KG beaten by a 20 year old who ran 5 marathons in a year

Running is about having fun - it's not always about being the fastest. Remember that, kid.

guytt wrote:

Running is about having fun - it's not always about being the fastest. Remember that, kid.

Correct.

But running in the World Championships, when you are a professional runner, is NOT about having fun. It's about being the fastest.

It's why they don't give out finishers medals.

Agreed. When you get PAID to run, you better run to be the fastest.

Alan Webb didn't understand that, he thought it was run to be the fatest!

The OP while lacking tact, brings up an intesting question about marathon training. In the US we are told not to do the marathon while we are young. And for the most part American runners don't try the marathon until after college at the earliest. Sammy Wanjiru(22), considered by many as the best marathoner in the world is a big example. He was winning major marathons when he was what, 20? In America, we don't even think about training for the marathon until after college which puts us at 22-23 before we start. I think this probably hurts us on the world stage at the marathon. Our best marathonres are training for the 10k and xc until they are 22-23.

I remember my HS coach(a good coach with many teams that placed at the state meet) would tell us to never try and run a marathon until your mid-tweenties because your body can't handle it when you are young. While I think the marathon takes years to train for to be really good at, I see more and more young marathoners thriving at the world level.

[quote]Cora Goucher wrote:

Who also ran her first marathon at 14? Americans need to shape up and start marathoning earlier in life:

Bai, just 20 years old, ran her first marathon at age 14 and was in her 11th on Sunday.

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Yes. But, in America, we do not really encourage youths to run longer than 5 miles at any age younger than 15. And, we generally have lazy lifestyles available to all kids in our country. Hell, our neighbors drive their kid to the end of the driveway for the school bus. And, the driveway is only 100 ft long!

So the Celtics make their players run marathons now?

She is part of a state-sponsored doping program (turtle blood my ar**).

You think it isn't fun to be the fastest?

if Bai was american and didn't do well we would have made the excuse for her that she had raced too much in the last year. But since she is foreign and her name isn't galen rupp she gets bashed. C'mon letsrun thats pathetic.

Handling a marathon is not a function of age, it is of familiarity with miles.

Remember the 92 Men's Oly Champ? Champ at about 22, done a about a year later.

Not always, fool.

Cora Goucher wrote:

Who also ran her first marathon at 14? Americans need to shape up and start marathoning earlier in life:

Not sure how you draw this conclusion. One person beat Kara Goucher so Americans need to do what this one person did?

What about all the other people who beat Goucher?

runn wrote:

Remember the 92 Men's Oly Champ? Champ at about 22, done a about a year later.

You mean the same guy who won the 1994 Asian Games Marathon, and 2:08 at Boston the same year?