Will the resurgence of King Kenny B light a fire under Slo Farah's butt?

KB already proved Farah is a slow-trick pony by toying with him in a half-marathon.

I'd love to see KB utterly DOMINATE Mo at least once over 13.1 or ideally a 10km.

No, I don't see Farah ever improving his PBs in the 5 and 10K. Maybe this will light a fire under his ass when it comes to road racing, but no one else goes for fast 5 or 10Ks anymore, so I doubt Farah feels like he has to.

It's kinda sad seeing people on the roads go for broke with fast times always, but have one or two people break 13 all year and no one run close to 26:40.

Same.

I just don't get why Farah never, ever tried to goddamn better his PBs when he was clearly the best track runner on the planet for a good five years. Like...he would've won so many more fans had he done this. Alright, maybe only a few more fans, and they are probably all here on LetsRun, but who cares! Haha.

@SS CLOWN... wrote:

I'd love to see KB utterly DOMINATE Mo at least once over 13.1 or ideally a 10km.

You must have missed this race: Total dominance of the Mobot.

molasses booty wrote:

Farah has never in his career had to deal with any distance figure bigger than himself.

You mean other than those many years that Mo was a world class professional athlete prior to 2010?

Or are you just saying random stuff as it pops into your head? Probably that.

molasses booty wrote:

Farah has never in his career had to deal with any distance figure bigger than himself.

Farah has been around just as long as KB has, he's plenty used to being subordinate to KB. That was how it was for him and everyone else for about 8 years. However there's no reason it needs to be that way now - Mo still has dominance in his sphere on the track and KB seeks to wrest the mantle from Kipchoge on the roads. These are not mutually exclusive.

Heres the thing:

I believe that Mo Farah is an immensely talented athlete.

I also have no respect for him because has no cojones as an athlete.

He has also shown himself to be immensely self-serving. He does nothing to improve our sport. All about $$$ for him.

The fact that track distance running is historically slow is not his fault alone. But he is the most talented of the pack and still chooses to run these boring races. The average sports fan would rather watch the commercials.

That being said, Mo is still a sub 12:50 athlete at WORST. And in his defense he said not too long ago that he is going to take a crack at those WR's we'll see when the time comes.

No. "Show Mo the Money" Farah is doing just fine - doesn't care what KB is doing on the roads.

the letter why wrote:

molasses booty wrote:

Farah has never in his career had to deal with any distance figure bigger than himself.

You mean other than those many years that Mo was a world class professional athlete prior to 2010?

Or are you just saying random stuff as it pops into your head? Probably that.

Oooo Nitpicking Nancy over here. Fine. Have it your way. Adjust it to since 2010 and the main point still stands. Jesus HORMONES MUCH.

molasses booty wrote:

Farah has never in his career had to deal with any distance figure bigger than himself.

You missed him racing Kamworor at the World HM, where he put Kam as fave beforehand and got pasted? And taking on Kenny and Hailie (ok latter past his peak) and getting beaten by Kenny there too? Plus some guys have take his scalp in recent years without being such a big name both on track and xc. So it doesn't even matter what the reputation of his rivals is on the start line, he can still be beaten and he knows that going into each race.

Mo has two golds from London and two from Rio and combined with the Worlds, he's run nine straight global titles at those distances. He ain't crying.

I Dunno Man wrote:

Mo has two golds from London and two from Rio and combined with the Worlds, he's run nine straight global titles at those distances. He ain't crying.

Hmm. Maybe I am missing something in the culture of contemporary distance running. In most sports, those who even have a shot at entering GOAT status do anything possible to erase any doubt about their abilities.

How convenient that in our sport that is so easy to do, what with the whole digital timing thing. You run faster than the other guys.

Higher, faster, stronger. Does anyone remember this? If the other guys aren't running fast and you're the big man on campus, you push the limits of human achievements anyway. You don't sink to whatever gutless thing the others are doing.

Like it or not, the performances of those at the top define our sport. Records count. Times count. People already don't care about the distances and this crap is not helping. Lets look at Mo's world title times: 13:23, 13:41, 13:26, 13:50, 13:03.

Take a page out of the women's book, folks. This stuff is old and tired.

GoldenMiles wrote:

Same.

I just don't get why Farah never, ever tried to goddamn better his PBs when he was clearly the best track runner on the planet for a good five years. Like...he would've won so many more fans had he done this. Alright, maybe only a few more fans, and they are probably all here on LetsRun, but who cares! Haha.

I would go from zero to minimal respect for Mo Syringes if he ever had the balls to time trial.

(I will confess the Oly 5k was exciting to watch.)

Spot on. This is really all that needs to be said about Mo. 👌🏼

In Mo's defense: some guys are good at time trialing, some guys aren't. Geb and KB are/were excellent time trialists, Mo isn't. On the other hand, Mo clearly loves to compete and has consistently beaten a bunch of very good 5000m guys for the last several years. [The 10000m is pretty thin nowadays so winning those titles isn't quite as impressive + there was that loss to Jeilan back in 2011.]

All valid points. And Mo has proven himself a good competitor, albeit against a crop of talented, but really inconsistent and often timid runners.

But my main argument still stands. The last time those guys really time trialled (gebrhiwet and co) time trialled they blazed, and at a time when Mo was faster than all of them. But he wasnt there whrn he could have been.

So my question for you is: has Mo ever even tried? In this i am genuinely ignorant. Has ever really gone for it only to have crashed and burned in his prime?

The only thing that will make Farah run fast is if he is forced to do so in order to win. Nobody on the track can currently do this. Once he turns to the marathon though, he will have to run fast if he wants to compete against the 2:03 guys in London, Berlin, etc. Right now, Kipchoge, Bekele, and others would destroy Mo in a marathon. Farah will have to take much spicier sauce if he wants to run 2:03.

Maybe he will just stick to championship marathons so he can continue to win medals like a wimp.

Geb's first marathon was a disaster (2:09 in London). Can't necessarily say that Mo is going to be a dud at fast flat marathons just because his first race was bad.

KB has lots of WRs and super fast times because he came up chasing Geb. Mo really has no rival on the track right now. The WRs are so beyond what Mo's competition can do that there is little motivation to try to put on an attempt.

I would agree that Mo will need to reinvent himself to get to where KB is in the marathon. Mo has built himself to be able to sprint like an 1500m guy the last lap of the 5/10k. KB also did that, but was also doing a lot of work as a time trial racer to get the WRs. Mo has not really done that at all.