Should Rupp move up to Marathon for 2016?

Nah, better air quality in Rio and maybe he'll medal again. Marathon after.

Ackley wrote:

I think he had a nice effort today, but he will be 30 in Rio and already has a medal in the 10k. Plus, it looks like he doesn't have a kick to match Farah or any 3 Kenyans that get thrown out there.

It's not that he "doesn't have the kick" per se. He doesn't have the 10,000 ability to be ABLE to kick in a real race. (Not a 27:30 sit-and-kick.)

He should have in 2012, as I said then. He was never going to get another medal on the track and in the years he's spent working on marginal changes to his 10,000 PR (no 5,000 PR in years) and chasing times in off-distances, he could have become a marathon $tar.

Waiting until 30 to debut in the marathon is a mistake, especially having hit a ceiling in the 10,000 in terms of a somewhat flukey medal.

No.

The Olympic Marathon in Rio for Rupp would be suicide.

Today in Rio, at race start, was 75-degrees with 75% humidity and 62-dewpoint. Rupp struggles in the heat and humidity. He still performs, but not at his best.

He should give the 10,000m one more go-round in Rio, then debut at NYC 2016 or Boston in 2017.

Leirbag wrote:

No.

The Olympic Marathon in Rio for Rupp would be suicide.

Today in Rio, at race start, was 75-degrees with 75% humidity and 62-dewpoint. Rupp struggles in the heat and humidity. He still performs, but not at his best.

He should give the 10,000m one more go-round in Rio, then debut at NYC 2016 or Boston in 2017.

He also runs into the issue of does he really want the olympic trials to be his first marathon (or would he really want to cram one in the fall before the trials)? Or Bejing?

And it isn't like the olympic marathon is much different than the 10k. You still have to mess with 8 or so africans who are just as fast as you.

Rupp probably should have trained for the olympic marathon. But that choice needed to be made in 2014 not now.

Rupp was never going to win a medal in the marathon. They made the right choice and he made the most of it. Doubt he wins another in Rio, but he got the hardware so it doesn't matter.

Ackley wrote:

I think he had a nice effort today, but he will be 30 in Rio and already has a medal in the 10k. Plus, it looks like he doesn't have a kick to match Farah or any 3 Kenyans that get thrown out there.

move up and what? close a marathon in a 56 sec quarter? this idea that marathon is for runners who can't close out a 5/10k is goofy. the top marathoners are just like the top 10k/5k runners. They dominate the end of their event. I don't remember Farah blasting down the finish line for victory in the London Marathon.