Raleigh Relays:

Raleigh Relays will be a distance running counterweight to the Texas Relays, with heavy collegiate competition. In fact, many college teams will split up and send their distance runners to Raleigh while they send their sprinters to Texas.

That said, let’s keep an eye out for the return of 2023 U.S. champion Cravont Charleston, who is listed in the 100m. His claim to fame is defeating an athlete by the name of Noah Lyles in the same season that Lyles later won his first 100m global title, but Charleston has battled injuries on and off ever since.

The 1500m in particular will be a can’t-miss event. Virginia’s Margot Appleton will face off in a similar battle against Providence’s Shannon Flockhart and Kimberley May, who are coming off of a 3rd place DMR finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Distance fans won’t want to miss this one.

Handy links: Live Results | Start Lists | Meet Schedule

How to watch: Raleigh Relays will be contested on Thursday-Sunday, March 27-29th. All three days will be streamed live on ACC Network (subscription required), which is available through the ESPN app and espn.com/watch. You can view the livestream here on Thursday at 4:30pm E.T., here on Friday at 4:30pm E.T., and here on Saturday at 3:00pm E.T.

The TEN:

There are two tough realities for any 10,000m specialist looking to compete at a world championship: The time standards have never been harder, and there are very few opportunities to run a fast 10,000m. The TEN is an answer to this meet, as this bills itself (and has the evidence) as the fastest 10,000m in the world. Historically, this has been a great opportunity for setting records and for athletes getting themselves as high as possible in the world rankings for their chance at the world championship. Last year, this meet resulted in eight men under 27:00 and the first sub-30:00 of any woman on U.S. soil.

Naturally, the current field is loaded with enough talent to put New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel and Adams State’s Romain Legendre in good position to tackle the NCAA overall and DII records. They’ll also be joined by Olympian Graham Blanks.

In the women’s field, Weini Kelati and Elise Cranny will be chasing Alicia Monson’s American record of 30:03.82. Kelati is coming off of previously setting the American record in the half marathon (1:06:09), but Elise Cranny has the faster PB of 30:14.66, so it should shape up for a great battle up front. Australian national record holder Lauren Ryan will take another shot at her record, which she set at this meet last year. 

In addition to the 10,000m, the Final Surge Men’s 1500m also has a competitive field. Keep an eye out for U.S. high school national champions Tayvon Kitchen and Josiah Tostenson, who both have mile personal bests under four minutes. NAZ Elite’s Olin Hacker will be in the mix along with Oklahoma State’s Fouad Messaoudi, who is coming off of finishing fourth in the mile at the NCAA Indoor championship.

If you’re on team “Save the 10k,” then I’d put this one on the calendar.

Handy links: Live Results

How to watch: The TEN will be contested on Saturday, March 29th. It will be streamed live on FloTrack (subscription required) and you can view the livestream here, starting at 3:00 PM EST.

Maurie Plant Meet:

Last but not least, we head down under to Melbourne, Australia. This meet is part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar, which basically just means that World Athletics has deemed it to be a top-tier international competition. So, it should be a great meet and one that will set the tone for the international circuit and the season at large.

The two headliners in this meet are Australian sensation Gout Gout, who will run the 200m, and Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, who will run the 400m. Gout Gout recently ran the second-fastest U18 200m ever with a time of 20.04, and this, along with other viral moments showcasing his top-end speed, led to him gaining an explosion of new fans. Tebogo recently took down the reigning world champion Noah Lyles in the 200m at the Paris Olympics, but he is also known for his range as he has a 100m PB of 9.86, a 400m PB of 44.29, and an Olympic silver medal in the 4x400m relay.

If you take pride in being a fan of emerging talent or you like the smack-talking of the “fastest man alive” discourse, then you’ll want your eye on this one.

Handy links: Schedule and Live Results

How to watch: The Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne will be contested on Saturday, March 29th. It will be streamed live on FloTrack (subscription required) and you can view the livestream here, starting at 4:00am E.T. In addition, it will also be streamed on 7plus (subscription also required) and you can view the livestream here.

One Good Song For Your Weekend: