Is Meb running Houston?

Very good catch. I didn't read the promo article until you mentioned it. I am currently planning on driving down with a dozen kids to watch. With no Meb, then we will just wait until the Hansons bring their crew to Austin.

Based on his last couple years, he is probably hurt.

Meb will be running. I guarantee it.

Steve Karpas,

Thanks for responding. It makes all the difference to us. Good luck with your event.

Sam Welmpole

This race will not "SUCK" without Meb. Both he and Sell were beaten by other guys in this year's field last year. Based on his last couple non-marathon efforts, Khalid wouldn't be in the top ten. You can count on one hand the number of US Championship Road Races that Ritz and Culpepper have run in the last 5 years. Hall has very little incentive to run this after what he did here last year.

The list still includes Browne, Carney, Dobson, Lehmkuhle, Cabada and others. I'd bet that there's still a handful of guys under 1:03 on Sunday. It's not a "C" class field at all. In fact, if you look at results from some of the other US Championship races from last year, the Houston field compares pretty favorably.

I know of at least 1 guy running who no one has really mentioned that has never raced a 1/2 marathon and is in 1:03 or under shape. Guesses?

It doesn't matter because Meb is coming. You always need a proven leader and without Meb this field will be lacking that. Browne is notorious for not leading. I doubt that Dobson will lead. Cabada is not fit enough to lead. Without Hall or Sell or Fasil it is capable of being a jogfest. Meb will insure that is not the case. Looks pretty good to me.

Gosh, if Meb was actually coming, don't you think they'd be PROMOTING that fact?

It has his name on the USATF page for athletes that are entered. Don't you think USATF would be competent enough to pull his name if he scratched?

Don't you think USATF would be competent enough to pull his name if he scratched?

I hope you're saying this in jest??

I sure wouldn't bet on that

I will bet dollars to donuts that Meb is out. The reason that I think this is because USATF IS INEPT. Just wait, and Latimer will blame Estes, and Estes will blame Houston and so on and so on and so on. I bet if you email Merhawi (Meb's brother and agent), that he has been out for over a week.

Do not worry be happy wrote:

It has his name on the USATF page for athletes that are entered. Don't you think USATF would be competent enough to pull his name if he scratched?

Looks like we have ourselves an answer on the competence of USATF.

USATF often has names up of people we know are not going. That's common with them, alas.

They knew tha Meb wasn't coming, but they had no big name athletes.

The press conference was a joke. The brought 2 athletes up. Dryer who DNF'd and Browne who finished 17th. This is how ignorant they are to who is good.

Most press events are orchestrated well in advance of the day in terms of personnel invited. Going into the race, Dryer was def. US champ and a prerace favotite. And Browne, aslo a prerace favorite, was a past Olympian (perhaps the only male one in the field?), and that is media-friendly. As has been said many times, the general public (who buy a lot more newspapers than you guys) will take much more notice of runnign when the word "Olympic" is used.

Alternately, perhaps those 2 were the only ones who could be corralled to the press conf., or perhaps would be gracious enough to go to one. You've never seen a football player blow off everyone to go for a postgame 3-mile warmdown, have you? Runenrs disappear like that all the time.

But then again, this is LetsRun.com, where, unless runners are paid like Peyton Manning and featured for the first 20 minutes of SportCenter, it's USAT&F's fault.

In an attempt to defend USATF, you once again used poor logic. But let us follow your idiocy. Olympians carry more weight with the media. KATE O'NEILL IS AN OLYMPIAN. She was also runner up the year before in a very close finish. With the OLYMPIC TRIALS (that word that carries so much weight) coming up for the women, that should have been the focus. So why was Kate not involved in the Press Conference? Because USATF continues to do a poor job.

Was Dobson on the starting line or was that also just more bull shit brought to us courtesy of USATF?

The argument that this happens all the time is ridiculous. Are you saying that it is acceptable to advertise athletes that scratch over a week before the event? These are 2 of the top guys who were entered. This is why USATF road races are never considered part of the "entertainment industry".

Can you imagine going to see the Rolling Stones and finding out once you got to the concert that Mick Jagger wasn't there? And that there was no prior notice?

I will bet you that if Paula needs to scratch from London that there will be some notification from the race.

USATF does in fact SUCK.

Olympic Trials (not equal symbol) Olympics.

Also, might want to read the second paragraph I wrote as well.

My guess also is that the local organizers had a far greater hand in the publicity than USAT&F (all the prerace press releases I dug up have the marathon letterhead, not the USATF imprint). Guess if you want to bitch at USAT&F, best to use Otter's line from 'Animal House' -- "Hey, you f---ed up...you trusted us."

Having gotten an inside look at event media operations from working for the TV production at the USOTM and ING NYCM (not helping NYRR or USATF, but the production company), I can say that almost nothing I've seen on LetsRun.Com about how "I could do this or that better" is connected with reality.

Thanks for helping though. I'm sure USAT&F is taking your suggestions. -- you suggested that they scratch Mick Jagger and Paula Radcliffe from the Women's USOTM well before the event.