19 ❌❌⭕️
Track and Field Twitter blew up this week when a rare moment of ESPN covering the sport began percolating onto timelines. The catch is that it wasn’t for Mondo Duplantis’s new world record of 6.19m, set in Belgrade on Monday evening.
The highlight in question was of the University of Houston’s Chris Sampy, who recently cleared 5.47m to qualify for this weekend’s NCAA Championships. The confusing part of the post was that this was the third time SportsCenter has shared it this year — it’s a video of Sampy from high school! While the All-American Sampy is certainly no slouch, it almost feels like the social media team at ESPN just remembered that pole vault is a thing, and tossed up the first video they could find of it.
The SportsCenter account has 39.7 million followers and the general public’s comments fall on the spectrum somewhere between, ‘has anyone ever impaled themselves doing this sport?’ and ‘this has to be one of the hardest things to do in ANY sport!’’ Launching oneself over twenty feet in the air is objectively cool and is a relatively easy thing to appreciate. Unlike other disciplines, no idiot sitting on their couch watches and thinks they can do it better. Pole Vault is captivating and beautiful to watch…
…And speaking of captivating and beautiful pole vault, how about Mondo!
This was the third time in Duplantis’s career that he raised the bar to break the world record. On a ruler or when stacked on top of 600+ others, a single centimeter doesn’t seem like much. But the execution and precision to make it that little bit higher at these heights is significant. Plus, it’s no secret that athletes like to go up a little bit at a time to cash in on bonuses. This signature move was trademarked by Serhiy Bubka who broke the world record on 35 occasions between 1984 and 1994.
Most events don’t allow for incremental attempts in the way that the pole vault (and high jump) do. (For example, I technically attempted to break the world record in the mile every time I lined up, but never had to announce that intention to the world. Shocking, right? Probably not what you expected to hear if you ever watched me go out in near last place, through the first quarter in 59 seconds.)
Mondo’s past two years have been a lesson in perseverance. No, it’s not like we expected the 22-year old superstar to quit. But, since clearing 6.18m, Mondo has made 54 attempts at improvement. Don’t be surprised if the refractory period between now and his next WR is a bit shorter. Next week he’ll be launching himself from Belgrade’s famously springy runway at the World Indoor Championships.
Mondo’s best competition will likely come from Christopher Nilsen, who has twice broken the American Record this indoor season. While the Olympic silver medalist has boosted his personal best from 5.97m to 6.05m, Mondo is 36-2 dating back to the 2020 season.
One last thing: please manage your expectations about ESPN covering the matchup — we have a much better shot at getting a fourth repost of a grainy video from a local high school invitational in Texas.
Do you want to support our sport’s elite athletes? Then subscribe to our Friday morning premium newsletter! This week we’ll be speaking with former NCAA Mile Champion, Karisa Nelson about her decision to move to New York City to join Atalanta to be coached by Julia Lucas. Sign up to receive an interview in your inbox every week to support this initiative, which has now raised over $18,500, with all proceeds going towards those whose stories we share.
The TEN 🔟
Sound Running’s The TEN was initially scheduled for Saturday, but with high winds in the forecast for San Juan Capistrano and ideal conditions on Sunday, the races were pushed back. It was in those ideal conditions that athletes went after the USATF Championships standard, (27:50/31:45) the World Championships standards (27:28/31:25), and the possibility of two American records falling loomed large.
The Bowerman Track Club’s Elise Cranny recently broke the indoor 5000m record at Boston University with a huge personal best of 14:33.17. Although the 5000m Olympian debuted last year in an impressive 30:47.42, she came up short of qualifying in the 10,000m at the Olympic Trials, eventually finishing fourth. Well since then things have certainly changed.
Molly Huddle’s time of 30:13.17 was the target, and with the help of WaveLight on the inside rail, Elise kept pace, despite running the final 7000m solo. There was some confusion for fans who stayed up and watched Cranny. Those on-site were aware that the lights were set a few seconds slower than record pace, but this wasn’t communicated to those watching at home. Personally, I trusted the clock, which stopped at 30:14.66.
This was ridiculously impressive. The previous record was set during the 2016 Olympic 10000m in what is arguably the deepest race at the distance of all-time! Cranny’s penultimate lap of 75.4 was her slowest of the evening, and it appeared to be the end of the road. But she rallied back against the light to run 67.6 for the final 400 in a true race against the clock.
It wasn’t just Elise who ran fast the hard way! The gutsiest performance of the weekend was probably Dominque Scott’s 31:00.10 for second place — a 19 second personal best. (And I don’t say that just because Dom is a loyal reader of The Lap Count, although it certainly helps the cause!) Early on she was forced to make a decision: commit to the hot early pace or play it safer with the pack. After sitting in the lead pack for 3000m, she then also ran the last 7000m of the race alone.
Nine women total made it under the 31:25 World Standard, but no one cut it closer than Long Island’s Emily Lipari. In her 10000m debut, just seven months after surgery to repair a torn meniscus, the former miler experienced the nightmare that is miscounting laps. After kicking to what she thought was home in 69.2, Lipari reportedly threw her hands up in celebration before realizing she wasn’t quite done yet. Somehow, there was enough gas left in the tank for the real final lap in 77 seconds to SQUEAK under for a 31:24.82! If Lipari hadn’t regretted moving up in distance at some point during the preceding six miles, then she most likely did then.
Speaking with the American Record Holder 🔴⚫️
The one way that Grant Fisher could have topped his indoor 5000m American Record of 12:53.73 was with another one. His 26:33.84 is now the seventh fastest 10,000m of all-time and the guys ahead of him are names like Haile Gebrselassie and Paul Tergat.
The only other American to break 27-minutes for 10,000m besides Galen Rupp (26:44.36) is Chris Solinsky (26:59.60). When that happened back in 2010 it had ripple effects across the sport — that performance took on almost ‘where were you when JFK got shot’ level of significance to American distance runners. To help make clear just how far things have come the past 12 years, when Grant crossed the finish line, Solinsky would have had another 195 meters still to go.
In the words of my friend Aaron Potts from the post-race interview, ‘North America, we out here!’ Just a step behind Fisher was Canada’s Moh Ahmed in 26:34.14. With two global medals and a 12:47.20 5000m best, a run like this has likely been in his legs before, but putting it together on an opportune day is a different thing entirely. In every interview Grant has done, he credits Moh as a huge factor in his own success. The BTC has their willingness to rabbit each other to big performances. I caught up with Grant on Monday to hear more about the race and all the surrounding excitement.
Did you get to sleep at all last night or were you too busy celebrating?
There was some celebration, but it was a Sunday night. When I got out of drug testing it was pretty late so we got some In-N-Out. You're tired, but can’t sleep. At 3AM I was scrolling through Instagram waiting for something new to pop up.
I am sure you lined up with the expectation of going after that American Record of 26:44, but it wasn’t even really close. Did you think running that fast was a possibility?
The expectation going in was to essentially try to run the American Record. Leading up to the race, we had a lot of uncertainties revolving around rabbits, but they came together at the last minute. Our original plan was to get a rabbit for maybe 3-4k and then trade off, but my confidence grew knowing we’d have help. I surprised myself with how far under we went — a lot of things had to come together to do that.
I’d imagine there was some pushback moving the race a day, but it proved to be the right move. When did you hear about that possibly happening?
I first heard about it on Wednesday leading up to the race, so we were doing our final prep workout. Jerry called us over and said the forecast on Saturday night was pretty windy. The plan was to monitor it and talk to Jesse about potentially moving it. That night at about 11:00pm Jerry sent a text saying to cancel our flights the next day and book hotels for an extra day.
Ultimately you look back and it seems to have been the right call. We're appreciative of not having wind and I think it was cemented in our brains during pre-meet when you do a stride against the wind and think, ‘I don't want to do this for 10k.’ I’m sure there were a lot of interesting things behind the scenes that we didn't see to accommodate the change.
It's not really a secret that there's some level of criticism for these time trials that sort of exist in a bubble. Do you think that's in any way warranted when you are going for standards and records? In fairness, you have proven the ability to run in championships. But do you hear that noise or care?
I definitely think about that and I understand where it’s coming from. Some of the most exciting moments in track come from head-to-head racing, championship-style stuff where the race isn’t paced and it's more organic. It's also fun to test the limits of your body and see how fast you can go.
I would argue that the time to have the championship racing is in the summer and almost always Bowerman shows up for those and performs really well. There aren't many opportunities throughout the year to run a fast 10k and we knew we were all fit right now, and this was a great opportunity for us. And when you have limited chances, you want to make sure everything's right. In this case, running in 15-20 mph winds could be the difference between running the standard or not and those are important margins.
I think you see other groups that are running — like Cooper and Cole going for mile American Record or what Josh Kerr did at BU — I thought that was very exciting. I think there's room for both in the sport. We would all trade running fast now for a high finish at the World Championships this summer and that's certainly our priority. I personally appreciate both sides: running fast and the racing side.
The counterpoint is that I thought it was a great race between you and Moh. It looked like he might have had you with like 200 meters to go, but you were able to fight back. What's the motivation when you’re racing a teammate with 100 meters to go?
I read you guys covering this with the New Balance Boston group. It is an interesting situation where 90-95 percent of that race, we are relying on each other. I needed him there and he needed me. You're not able to push as much when you're alone. But at some point, it's time to race.
At the end of the day, we're both competitive people and we both like to win. For 95 percent of the race you’re thinking of each other as teammates, someone that you genuinely need to endure that pace. And It's good practice to be racing the reigning silver medalist in the Olympics – what better experience is there? He’s been a mentor to me.
I think we do a good job of switching it on and off. It was set up to be a fast race in perfect conditions, with pace lights, pacers, everything was controlled, but at the end of the day, it still became a race. And that was exciting to be a part of, and hopefully to watch.
I’ve heard that Sean McGorty has the reputation of being the one to take the hardest reps. You now have two American Records so are you going to have to take on more of the burden?
Sean is a metronome. He’s really easy to run behind and he’s a bigger guy than me so he blocks a little more wind. As a team, we do a great job of really balancing the workload. I'm certainly leading more than I did during my rookie season. I’d let the guys know, ‘hey, I just went all out on that last one so I'm not sure about this one.’ But yeah, I think I'm a bit more reliable now.
Last night at 3AM, did you look at the all-time 10,000m list? Your name is next to some legends.
It's kind of a surreal feeling, you know? My name was kind of out of place when I saw it. I'm not used to seeing it next to those guys up there so it's a strange feeling. I have some imposter syndrome right now, but it's an honor to be in that company. It’s crazy for me to say I’m number seven in the world, ever. Don’t worry, the guys on the team are making sure I won’t get a big head.
(This interview was condensed and edited for your reading pleasure.)
Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥
Nikki Hiltz has announced that they have moved to Flagstaff and will be coached by Mike Smith.
Four Stanford commits teamed up in Chicago to break the high school national 4 x mile record, running 19:30.13. In the same meet, Roisin Willis doubled back with a different squad to set the DMR record of 11:15.45.
Jack Rayner finished in third place at The TEN in 27:15.35, setting a new Australian 10,000m record.
New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish (3:36.53) closed a big gap to catch OAC teammate and podcast partner, Ollie Hoare (3:36.54) in the final steps of the 1500m to claim the win at the Sound Running meet. The goal of achieving the world standard fell short and it’s a good reminder that ideal 1500m and 10,000m conditions are different.
Atlanta Track Club’s Shane Streich ran an indoor personal best of 1:45.90 to win the Chicago Meet of Champions. In her final tuneup before the World Champs, Olivia Baker ran 2:00.39 to win her race.
Burundi’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo won the World Cross Country Tour meet held in Serradilla by 20 seconds. On the women’s side it was a photo finish with Yasemin Can of Turkey holding off the outstretched arms of Kenya’s Eva Cherono. (Race video)
South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka set the 50km world record in his debut at the distance in a time of 2:40:12 (5:09/mile).
Kenya’s Sabastian Kimaru Sawe ran 58:02 for the half marathon at RomaOstia. He ran 59:02 to win in Seville earlier this year where he entered as a rabbit, but stayed in to win. Prior to those two races his best performance according to the World Athletics database was a 13:42 5000m in 2019. Keep an eye on the name! Irine Jepchumba Kimais won the women’s event in 1:06:03 for an Italian soil record.
Joshua Cheptegei opened his season on the roads winning a 10k in 26:49… casual!
If you’re a #BigThrowsGuy but aren’t a Nick Ponzio fan yet, I suggest getting on board now (check out his Instagram to see why). He set the Italian national record (21.61m) to win the shot put in Belgrade and as always, looked good doing it.
After multiple 3000 meters of trying, Selemon Barega (7:34.03) eventually succeeded in out-kicking Lamecha Girma (7:34.09) in Madrid. These guys are basically glued together this indoor season.
The Barkley Marathons has started! Here are Twitter updates.
The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships will take place on March 11-12. Watch on ESPN3 with track action starting at 4pm on both days.
Thank you to COROS for sponsoring this week’s newsletter! I know we say this every week, but if you know anyone who may interested in receiving The Lap Count every Wednesday, please consider sharing a link with them — we love new subscribers!