Weekend Recap 2/17 - 2/19 — Ovals & Trails

Very strong week for professional and high school running. From Records being broken to awards being presented to championships being won. It's easy to say that this was another busy weekend.

World Record in the 4xMile

From left to right, Donn Cabral, Ford Palmer, Graham Crawford, Kyle Merber. / LetsRun.com

Friday Evening around 8:01pm eastern time at the Armory in New York, Donn Cabral, Ford Palmer, Graham Crawford and Kyle Merber broke the Indoor 4xMile World Record with a time of 16:12.81. The Previous record which had been held since 1993 was 16:16.67 with the team of Brad Horton (4:07.2), Jeff Smith (4:07.3), Brad Schlapak (4:02.8) and Bill Burke (3:59.4).

World Record Unofficial Splits -

Donn Cabral - 4:04
Ford Palmer - 4:01
Graham Crawford - 4:07
Kyle Merber - 3:57

Initially this record was supposed to include Colby Alexander but he pulled out due to illness and Graham Crawford took his spot.

Mo Farah Retires From Indoor Track / Breaks Record

Saturday, February 18th. 33 year old, Mo Farah broke the Indoor 5,000-meter British Record with a time of 13:09.16 at Birmingham.

The Previous record which had been held by Farah as well, was 13:10.60 set in February 2011.

Farah, who usually resides in Portland, Oregon left his family and headed to Ethiopia after a disappointing 7th place finish at the Great Edinburgh XC Challenge to train hard and focus even more on his running. And it appears it's paid off.

This was also Mo Farah's last Indoor race.

Last Outdoor-Track race? This summer at the World Championships

Farah plans on transitioning to road racing at the beginning of fall 2017.

Other Things That Happened at Birmingham

Olympian Laura Muir broke the Women's 1,000-meter British Record, 2:31.93.

Hellen Obiri broke the Women's 3,000-meter Kenyan Record with a time of 8:29.41. Sifan Hassan finished 2nd (8:30.76)

600-meter World Record Holder, Cas Loxsom ran 1:46.13 to win the 800-meter.

Minnesota native, Ben Blankenship won the 1500-meters, 3:36.42. Barely edging out Ryan Gregson (3:36.50). Garrett Heath finished 7th (3:39.72)

3x Olympian Shannon Rowbury finished 8th in the 3,000-meter with a time of 8:45.48.

USATF 50k Trail Championships

Saturday, 36 year Oregon native, Max King won the Men's division with a time of 3 hours, 32 minutes and 36 seconds (31 miles at 6:51 pace). Followed by Oregon alum, Cole Watson who finished with a time of 3:39:50 (7:05 pace).

The Women's division was led by 31 year old Yiou Wang who ran the 50k in 4 hours, 18 minutes and 8 seconds (8:19 pace). Colorado native, Addie Bracy finished second, 4:32:14 (8:46 pace).

More Pro's on Tracks

Olympic bronze-medalist, Clayton Murphy ran his first 800-meter of the 2017 season at the Zips Invite in Akron, Ohio, 1:47.22

Robby Andrews won the mile at the Ocean Breeze Grand Prix with a time of 3:59.36. Andrew Wheating (4:00.32) placed 2nd. Former NCAA D1 1500 Champion, Mac Fleet (4:10.05) finished 9th.

Fast High Schoolers

Cameron Cooper, senior at Oak Parks High School.

Cameron Cooper, a senior at Oak Parks High School ran 1:49.82 in the 800-meter at the University of Kentucky High School Invite. Which also happens to be the second fastest prep time EVER indoors.

Both 2017 Nike Cross National Champions Casey Clinger and Brie Oakley ran Nation leading times at the Simplot Games in Idaho. Clinger, 3200 (8:54.97). Oakley, 1600 (4:48.53)

Another stat to take note of, as of February 20th, three of the top five Boy's 1600-meter runners in the nation are on the American Forks team. Casey Clinger (4:08.23), Patrick Parker (4:09.95), McKay Johns (4:11.67).

At the NJSIAA Group 4 Championships, Niamh Hayes ran the second fastest Girl's 3200-meter this season with the time of 10:39.50.

Sydney McLaughlin ran 36.82 in the 300-meter at the Armory to break the Girl's prep record. Previously held by Francena McCorory (36.96).

Fastest Known Time of the Year Awards

The first ever Fastest Known Time of the Year (FKTOY) Awards were announced on Friday. From what used to just be comments on message forms and word of mouth has now become an actual award. It's basically an award for the best male and female ultra-running performances of the year.

This year 36 year old financial analyst, Pete Kostelnik was crowned the FKT Most Notable Male of 2016. For his outstanding performance in the Trans-American footrace, a race that begins in Los Angeles and finishes in New York City, a total of 3,067 miles. Kostelnik ran the race in 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes. Thats an average of 72 miles per day.

Heather Anderson. / sevenhillsrunningshop.com

The FKT Most Notable Female of 2016 was given to Heather Anderson, for breaking the self-supported (backpacker) record on the Arizona Trail. She broke the Men's record by two-days. Anderson covered 800-miles in 19 days, 17 hours and 9 minutes.

Kenya Cross Country National Championship

On Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya some of the best distance runners in the country lined up for a chance at making the Kenyan National team and competing in Uganda at the World Cross Country Championships in March.

Both Men and Women ran a 10k.

The Men's division was led by Leonard Barsoton (28:56). On the Women's side 25 year old Irene Cheptai (31:48) was crowned the champion.

The complete qualifying team...

Men - Leonard Barsoton, Bedan Karoki, Geoffrey Kamworor, Vincent Rono, Leonard Komon, Leonard Lagat

Women - Irene Cheptai, Lilian Kasait, Faith Kipyegon, Alice Aprot, Agnes Tirop, Hyvin Kiyeng

South America Cross Country Championship

The South American Cross Country Championship was held in La Reina, Chile this year, also in hopes of racing at the World Championships in March.

The Men's division was led by René Champi (30:46). And Carmen Toaquiza (35:36) won the Women's race.

Complete qualifying team...

Men - René Champi, Walter Nina, Gilberto Lopes, Christian Manzano, Esteban Cuestas and Eulalio Muñoz

Women - Carmen Toaquiza, Diana Landy Andrade, Jessica Paguay Guamán, Soledad Torre, Nelida Sulca, Nicolasa Condori

Malcom Gladwell References a CitiusMag.com article

On Thursday Malcom Gladwell was a guest on the Bill Simmons Podcast, a podcast that easily reaches 500,000+ people and he referenced an article on citiusmag.com written by Paul Snyder.

Why is this news? Malcom Gladwell has a big following, over 450,000 followers on Twitter and 277,449 on Facebook. The guy is a public figure. And every time he mentions Track & Field in any sort of way it gives this sport a little more credibility, and maybe it gets somebody new interested because when he's speaking on the Bill Simmons Podcast, he's not speaking to a bunch of track nerds, he's speaking to a wide-variety of sports fans.

But not only that. CitiusMag.com hasn't even been around for a month yet. Not even a month and they've already reached the national spotlight.

If you're unfamiliar with CitiusMag.com it's a new running media platform that Christopher Chavez started, if you've heard of theringer.com, it seems to be a lot like that, but a running edition. The articles are written with lots of vibrance and voice.

Oh yeah, and you're probably wondering what the article was, it answered the hypothetical question, if all 45 presidents raced a 5k, who would win? what would their times be?

It's hilarious, check it out - A Presidential Race: What if every U.S. president raced a 5K fun run?