Really, what happened Rupp in the last two laps tonight?

Yeah, something did not look right. Leading at a moderate pace should not tire him out that much.

With a few laps to go, Lagat signalled his handlers to release 3 pollen bombs into the air. After that, Rupp began to wheeze and go backwards. Until then, he was holding his own and was poised to blow by Lagat with a final burst of fury.

Who cares Lagat was slower thru 3000 than Rupp was at 3000 during his 2 mile record! Lagat will be up all nite in a cold sweat thinking about that!

top secret info wrote:

Who cares Lagat was slower thru 3000 than Rupp was at 3000 during his 2 mile record! Lagat will be up all nite in a cold sweat thinking about that!

...As slow as he was, he was still 10 seconds faster than Rupp

This 3000m was at elevation. Galen's was not. Duh!!!!

i can only come up with 2 possible ideas:

1) has he EVER worked at altitude before? i know he lives low and sleeps in a tent IIRC, but i dont think he's ever run/trained, much less raced at altitude other than this meet last year. i could be totally wrong though.

2) was he just looking to run a hard first 2k and hope the rest of the field would jump ship so he could coast it in for second behind lagat? that doesnt seems like it would be a smart thing to do, but who knows.

unless it really was a "ploy" or workout, this was the first bad race I've ever seen Rupp run in his professional career. i hope nothing is wrong.

Lagat is a Kenyan, elevation means nothing to him! Face it, Lagat is toast at the Olympics! He can never win the big one, El G kicked his butt!! hahahahaha

ALSAL had a bad race plan.....back to the drawing board....

thats funny!!

Actually even counting for elevation Lagat was a good 3.5 seconds behind at 3000 when Rupp broke the 2 mile record!!! Lagat will be quivering all nite, wondering what he will do when he is in a race that matters against the Rupper!

He is just coming off of a heavy base training period. He and Symmonds will be ready when it counts - the day of the Olympic final.

He had just gotten sick 2 weeks ago when he set the American record and was on antibiotics... it probably hit him full force that week, and racing at altitude right after sickness is a total bitch to begin with, especially when you're racing someone like Lagat. If you watched the race, Rupp blew at least 2 snot rockets that I saw, indicating that he is probably still getting rid of whatever he has. Relax. It's February. The real test comes this summer.

thanks for the analysis Webb.

When Lagat and Lamong eased by in about three strides you could see that Rupp was mentally beaten. I think he knew he didn't quite have it yesterday so there wasnt any will to fight.

What impressed me was just how smooth Lagat looked the entire race, including his 25:xx last lap.

really, what happened was that he had a bad race. Happens.

popcornready wrote:

He is just coming off of a heavy base training period. He and Symmonds will be ready when it counts - the day of the Olympic final.

Its hard to beat someone born at altitude, at sea level let alone at altitude. I still think he had a bad race, plus he is doing too many indoor races

People have bad races. Lets be glad it's one that doesn't matter.

I would say it was the altitude. At altitude, when the piano is dropped on your back it hurts much worse than if it happened at sea level. Same thing happened in the women's race with Houlihan. There's a reason why it's difficult to do speed session at altitude.

Thankfully London's elevation and climate is much more like Oregon. Rupp's still on track for a medal.

Could it have been asthma? Seems possible with the stuffy air of indoor tracks. This was a definitely a bad race for him, I'd even say bordering on atrocious, and Rupp hasn't really had any bad races in a long time so it seems like there is probably a bigger reason than 'he just had a bad race' but who knows. That said, I don't think he would have beaten Lagat under any circumstance as Lagat was flying the last lap and it's great to see Lomong getting back in form.