The 2014 Outdoor Season: A Preview

The 2014 INdoor season is over!
And it was MUCH better than anyone imagined!
(See all my Indoor posts, which means MOST of my 43 previous posts, for the complete history!)
And here we are, already into the "more serious" business of the 2014 OUTdoor season.
Following is a bare bones summary of what we can look forward to.
BEWARE: The following are open to possible changes.  Check the T&FN website (Calendar), Twitter, and other sources for up-to-date details.

Next week are the Texas Relays, always a super meet, albeit normally affected by heavy winds.
There's also the Carlsbad 5K (Bernard Lagat has said he wants the Course Record!) and the Raleigh Relays.

In April are the Florida Relays, Stanford Inv,, Paris Mar,, Sea-Ray Relays, Sun Angel Classic, Arcadia Inv, London & Rotterdam Mars, a few College dual meets, Kansas & Mt SAC Relays, a couple of College conferences, Boston Mar, Drake & Penn Relays, and a Road Mile in Des Moines.

May (besides flowers!!  LOL) brings us the beginning American Track League (ATL) meets, Payton Jordan (Molly Huddle and Sally Kipyego will be gunning for a sub-31:00 10K--plus all the usual distance classics!), a few HS State meets, Doha & Shanghai, then Pre Classic DL's, Jamaica Inv, World Cup Walks, more Dual meets, Oxy High-Performance (where Mary Cain ran her 4:04.62 last year!!), more State HS meets, JUCO, NAIA, and NCAA II & III Champs, and the Tokyo & Beijing GP's, not to mention the 1st World Relays meet!!

In June, we'll get Gotzis Multis, more ATL's, HS State meets, Freihofer's 5K for Women & Rock and Roll Marathon (San Diego), Great Southwest HS meet, Rome & Oslo DL's, Hengelo & Moscow, the OUTdoor NB HS Champs (Remember all the Records at the recent INdoor version!!!), , Kucosinski Memorial, Grandma's Mar (HS'er Alana Hadley is racing there!!), the Brooks PR meet, Golden West Inv, Portland Track Festival, not to mention the NCAA and USATF Championships!!

July brings us Glasgow, Lausanne, Paris & Monaco DL's, the Peachtree 10K, the Commonwealth Games (Looks like it's going to be a GREAT one this time!!), plus the World Junior Championships in....Eugene!!

August and September finishes off the DL's (Zurich & Brussels, Birmingham, Stockholm & Berlin), but also has the European Championships.

I don't know the details, but the ATL list of events may be longer than first announced.
Also, there's a series of Road Miles, plus a special 60th Anniversary Mile to be held during the Jerome Classic (in the same stadium where Bannister & Landy dueled in 1954!!).

And, as we've learned in all the years we've followed the sport, expect the unexpected!!
Who knows which athletes--from HS'ers to elite Collegians to the Pro's, will choose to chase which records??

As to specific athletes, what will the following athlete's seasons bring us:

Usain Bolt
Renaud Lavillenie
Mary Cain
Genzebe (& Tirunesh) Dibaba
Haile Gebrsellassie
Ken Bekele
Alexa Efraimson & Elise Cranny
Raven Saunders, Devin King & Desiree Freier
Abbey D'Agostino & Phyllis Francis
Brigetta Barrett & the back-from-pregnancy Chaunte Lowe
Brenda Martinez & Galen Rupp
Mo Farah & Shalane Flanagan

And so many more!!

During the INdoor season, there were 395 additions to, or revisions to, my DDD lists.
Will the OUTdoor season reach the 400 mark??

How many WR's, AR's, CR's, and HSR's will be broken in 2014?

Remember.....
Expect the Unexpected!!

And keep on following this blog for ALL the marks and records!!
It's NOT going to be an "off" year!!