A column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
Out of Africa, always something new, wrote Pliny the Elder back in the first century A.D.
Pliny was referencing a quote from the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, but if you paraphrase slightly to “out of Africa, always something in the news,” then you’ve just...
A column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
Next year’s world championships in Doha will feature another Breaking 2 event.
Not two hours this time, but two days. To ameliorate the brutally hot conditions of a Persian Gulf summer, the two marathons will start at midnight.
OK, that’s actually not two separate...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Down here in Melbourne we’re yet to get our feet wet, but winter season’s already here.
Rain is falling as I write, so the first muddy cross-country race can’t be too far away – maybe as close as the 12km cross-country next weekend...
A column by Len Johnson | Runner's Tribe
All weeks have seven days, but some weeks seem to cram more in than others.
The last week of May, 2018 was one such week. It began with Linden Hall setting an Australian record for 1500 metres at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League...
Performances often tend to bunch up around a perceived barrier, the men’s four-minute mile being the most famous historical example.
As we see the increased number of performances approaching the barrier, there is a tendency to assume one athlete will inevitably crash through it. Let’s call it the clump theory.
Of...
What’s that sound you hear? Well, if you’re anywhere near a national federation’s high performance unit it could be the sound of numbers crunching.
The IAAF is moving to a new system of qualifying for the world championships and, assuming the IOC is totally on board with it, presumably the...
Not even the internet had heard of teenage Australian sprinter Jake Doran before he ran 10.15 for 100 metres in Finland last Sunday (1 July).
Even once Doran had run that time – an Australian U20 record, second-fastest in the world this year by an U20 eligible athlete my internet...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
The road distance event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be a half-marathon, at least compared to its immediate predecessor at Rio 2016.
No, the traditional, 42.195-kilometre distance will not be slashed by 50 percent (fiddling with the distance might be grounds for revolution in...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe - Len is RT's lead columnist, a sub 2:20 marathoner, Author of 'The Landy Era' and a key writer for the IAAF, amongst other things...
Youth is wasted on the young, George Bernard Shaw once observed. He surely did not have Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Armand...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Many thoughts flashed through my mind after Eliud Kipchoge’s world record marathon.
The first was: “Amazing.” Neither insightful, nor unique, but what else comes immediately to mind after a man runs 2:01:39 for the classic 42.195-kilometer distance.
Just about the second thought, possibly because it leapt out...
