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 Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
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You are reporting the following post to the moderators for review and possible removal from the forum Poster: TrackCoach Subject: RE: MARY CAIN is easily the greatest running prodigy in the US since Mary Decker Slaney Body:
Hold your horses! I have nothing but praise for Mary Cain, her performances have been incredible in a number of ways and I have nothing to suggest she will not continue to perform well in the future. I simply took exception to your use of word "greatest" and offered some historical perspective and also pointed out that you simply can't go by time. If that was the only measuring stick then Bill Rodgers would not be ranked even in the top-10 among the U.S. marathoners and Alan Webb would be a better high school miler than Jim Ryun, which very few people would agree with. Also, as some people have pointed out, when it comes to girls, it is hard to focus on just one year, you almost have to look at their body of work for their entire H.S. stay. Jordan Hasay's wining FLNC as a freshman is as about as impressive as it gets. Mary Decker at age 12, in one week she completed a marathon and four middle- and long-distance races. (Wikipedia). She could have made the U.S Olympic team at age 14, but she was too young and at Mary Cain's age, Decker was competing in international competitions. At age 14 Kim Gallagher won a state XC title that included several of nations top runners, probably would have won the national title if there was one and age 14 Kim held the class and age group record for every event she competed in. Notwithstanding the success these ladies had beyond at age 14, which as I said, with girls you never discount. Their achievements at around Mary Cain’s age was absolutely incredible. One of the reasons why you just on one year is because 800m can be in particularly cruel to young girl as they mature. For example: I watched Devon Williams run a 2:06i 800m at around Mary's age and I don't know if she ever ran much faster than that even in college. Robin Campbell ran a 2:02x 800m at around Mary's age and she never ran faster than that in H.S. Laura Roesler ran a low 2:03 800m at around Mary's age and that might still be her PR even in college. Raven Rogers ran 2:06x 800m at age 13 and now at age 16, I don't think she come close to that time. Meredith Rainey ran a 2:10x 800m at age 13 and I don’t think she faster than that until college. Obviously there are extenuating circumstances for some of these girls, but hopefully you get the point. - Btw, I don't think anyone’s intentions is to take anything away from Mary Cain, but the people who are the greatest were almost a freak of nature good, I would almost put Mary Cain in that category, but you definitely can’t say she is the best of the best. Hit the submit button below if you want us to review the post. If you feel this is urgent or want a reply, email us at letsrun@letsrun.com about the post and please include a link to the thread the post is on and what page number/post on that page it is
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