RyanDNFHall wrote:
Completely agree with you on that one.
His mile splits were consistently getting slower and when the American pack passed him, he didn't even attempt to stay with them. Going out @ 4:40 then slowing down to 5:15s and then 5:20s and eventually a 5:46. Look @ how smart Jared Ward raced. From the back, hunting guys down and STILL ran under 2:13 despite the conservative start.
Anyone can go out @ a suicide pace with the leaders and hang on. The question is, can you hang and run well, or are you gonna get dropped with 20miles left in the race and start running 1min/mile slower than your first mile?
this points to a mental problem rather than physical - while Hall may not be the smartest tool in the shed...a guy with his kind of experience just has to know roughly what kind of shape he is in. I bet he had some really good workouts that told him he could run fast. So we went with it.
but in the race something went wrong and he gave up.
Point is, I can't believe that he knew he was in terrible shape and went out that fast - something broke when connecting his training and racing. Could be his head, could be just a bad luck something went wrong thing, like a cramp or injury.