Big Ideas for the Sport + We Have A Track Meet

This is the CITIUS MAG Newsletter, a weekly round-up of the biggest stories in the running and track & field community with analysis and commentary by me, Chris Chavez. If you’ve been forwarded this email or stumbled upon a link online, you can sign up and subscribe here:

The Kyle Merber Exit Interview

“I went out loving running. I’m very happy and proud of my career. I’m happy to still be a participant in some side of the sport. I feel like I’ve made out OK and sleep really well at night knowing that I gave it a really good go and I’m OK not having won an Olympic medal.”

As promised, we made it happen. Kyle Merber paid me a visit to look back at his career but we used several moments as a springboard to touch on areas where we felt like we could improve the sport or make some change. I know I’m just 27 years old and making any sort of big change isn’t going to happen overnight but hopefully, we were able to throw some ideas out there that could resonate with fans, sponsors, race organizers, athletes and coaches.

I took the extra time to transcribe a bunch of Kyle’s major points throughout the episode so if you can’t find the time to listen to the entire episode, feel free to read what he’s calling his ‘magnum opus’.

You can catch the latest episode of the podcast on iTunes so subscribe and leave a five-star review. We are also on Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify!

Last week, I briefly mentioned NAZ Elite adding 1,500m and 5,000m specialist Ryan Hill to the roster after seven years at the Bowerman Track Club. This week on the podcast, I sat down with him and examined some of the many lessons and moments he experienced in that time while also looking ahead to his expectations and training under coach Ben Rosario.

Here are a few tidbits discussing the switch on the CITIUS MAG Podcast:

How the decision to join NAZ Elite came about:

“Clearly there are some major changes going on at Nike where I was at for seven and a half years. I did not plan on making a move this year obviously with it being an Olympic year. I thought I would be in Portland. Timing and just how 2020 went down forced a lot of people to make some drastic changes. It just seemed that all the language I was hearing I was not a part of the long-term strategy at Nike. I’m a very adaptable person. I’m solution-oriented and I’m looking at the next step. Immediately started looking at other options and where am I in the long-term picture. HOKA very quickly became the leader in that category. I was able to talk to Ben Rosario and just had an incredible first couple of talks. He won me over with his professionalism, his dedication to the sport and how excited he seemed to coach a 1,500/5K guy like myself. I think it’s something that he would love to add to his team. The conversations were all positive and never had a snag. I knew I loved Flagstaff and so moving here and joining NAZ Elite would not be a big deal. At the end of the day, it was very clear from a business professional decision that HOKA and NAZ Elite was the place that I should be. There were so many personal things wrapped up in it. I was going to have to completely change my life. I had to leave my girlfriend in Portland because she has her commitments there. Leaving some of my best friends that I had at the Bowerman Track Club. Especially the timing...we’re kind of in the season. We very much view the beginning of the season as Nov. 1. This is like a mid-season trade that you might see in the NBA, right? I feel like people never think about the personal side of what those guys go through. They just think it’s the switch of a jersey and it’s all good. We’re all people. It was an extremely hard decision. I’m still dealing with that. I’m very happy about the future but it’s so recent that I’m still a little bit in the grieving process of my time being over at Bowerman.”

The coaching switch from Jerry Schumacher to Ben Rosario:

“If I had to really simplify it, I’m going from a 5K coach and a 5K group to a marathon coach and a marathon group. I have no problem saying that. But, if you love running and you’re a great coach, you can do anything. I’ve already seen that with Ben. We had one talk about training where he essentially took me through January and February and showed me some of the training I would be doing. I instantly knew OK this guy gets it. He knows exactly the intensity and how hard you have to get after it in the 1,500 and 5K. He won me over right there. I know we’re not going to have an issue. From a transition point, Ben and Jerry surely agree that strength is the key to everything. Working on that endurance, aerobic development and letting your own natural speed show on race day. You just touch on it and have a specific 5K session every now and then. They’re very similar in that regard. But it struck me that coach Rosario’s training is almost very much like my college coach Rollie Geiger. A lot of similarities there. It’s a similar cycle and types of workouts so I really don’t see any issue in switching in training. Once again, it’s mostly personal.”

FULL SHOW NOTES AND INTERVIEW ON CITIUSMAG.COM

STAY TUNED…

There will be a professional track meet taking place in Texas in late February! We’ve teamed up with the Trials of Miles Racing organizers to try and bring this meet to as many viewers as possible for free. At this time, we expect no spectators to be allowed at the race to abide by all COVID safety protocols and making sure people can socially distance themselves and be safe. Obviously staging this and paying for some quality production team isn’t cheap but we’re going to do our best. This is just a taste of some of the names who have signed up and there are some other big names to come. There will be more details announced at a later time. If you’re a sponsor or brand with an interest in getting involved with the meet, please feel free to contact me: [email protected]

NEWS, RESULTS AND NOTES

– Andrew Bumbalough, one of the original members of the Bowerman Track Club with coach Jerry Schumacher, announced his retirement from professional running earlier this week. He finished his career with personal bests of 13:12 for 5,000m and 2:10 for the marathon. He was also 5th at the 2018 Boston Marathon – yes, the epic rainy one. He spoke with me for a 90-minute look back at the highs and lows of his career including stories of dropping Chris Solinsky in a workout and overcoming the disappointment of a 4th place finish at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track Trials.

We’re going to start putting some of our podcast interviews on our YouTube channel so be sure to subscribe!

– The sponsorship changes continue: Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie goes from Nike to Puma … Adidas has signed 16-year-old sprinter Erriyon Knighton, who ran 20.33 for 200 meters … French hurdler and 2019 world championship bronze medalist Pascal Martinot-Lagard tweeted a photo featuring the Puma logo so that’s another switch from the Swoosh…Former Princeton Tiger Matt McDonald got his Doctorate in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech while training with the Atlanta Track Club and finished 10th at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials is now getting a Postdoctoral Associate in Chemical Engineering at M.I.T. and will be training with the Boston Athletic Association. (You might be wondering, how does he find the time to do it all? I had him on the podcast back in February) … Alex Efraimson, who turned professional as a high schooler and signed with Nike, has made a coaching switch to join Pete Julian’s training group that remains after the Oregon Project shuttered due to Alberto Salazar’s doping ban.

– Northern Arizona Elite has added Jenna Wreiden as a full-time assistant coach. She was a teammate of Des Linden and Amy Cragg at Arizona State. Wrieden has coached at Appalachian State, Arizona State, Queens University, High Point and most recently Louisville.

– The Armory Track and Field Center will start being used as a COVID-19 vaccination center on Jan. 14, Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York City’s 13th congressional district announced. This comes just days after the Armory announced that it has canceled the remainder of its indoor track competitions. I mentioned it on Twitter, I would gladly volunteer to get the vaccine live-streamed on NBC Sports Gold (subscription required) in order to boost Americans' confidence in its safety.

– USATF announced that the 2021 U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships that were scheduled for Feb. 20-21 in Albuquerque, New Mexico have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No surprise there.

– New York Road Runners had a couple more administrative changes with New York City Marathon race director Jim Heim and media/public relations senior vice president Chris Weiller leaving the organization. Ted Metellus has been named the new New York City Marathon race director. Trina Singian takes over for PR. Sarah Lorge Butler has been closely reporting on all the shuffling within NYRR for Runner’s World.

– It’s 2021 and we’re still getting some new whereabouts failures from big-name stars. This past week, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced that Kenya’s Alfred Kipeter, who has run 1:42.87 for 800 meters and is also remembered for leading the first lap of the 2016 Olympics in the Rio de Janeiro final, has been handed a two-year suspension for whereabouts failures. South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga, who won a silver medal in the long jump in Rio, has also been provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures. Manyonga has a very inspiring life story. He was banned in 2012 after testing positive for crystal meth. He overcame his addiction by 2015 and then went on to win gold at the 2017 world championships. Last year, he was fined for public drinking in South Africa. According to some media reports out of South Africa, it appears that his sponsor Nike has dropped him. Manyonga responded to the whereabouts failure on social media writing: “There is much more information that can be shared with regards to this provisional suspension”

– The Athletics Integrity Unit announced it has charged 2016 100m hurdles Olympic champion Brianna McNeal with “tampering within the results management process” and has been provisionally suspended. If you can recall, she previously served a suspension and missed the entire 2017 season after three whereabouts failures.

– If you want to watch some track on ESPN, there are four meets that will be held at the University of Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track and Field Center on Jan. 24, Jan. 31, Feb. 7 and Feb. 14.

– This past weekend, we learned there’s a distance runner at the University of Michigan who is named Tom Brady.

– On the NCAA front, 2019 U.S. indoor champion Athing Mu ran a 2:01:07 for 800 meters in her Texas A&M debut. Keep your eyes on her because that’s the No. 2 NCAA time in history and No. 5 in the world.

– Baby Zoe is here! Congratulations to Aliphine Tuliamuk and her partner Tim Gannon!

– This has to be one of the most impressive streaks in the sport. On Tuesday night, Nick Willis ran 3:58.63 at a lowkey meet in Florida to finish second behind his training partner Mason Ferlic. Normally, a result like that would fly under the radar but the mark set a new record for the longest annual sub-four-minute mile streak. Willis has now broken four minutes every year since 2003 for a 19-year streak. He was previously tied with his New Zealand compatriot John Walter. If you want to really try and possess the impressiveness of the streak, Aaron Greb created this graphic with each year’s best.

If you want to learn more about Willis and his keys to longevity, I still say that this episode of the CITIUS MAG Podcast is one of my best ever. Give it a listen!

“Love what you do,” Willis told the CITIUS MAG Podcast. “What I love the most about running is not the racing. It’s not the workouts. It’s getting out onto a trail and discovering new places to run with people. The beauty of being a distance runner is that I get to do that for 90% of my training. The rest is just the top. Find what you love to do and it will be easier to go for much longer as well.”

This Happened on Jeopardy

Of Course, I Made A Bernie Meme

From the CITIUS MAG Podcast Network

“If your body feels a little off, you might be wise and take a day off or your coach might help you decide to take a day off…Nobody wants to hurt themselves. I think they just simply do not understand that those little signs are worthy of their attention.” – Alexi Pappas

Dana Giordano sat down with her fellow Dartmouth alumnus Alexi Pappas, who just released her memoir BRAVEY. In addition to her success as a distance runner at Dartmouth and Oregon, Pappas went on to compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in the 10,000 meters. She embodies everything that the “More Than Running” podcast tries to capture since Pappas is also a talented writer, poet, filmmaker, Instagram celeb and actor. This episode touches on the importance of cultivating all that creativity but also paying attention to mental health as an athlete.

Subscribe and listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Anchor.

– In the third part of Social Sports’ dive into Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports (RED-S) and eating disorders, Elise Cranny of the Bowerman Track Club talks about her own experience, the body image conversations within the sport, mentoring young athletes and why the period is such an important tool for athletes.

– Morgan Pearson gets in the hot seat with David Melly for the “Run Your Mouth” podcast. He talked about the unique quirks of triathlon training, how it feels when he does come back to running and then beat a bunch of pros at the Michigan Pro Half Marathon + his hot takes on social media.

That’s it from me in the latest edition of the CITIUS MAG Newsletter. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, learned something new or have any questions or commentary on anything featured in this issue, feel free to hit my inbox: [email protected]

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