Runner A Or Runner B? (LetsRun.com Gives Some Love To David Torrence)

Every now and then we ask you to choose Runner A or Runner B to show you how one's perceptions of a Runner don't always reflect reality. Last July, we did Runner A and Runner B to contrast Jordan Hasay and Ciara Mageean. Well, it's 2011 and we want introduce the concept once again.

Please tell us which Runner is Better.

If we told you that Runner A is current US miler 25-year-old David Torrence and Runner B was 2000 US Olympic Trials champ Gabe Jennings, most of you would probably say, "No way." In fact, after realizing this ourselves, we called up a former top-5 finisher at USAs in the 1,500 this week and said to them, "Hey, did you know David Torrence is faster than Gabe Jennings ever was?"

Their response was, "No. That's not possible. Gabe was the man and ran like 3:34 or 3:35."

But it is in fact true. The fact of the matter is Torrence is faster than Gabe Jennings ever was but people don't realize it for two reasons.

1) Gabe competed in an era when a 3:35 guy could take home the US Olympic Trials title. 10 years later, Torrence competes in an era when four Americans ran 3:32 or faster in 2010. Torrence - the fifth fastest American at 1,500 in 2010 - picked the wrong decade to be born in.

2) Gabe was an early bloomer and Americans often fall in love with early bloomers.

Jennings ran his lifetime 1,500 PR at age 21, whereas Torrence was just a 3:40.80 guy at age 21. There is a dirty little secret in track and field. Lots of people in  track and field (and really all sports for that matter) - whether they're fans, coaches, or shoe companies - fall in love with people who are precocious at a young age. A sad truth in track is if you aren't a "big name" by the time you are done with the NCAA, you face a huge uphill battle in ever getting a big shoe contract as the whole paradigm is based on "What did they do in college?"

Torrence is one of the few pros who seemingly gets what the LetsRun.com message board is all about and doesn't take it personally.

We loved the following two quotes from Torrence, which were right on the money.

Torrence giving advice to the LetsRun.com messageboard visitors:

"Keep talkin' shit. Lots of pros don't like it, but I find it fuels my fire."

Torrence on being an underappreciated 3:34 guy:

"To make the (Worlds) team, it will take a 3:33 or better."

"Make the team these days and you are in the talks for top five at Worlds. I am a little under the radar screen, there are many at the top these days - it sucks being a 3:34 guy being somewhat unnoticed, but it says a lot about U.S. distance running these days."

Quote Of The Week #3 (That Wasn't Quote Of The Day)

"You can't just govern from the top. It's all the people down below who keep the sport going."

- A quote from an 85-year-old track fan Edwin "Ted" Toft of Britain, who died last week. We don't expect you to have ever heard of Toft, as we hadn't ourselves, but there was a nice obituary written about him by his friend David Urwin for The Guardian where Urwin talks about how people like Toft keep the sport of track and field alive. As Urwin wrote, "It is for his work as a club man, coach, timekeeper, committee member, race referee and organiser that he will be most remembered."

Indeed. There are countless volunteers across the globe that help keep our sport alive.

Weekly Free Training Advice (It's Better To Undertain Than Overtrain - And Don't Try To Force A PR Out Of Your Races)

Last week, prior to the Chevron Houston Marathon, we were thinking to ourselves, "The odds that Brett Gotcher sets a personal best are probably close to zero."

Now don't take that wrong way. We are huge fans of Gotcher (we featured him on our Training Talk last year) and think his 2:10:36 stunner was one of the best stories in US distance running last year.

Why were we so negative? Well, in our minds, we weren't being negative; we were just being honest with ourselves. We just thought, "It's real hard to nail the marathon perfectly every time you do it and a 2:10:36 is basically an A+ race for someone who went into the race with a 28:27 10,000 PR (since lowered to 28:09)."

We knew that the expectations for Brett in 2011 would be way, way higher than in 2010, and year after year, we see runners struggle mightily the year after a major breakthrough.

Sure enough, Gotcher blew up and ran 2:19.

Meanwhile, his teammate Nick Arciniaga, who was entered in the race mainly to set the pace for Gotcher, set a PR in 2:11:30.

Nick ran faster because, if anything, he was undertrained instead of overtrained (Gotcher's probably thinking each day in training, "I've got to break 2:10" whereas Nick is just getting ready the best he can). Additionally, he didn't try to force the race. Arciniaga backed off in the middle of the race, whereas Gotcher threw himself at a suicidal pace.

This year, Gotcher went through halfway in 64:18 - 15 seconds faster than last year - but if a Houston Chronicle article is to be believed, the pace then got near suicidal with  a 4:29 mile (and overall 4 of the 5 miles between 13 and 18 in 4:38 or better, with Gotcher dropped after mile 15). Now, realize that Gotcher struggled at the end of the marathon last year. Well, this year, he went out 15 seconds faster and then picked it up. Nick Arciniaga actually let Gotcher go ahead of him, realizing the pace was too much. Smart move. A huge, huge blowup for Gotcher and a gutsy pr for Arciniaga who was pacing with the thought of finishing.

Runners often forget that in breakthrough years, nearly everything went right. They are sky high and often assume the good times will keep rolling. In reality, it's just as likely that they'll run slower the next year rather than faster.

Quick Comments On The Houston Course
Speaking of Houston (we've got links to recaps of the races at the end of this article), a quick note on the Houston trials half marathon course, which was supposed to be a preview of next year's Olympic Trials course. This year's course had three 180 degree U-turns. We're not sure why (we had heard because the London Olympic course will have a lot of turns and Houston wanted to simulate that. Is the Olympic course really going to have U-turns? Can someone email us? It is a rare thing to include in a course and we are really curious as to why they are there).

(Editor's Addition: We received the following email from a LRC visitor from Boulder:

In "the week that was" you asked about the olympic course. Here is a BBC article on the marathon course. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11471541
This is the newest of course ideas and the one that has people upset as it will not finish in the olympic stadium. It does have 1 180deg turn per lap (3laps) and a large number of shaper than 90deg turns per lap. So the Houston course may be a little excessive, but that london course does look tough.

Runner's World's Amby Burfoot took a crack at trying to figure out how much slower this year's Houston course is than the old half marathon course. The course is not flat and has a lot of mild elevation changes with a few onramps/exit ramps (not the rolling hills of Central Park, but probably not as easy as most of you think when you think of Texas). Amby's article is here. A commenter noted that the U-turns make a big difference and really slow the runners down (the 3 miles with U-turns were the only 3 miles in the men's race with over 4:50 miles).

(Editor's Addition: A US Olympic Trials qualifier who ran the half this weekend has written in with his own personal take on the course:

I was reading this week's "week in review" this morning and can confirm that prior to the USA Half Marathon Championships, the course that was laid out for our race this past weekend was going to be the exact same for the Olympic Trials - they even showed us the course map for next year in our meeting the day before the race. The plan for next year is to run the same loop 3 times. I should also say, that I have heard rumors that it might change.

Prior to running the course, I wasn't too concerned about the U-turns, as I thought we would be able to take more wide, sweeping turns. However, the turns were very tight and it was pretty close to stop-and-go. Although I never felt it during the race, my left foot was bleeding (white sock was red and bled through my shoe) pretty badly from the hard planting and turning; I wasn't the only person who had this problem, as several other athletes were talking about the same thing as we were changing our shoes to cool down.  As someone who already has my OT qualifier, I felt bad for the runners who were trying to hit the sub-65 mark and expecting that Houston was the place to do it. Maybe on the old course, because this course was challenge. I'm all for a challenging course, so you won't hear much complaining from me, just passing along this bit of information to you.)

*Article: How Much Slower Is Houston Course?
*Message Board Thread: Houston Trials course looks crazy stupid

Chris Solinsky Fans, Is It time to Get Nervous?

The above section about Gotcher got us to thinking the following thought: "Chris Solinsky fans, it's officially time to get (a little) nervous. In our minds, Chris is much more likely to run over 27:00 and 13:00 in 2011 than under."

Don't believe us? Let history scare you.

Check out what the following Americans ran after they all broke significant time barriers for the first time:

Bob Kennedy broke 13:00 in 1996 by running 12:58. The next year he ran 13:03.
Alan Webb broke 3:50 in the mile in 2005 by running 3:48. The next year he ran 4:00 (and only 3:46 for 1,500).
Matt Tegenkamp broke 13:00 in 2009 by running 12:58. The next year he ran 13:25.
Dathan Ritzenhein broke 13:00 in 2009 by running 12:56.27. The next year he didn't complete a track race.

Chris Solinsky broke 13:00 and 27:00 in 2010 by running 26:59 and 12:55.  The next year he ran ...???

Recommended Reads / The Return Of Employee #1

Employee #1, Emory Mort, hadn't written for LetsRun.com in a very long time. It was good to have him back in the fold this week, as his Millrose pre- and post-race articles were all-time classics. If you read two things all year, please read his two articles from last week. We present some of the highlights.

Pre-Race Aritcle: Emory talking about the few fans who actually pay to attend track meets who don't actually know someone competing:

Above the freaks in the stands, like at most track meets in the US not held in Eugene, are the competitors' friends, coaches, family, schoolmates, agents, track writers and of course a smattering of former college runners, plus a few dozen "normal" people who actually will still spend their time and money going to track meets where they are not blood relatives with any of the competitors. As one emailer wrote to us this week: "These people are somewhat like the Amish of sports fans - somewhat inexplicable, quirky and interesting potential subjects for psychological studies."

Post-Race Article: Emory talking about cage fighting in the middle of his post-Millrose Games recap:

More Recommended Reads
Millrose: LRC Preview: Millrose At MSG: When The Circus Comes To Town
LRC Analysis: Millrose Behind The Scenes: Lagat Goes Down, Millrose Entertains
*WSJ: Millrose Is Racing After Its Past Glory
*Edwin Moses Receives World Fairplay Award In Recognition Of His Efforts Promoting Drug Free Sport The Act of Fair Play Award was also given to three other athletes: Amin Zadeh, an Iranian soccer player who kicked the ball out of play rather than score on an open goal when the goalie was injured, Darius Draudvila, a Lithuanian decathlete who cost himself a chance for a medal at Euros when he leant his pole to the eventual bronze medallist who broke his and couldn't find another, and Chinese wrestler Gao Feng, who carried an injured opponent from the arena to receive treatment even though the rival had been sanctioned for biting him during the contest.