"The Meb" is hurt?

He will be replaced by another Trials hopeful, who is either the favorite or washed up. Watch for the announcement.

Could this be a factor? Hell yes. This is happening to a guy that has not finished his last 2 marathons. I predicted that last year after pulling out of San Jose that he would DNF in New York with some lame ass excuse. Here we go again.

Note: Please don't try to tell me that he had food poisoning. That is lame at best.

From what I've been told, Khalid Khannouchi is running.

How about the name Marion Jones? How did that work out for ya?

This happens every time a marathon has big hype for a long period leading up to the marathon.

Hall pulls out of New Haven--no exlpanation

Meb pulls out of San Jose

Ritz has a baby

The field tends to dwindle.

Too many marathons early in his career? Too close together? Just a thought.

I'm telling ya. The only one you can count on to show up at the trials in NYC in November and deliver a 2:11 on that hilly course is the "rock" Brian Sell. No excuses, he just shows up and kicks butt.

uhuh wrote:

How about the name Marion Jones? How did that work out for ya?

A person with more than one generation of American heritage competed and then got justifiably busted for her transgressions. Worked out fine for me on both counts.

This definitely give Sell a better chance to squeeze in there with Abdi and Hall. KK is the big wild card.

Did you ever notice that experts are never wrong?

Meb has dropped out of every marathon within a year. The experts come up with excuses and still think that he will medal in Beijing.

Meb has never one a marathon and always loses over the last 5k. The experts have him as the favorite to WIN and Runners World puts him on the cover to help make this point.

Meb will not make the team and the experts will act as if it was a surprise. They will probably want to grant him a free pass, afterall it couldn't possibly be that THE EXPERTS WERE WRONG.

faster faster wrote:

Too many marathons early in his career? Too close together? Just a thought.

Far, FAR less than that guy named Bill Rodgers

meb finished nyc last year although he was above 2:20

Ritz's wife had the baby. So how does this affect his chances in the Trials?

banked track wrote:

Ritz's wife had the baby. So how does this affect his chances in the Trials?

uh, no sleep.

jessejacksonforprez wrote:

banked track wrote:

Ritz's wife had the baby. So how does this affect his chances in the Trials?

uh, no sleep.

Sell's daughter isn't exactly asking for keys to the car age, either, and it hasn't hurt him much. And Meb's daughter is still in diapers, too.

I'd wager having kids in the constant-motion tear-around-the-house 2-5 yr. range, a la Culpepper, might be more tiring.

If kids are a real detriment, we're looking at a team of KK, Abdi, and Hall.

Have people already forgotten that starting at the end of July Meb ran two excellent 7 mile races sandwiched around a sub-28 road 10k in a span of 3 weeks, and then several weeks later ran a 27:41 track 10k in Europe? Hardly sounds like someone who is fragile. Meb doesn't need a half-marathon race at this point in his training and being conservative about a muscle tweak at this point is just being smart.

So called experts wrote:

Meb has never one a marathon and always loses over the last 5k. The experts have him as the favorite to WIN and Runners World puts him on the cover to help make this point.

Khalid Khannouchi Leads American Bid at Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon

Keflezighi bows out. Kenyan women set to dominate California’s fastest half-marathon

SAN JOSE, Calif., (October 10, 2007) – Former world and current American record holder in the marathon Khalid Khannouchi has never made and Olympic team in his historic career. Now, at the age of 35, Khannouchi leads the American bid at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose, Sunday, October 14, 2007, in preparation for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon in New York City next month. Without the 2006 women’s champion Silvia Skvortsova in this year’s field, Kenyan Edna Kiplagat returns to San Jose to better her second place finish from a year ago in the event’s inaugural running.

Khannouchi’s list of career accomplishments are impressive. He has won the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon four times. Twice he has set world records at the marathon, once in Chicago 1999 (2:05:42), and again in London 2002 (2:05:38) in what many in the running world believe to be the greatest marathon ever run. Today, he remains the American record holder from his 2002 London performance, but he is now focused on the 2008 Olympics and earning a spot on the U.S. men’s marathon team - a goal that has eluded him since becoming a citizen in 2000.

Khannouchi gained his U.S. citizenship too late to compete in the 2000 Olympic trials. And in 2004, bothered by injury, he, once again had to postpone his Olympic dream. An immigrant from Morocco who worked as a dishwasher in New York before his rise to running fame, Khannouchi considers a spot on the U.S. Olympic team to be the crowing achievement to his career as an American athlete.

“This has been my dream and this may be my last chance,” said Khannouchi. “Qualifying and representing United States would be an honor for me.”

As a Muslim, Khannouchi has been training through the Ramadan holiday. In some cases, he has had to begin his training runs at midnight to honor his religious obligations, some of which include fasting from sun up to sun down.

“I feel pretty good,” said Khannouchi who is running an average of 100 mile per week. “I’m training really hard and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon will give me a good indication to see how I will perform in trials.”

JImG wrote:

Khalid Khannouchi has never made and Olympic team in his historic career

And in 2004, bothered by injury, he, once again had to postpone his Olympic dream.

Khannouchi considers a spot on the U.S. Olympic team to be the crowing achievement to his career as an American athlete.

Can the race not afford a proofreader?