Kara Goucher's Comin' to Town

News released today that one half of LTOB's favorite(-to-write-about) running couple will be gracing the city of New York with her lovably bubbly footfalls. Kara Goucher is running the NYC marathon.

No word yet as to where Kara will be staying in the days leading up to the race, but my new apartment in Brooklyn has a very spacious 7 square feet available, perfect size for an air mattress (air mattress not provided).

Kara moving up in distance for this fall's NYC marathon makes perfect sense since: One, she's mentioned it numerous times before. Two, she ran a fast half marathon last year. And, three, Mary Wittenberg Gets. What. She. Wants. Period. And she wanted Goucher.

Goucher is by far the most marketable American distance runner right now. She is like the 1986 Michael Jackson of distance running. And Wittenberg got her!

It's only a matter of time before Wittenberg gets her hands on running's Golden Boy, Usain Bolt, too. That would be like the 80's Don King and Mike Tyson of the 2008 running world. If you got all three of them together, that would be one crazy trio wouldn't it...

I finally got to use this picture! Cha-CHING!

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Appointment Viewing If There Ever Was Some

Belgium: most overrated of all European nations? Until recently, I would have voted a strong Yes. Tulips? Chocolate? You can get those items at your local supermarket. (Availability of the girl pictured to the left depends on the job market where you live.)

If we're rating international flavor, let's talk exotic hand-woven rugs made entirely of harvested moth fur (Sri Lanka) or delicious potato jelly (Ireland) or prostitutes who do this thing where they dislocate their hips (also Ireland) and, in some locales, proceed to smear delicious potato jelly all over their bodies (that last detail is unique to Rhodesia, believe it or not).

But now, Belgium totally redeems itself by serving up a steamy, swiltering scoop of sprinting. Friday. Bolt. Powell. Gay.

That shit's on ESPN Classic (delayed 11pm) and ESPN2 (totally delayed, Sunday at 3:30pm), which is pretty significant for a post-Olympics Golden League Meet, and, I think, goes to show what a splash the Lightning Bolt made in Beijing. For diehards, though (meaning, virtually anyone reading this) you can watch the meet live here.

(NB: Gay is already making hamstring-related excuses so don't be shocked if Gay pulls out. But that'd still leave 9.69 and 9.72 going head to head -- not to mention TravPadge and Churandy Martina.)

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Win Free Stuff

We dropped the ball by not having any sort of contest for the Olympics, so here -- we'll piggyback off of someone else's contest (again).

If you do the Facebook -- and I know you do -- you can join the group set up for the chasingBOLT video project, and, once you're in (like buttah) you can send Usain some well-wishes via photo message. The best messages will win special, Limited Edition Gold Medal/WR T-shirts, which will be sweet. I have full confidence of this, because Ben suffered the ignominy of getting caught wearing the shirt Puma made after Bolt's 9.72, whole HOURS after it was rendered obsolete by that 9.69 clocking -- and that design was the balls.

And meantime, take a look at some of the other existing submissions. If you can't beat them, you ain't trying. In fact, whoever can come up with the best re-captioning/Photoshop-job of someone else's entry, we'll give you something for nothing. Something mysterious. Something cool. Something that's cool because it's mysterious.

Hey - looks like we officially have a contest, after all.

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Gearing Up for the Olympics: You may have noticed...

There are these things called "widgets" now inhabiting the right column around these parts. To take a moment for a little shameless self-promotion, the one at top is chasingBOLT, a project I helped Matt Taylor with a little bit. It is at the top because a) Usain Bolt is sweet and b) you can actually look at content right there in the player -- photos, videos... the whole shebang.

The NBC thinger below it just wants to hijack you over to their site, which we don't like as much... but we're sure there's no way we'll be able to update LTOB as quickly as those bastards at NBC will be updating that feed. So it'll make sure you never miss breaking news about the Hamm Brothers while you're visiting our site. Also, we've been promised that it will be a Carol Lewis-free zone.

Ultimately, let us know if you like having them there, hate having them there, or just think we're stupid for selling out in an arrangement that managed to net us zero dollars.

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What They Didn't Tell You: European Vacation

You could feel the postpartum depression settling in throughout the American track-web-media-scene this past week. And why not? Look at the etymology: post, Latin, for "after." partum, Greek, for "party." "After-party depression."

So why shouldn't our venerable domestic websites be a little slow to recover from Eugene and a week of hard-living, hard-partying, and hard-ons? (I'm assuming.) Thus, we shift our gaze to Europe, where the action was... not quite so tepid. And the coverage... adequate. What They Didn't Tell You about this past weekend, after the jump...

That guy Bolt was at it again, clocking a 19.67 in Athens to re-write his own Jamaican National Record. What they didn't tell you though is that apparently Bolt likes a little junk in the trunk, when it comes to women. That's apropos of nothing. Just a fun little fact.

In other European action Wariner finally got back on top of Merritt, which doesn't sound right at all. I'm just going to stop that there, mmk?

Some good performances by Americans at the World Junior Championships: a kid named Walter Henning from some nameless Long Island high school won the hammer, little Centrowitz clocked a 13:58 and Jordan Hasay took 4th in the 1500m (which, incidentally, was won in a time slower than her recent AR). But the best part of the whole meet is imagining how everything at Junior Worlds is miniature. Mini competitors, mini implements, mini hot dogs from the concessions...

Dispatching Hasay was a British lass named Stephanie Twell, who probably would have enjoyed her win more had someone not stepped on her foot, really, really hard.

And finally, Junior Worlds were held in a place called -- and I'm not making this up -- Bydgoszcz. I promise you, that's not a typo. So clearly, they didn't tell anyone how to pronounce that. I say, just go ahead and make up your own pronunciation. I'm going with Bitty-Baby-Sizzle-Syrup. Sounds yummy, yes?

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What They Didn't Tell You: Reebok Grand Prix

This weekend, we discovered all over again, the route for sports success: get people talking about your stars. (Consider this an APB for Ryan Hall: Get yourself out to the Hamptons.) After the jump, discover What They Didn't Tell You about the wide world of running from Friday to Sunday.

At the Reebok Grand Prix, the Jamaican contingent booed 400m winner, Sanya Richards, ostensibly in reaction to her defection from Jamaica. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I was always told that its mean to make fun of someone just because they have a defection. All of God's children are beautiful -- even the "special" ones.

German Fernandez ran a double of 4:00 and 8:34 at the California State Meet. While neither is a record in and of itself, what they didn't tell you was that he IS the first German named Fernandez.

In Berlin, Jeremy Wariner lost a 400m race. (To find the last time that happened, we have to refer all the way back to Herodotus.) Somewhere, Clyde Hart helped himself to a second piece of pecan pie, with extra pecans.

Usain Bolt ran 9.72 -- some sort of record, I'm told. But they didn't tell you that for the Fastest Man Alive, the post-race celebration of choice is McDonald's: Angus Burger, Chicken Selects and a big Blue Powerade, easy on the ice. You now know the secret. Prepare accordingly.

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Fearless Predictions: Red Bull and Guinness Edition

Less Than Our Best is concerned with very little. One of those few interests is Undercutters Pizza. The other is acting like we have some expertise in predicting things. Here's a few things that will LITERALLY happen this weekend:

This week, track fans will be focused on New York City, finally. LTOB will be in attendance; Jeremy close to the track actually working on work, and me in the nosebleeds working on a buzz that will make the women's discus fascinating. It should be an exciting night.

RBK Grand Prix
It's clear that the race organizers spent most of their resources getting Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt to race each other and let most of the other races kind of fill themselves out. Even so, there should still be some interesting results between guys who will be vying for Olympic team spots in a month.

--M100m--Usain Bolt sets the Icahn Stadium track on fire....literally. He was just trying to one-up Mo Green's famous stunt and it went horribly, horribly wrong.

--M800m--Khadevis v. Gary Reed v. Nick Willis (aka apple pie v. Labatt's blue v. flight of the conchords). That sounds like a good race and a good night of tv dinner. KD Rob wins! U-S-A.

--M1500m--Kevin Sullivan actually wins a race!! Lukezic is suprisingly beaten by Lomong who is suprisingly beaten by Jon Rankin (spoiler alert) for the third and final Olympic team spot (mark it!).

--M3000SC--Paul Koech wins easily. Famiglietti (who may or may not be racing depending on which start list you look at) dips unders 8:20. Also, the first American finisher in this race will make the Olympic team.

--M5000m--Unfortunate that the meet directors couldn't get a few more Americans here. Rod Koborsi will run 13:26.

--MShot--Adam Nelson. Goes. Crazy.

Border Duel
Rumor has it there are Nike Elite Women's 10,000m / Men's 5,000m Races on tap at this meet, but why would anyone want to know who's racing? No reason to have start lists on the meet website and certainly no reason to send out a press release more than a day before the meet.

As far as anyone can tell, Kara Goucher, Adam Goucher, and maybe Galen Rupp will be racing. It's like they are having an exclusive boy/girl party and none of us got invitations. I hope they don't get their Olympic qualifiers just like I hoped Jimmy Wilkens didn't get "7 minutes in heaven" at his 14th birthday party (I didn't want to go to your party anyway, Jimmy).

NCAA Regionals
The "NCAA championships prelims" as you might call them. Just like prelims, the top kguys don't run their hardest. Worth checking results, but not worth a prediction.

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Fantasy Track 2: RBK Grand Prix

Here's your reminder to make your picks and get your entry in for the LTOB "USATF Fantasy Track Pick 'N Win Contest" Contest. Last week, "Katie" won with her entry "Four Toes" -- we're still waiting for Katie to send us her contact information so we can send her the prize from last week. Katie: LessThanOurBest@gmail.com -- I promise, we won't sell your information to hardly anyone.

This week The Show pitches its tent on Randall's Island in New York City for the Reebok Grand Prix. Among the highlights, we've got a showdown between Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay in the 100m, AND we've got LTOB in attendance to make certain our predictions come to pass.

NEW ENTRANTS, PUT YOUR TEAM NAME IN A COMMENT, BELOW. Returning contestants, feel free to let the trash talking begin.

***Update: You can pick your teams HERE!***

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Photo of the Weekend: Stanford

Usain Bolt receives Photo of the Weekend honors this go-round, after ripping a 9.76 100m down in Kingston. And it wasn't just the fact that it was such a sick time -- doubly-so, considering how early in the year it was -- but the way he decimated the field... a fact hinted at in the photo to the left.

Receiving Runner-Up honors is a photo which is slightly less action-packed, but will surely be as talked-about... fresh off a new AR in the women's 10k, Shalane Flanagan was captured in a tabloid-worthy photograph....

(click to enlarge)

Yessir, that baby-bump -- which she clearly tried to hide under a bulky sweatsuit -- is going to be the fodder of message boards for weeks, nay, MONTHS to come.

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What They Didn't Tell You: Stanford

While everyone's gaze was turned to the Stanford Payton Jordan Time Trial out in the cool night air of California, there was some conference meet action back east. It made for a good weekend of action, with the following stories falling into the category of What They Didn't Tell You.

Shalane Flanagan rang up an American Record -- 30:34.49 -- in the 10k at Stanford, her first try at the distance. Taking notes Matt Tegenkamp?

Shalane's mark also got her a victory over Kiwi Kim Smith. And Banana, Chiquita. [ tugs shirt collar uncomfortably ]

Usain Bolt ran 9.76 for 100m, his best run in a distance other than 200m, and at a meet other than World Juniors. The knee-jerk message board reaction was, naturally, to assume he's been taking something. Matter of fact, I can confirm that he HAS been pumping his body full of a performance enhancing cocktail: Red Bull and Guinness. (No really, try it sometime. Apparently it's all the rage down in Jamaica.)

With all the hoopla at Stanford and around the country, one of the biggest upsets of the weekend went wholly unreported: that I housed former WR-holder Eamonn Coghlan in a local road race.

Unfortunately, in that same race, I got housed by a cadre of Ethiopians. With woman-parts.

And finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't at least give a tip of the cap to the hometown University of Cincinnati Bearcats who, just a few years removed from mid-major ignominy in the C-USA, managed to take 4th in the very, very tough Big East this weekend. What they didn't tell you, though, was that the UC coach lives on a street with a tree growing up out of the center of the road! No, really, it's true! It looks EXACTLY like this.

(Anyone with photographic evidence of this phenomenon is invited to post it below, or e-mail us.)

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