He’s not running Boston.
He’s not running Boston.
He very recently came 8th in the Olympic Marathon. Think it’s a bit too early to write him off
Jack Frost wrote:
He’s not running Boston.
Was gonna say this.
Yesterday certainly didn't look great for Rupp, but saying it's over for him because of Kipchoge's run doesn't make a ton of sense to me. I doubt there's ever been a time where Rupp could've beat Kipchoge. That's not a knock on Rupp, Kipchoge is just far and away the best. A few people beat him in London last year, and someone beat him running a WR years ago, and that's been it for almost a decade. I'll also mention that Kipchoge has been training to do his best yesterday, and that 15k split was downhill, and Rupp has not been training for months to peak yesterday, and it was not all downhill.
We're not that far removed from Rupp coming 8th in the Olympics and running 2:06 in Chicago. I'm not an expert in marathon training, but he's said he's focusing on Eugene this year, and I don't think it makes sense for him to be in great shape right now if he wants to do well in July. For the past 10+ years, he's shown that he's in shape and ready to mix it up with the world's best when it counts. I don't expect that to change quite yet.
Jack Frost wrote:
He’s not running Boston.
I knew I should have double checked what races he's officially announced before assuming it was fact. Lol. Either way, it's still likely he's in the midst of training for some upcoming marathon, announced or not, and that he wasn't expected to be in peak 15K shape for that race.
Lebron scored 56, is Durant done?
Seriously, Rupp’s performance in a non-target race has nothing to do with anything you or I can make any assessments about. He and his coach will know what his performance means. And why would Kipchoge have anything to do with Rupp?
I think the point of OP's question was to show just how far Rupp is from his competition, not to make some sort of causal relationship between Kipchoge's performance and Rupp's trajectory. To the point of some of the other posters, however, comparing anybody to the best ever is going to give a skewed and disappointing outlook on anyone's performance.
15K times don't mean much to me so I popped this into a race time converter to get comparable times at other distances:
10 miles: 46:53
Half: 62:31
Also keep in mind that Gate River wasn't the fastest running conditions either - weather was in the low 60's and the course has that big hill in the last 2 miles.
Strikes me that this wasn't horrendous at the end of a marathon cycle but also means he's not in killer shape either.
Cant think of a username wrote:
He very recently came 8th in the Olympic Marathon. Think it’s a bit too early to write him off
Galen Rupp ran equally well at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics. Unfortunately the difference between 2016 and 2021 is everybody else had the supershoes.
I predict Rupp will not run Boston if Kipchoge is running Boston.
elflord wrote:
well, he's younger than Kipchoge but at 35 he's in the later part of his career.
As others have pointed out, no-one compares that well with Kipchoge. He is the marathon GOAT, no-one else is even close. Rupp is a somewhat accomplished distance runner (olympic 10k silver, marathon bronze, one majors gold and two silvers), and the best male distance runner the US has seen for quite a while (basically owned the US champs for years, national record times across a range of distances).
I see no reason to count him out on account of where he is relative to Kipchoge. He has never been comparable to Kipchoge in the marathon. But he is good enough to be a legit contender in any world class field.
He's also not getting faster. His progression has stopped and at 35 that's very unlikely to change. He could possibly have a 2:05 in him in the perfect conditions but that's his limit and it's now like he doesn't know it. He's still essentially a full mile behind the best in the world in a marathon.
abcrunning wrote:
It was probably a training race, very likely not well rested and obviously not in top fitness yet. Yes, he is not the same Rupp of 3-6 years ago but still the best American runner by far. He might have another good 2-3 years left in his legs for the marathon.
I wouldn't say 'training race', he was definitely trying and wanted to win. But ya he probably didn't taper and try to have a peak level performance here. And once it was obvious he wasn't going to win coming down the hill maybe he didn't dig too deep and could have been a couple places higher if he had. Winning a US championship race for him is good, anything less is not so good so it's reasonable to assume he wasn't giving his all once the win was out of reach.
Why all the nonsense about 'in the middle of a training cycle,' 'while in marathon training,' 'not tapered,' 'not a target race,' and all these completely made-up excuses? What marathon is he supposedly 'in the middle of heavy training for?' How is this just a workout? What 'important race' is coming up?
Keep this in mind: No chance he wins the 10000 at USATF Outdoor. The 15k was one of the few chances he had for a USATF Championship this year - with whatever that means for his contract. There's the 25k in Michigan, too. May, I think. Don't remember when New Haven 20k is. None of us really know how big of a deal it would be financially to go a calendar year without a USATF win of some sort (we haven't seen the contract), but to say there's a marathon soon that is the real priority is simply not the case. He doesn't seem to be in the thick of training for something else.
He wanted to win. He tried to win. (This would strongly imply he trained and tapered.) He may 'need' it monetarily too.
I've read that Rupp will pop a 2:05 any day now, so I keep a calendar handy.
This is Jim Kiler wrote:
I've read that Rupp will pop a 2:05 any day now, so I keep a calendar handy.
They've been saying that for years and it never happens and he keeps getting older.
mnl wrote:
Kipchoge is so F***** good.
I thought Rupp's run today was fine but now am reassessing.
Kinda hard to compare anyone to the greatest marathoner of all time...