I think she benefits from having very little pressure on her to perform, in comparison to Hall/Huddle/Linden and the rest of the "old" crowd. Nobody expects a 1500 runner who was barely even competitive at 5k to do anything big in the marathon. This was a good result though and she could very well sneak her way into a team.
Not a bad result. A nice pay day/weekend and proving to herself and others that she can do this at an elite level. However, having said that, with the depth of the American women right now, exactly which US team do you think she’ll make????
Emma entertained once again but they results were a bit disappointing. 12. Emma Bates 2:27:14 15. Sara Hall 2:27:58 16. Des Linden 2:28:27 18. Jenny Simpson 2:31:39
Reminds me of watching Steph, Klay, Dray and Wiggins this year. Thanks for the memories, but you are the 10 seed.
And we'll still have people bashing on American men for being so bad. The women are equally far back from winning meaningful races. On fast courses our top women are running 2:18-2:22, but the top women in the world are running 2:11-2:15 on fast courses. The American men are running 2:07-2:09, but the top men in the world are running 2:01-2:04. But for the women there isn't as much competition, so if you limit Kenya/Ethiopia to three runners each and some of them drop out it opens up the door for slower runners.
Meb silver/Kastor bronze in 2004. Meb 4th in 2012, behind 1 convicted doper. Rupp bronze in 2016, Ward 6th. 3 American women in the top-9. Rupp 8th 2020, Seidel bronze.
Outside of 2008, the US has done decently well @ the Olympics since 2004.
Idk why people are getting on Bates' case. Is it because she's popular on social media? She's coming off of injury. Not exactly a disappointing result (although I'm sure she'll have wanted more) when she wasn't ready to go for an Olympic spot 2 months ago. How much actual consistent running has she been doing? Supposedly doing a ton of biking the last several months. Let's just recognize that the American fields were thin post Trials. Mantz & Young put a minute on CJ 2 months ago & Young could've closed even faster. It would have been interesting to see if they could've gone with the guys who finished 2-6. Top-3 women at the Trials all could've been in the top-10. Racing is different than time trialing. Just look at Sisay Lemma.
In all fairness, the women's field was one of the best in a long time with 13 at 2:20 or better and 6 at 2:18 or better. And that list does not include Helen Obiri.
Jenny is 37 so not that ‘old’ for marathoning. She just may not have the needed range. Sara Hall was much stronger at that age.
On the whole it’s 40+ where the decline starts to happen.
Once she gets a few more of these races under her belt, she’ll probably be 2:26+. Not going to make a team but still have fun and sneak up on folks having a bad day.
Malindi Elmore (former Canadian MD runner, married to Graham Hood - 4.02 twenty years ago) has got down to 2h23 (and an Olympian) in her 40's (44 this year). Simpson isn't likely to make another OG team (2028, but will be 41-2) , but might not not be too far off if she is serious about the marathon and gets the training right. Hassan has made the jump quite quickly (7 years) from being a 800/1500 runner (2016), although her age isn't an issue.
We bash American men & women when they are too fast (doping) or too slow (weak). It’s a lose-lose situation. What would be really sad is if we are both weak and doping. Oh geez. I’m depressed.
Not a bad result. A nice pay day/weekend and proving to herself and others that she can do this at an elite level. However, having said that, with the depth of the American women right now, exactly which US team do you think she’ll make????
Dakotah Lindwurm and Molly Seidel say hi.
If anything two runners in their 20s having 'surprise' success at the marathon and making teams demonstrates the depth of runners in Simpson's way. Lots and lots of young runners who are more likely to have the big breakthrough than her. Simpson is still getting beat by the 'old-guard' of Hall, Linden, D'Amato, and more young guns will continue to breakthrough. This is no knock on Simpson who had her day on the world stage and is probably having a blast with a new event
Meb silver/Kastor bronze in 2004. Meb 4th in 2012, behind 1 convicted doper. Rupp bronze in 2016, Ward 6th. 3 American women in the top-9. Rupp 8th 2020, Seidel bronze.
Outside of 2008, the US has done decently well @ the Olympics since 2004.
Idk why people are getting on Bates' case. Is it because she's popular on social media? She's coming off of injury. Not exactly a disappointing result (although I'm sure she'll have wanted more) when she wasn't ready to go for an Olympic spot 2 months ago. How much actual consistent running has she been doing? Supposedly doing a ton of biking the last several months. Let's just recognize that the American fields were thin post Trials. Mantz & Young put a minute on CJ 2 months ago & Young could've closed even faster. It would have been interesting to see if they could've gone with the guys who finished 2-6. Top-3 women at the Trials all could've been in the top-10. Racing is different than time trialing. Just look at Sisay Lemma.
Bates is a massive talent. The two reasons people get on her case is because she's a talker (she's in the best shape ever, in American record shape, etc. bla bla) and bc she does goofy 'influencer' stuff like setting her tearful injury announcement to music from the Barbie movie, with perfect makeup on. It's a little bit eye-roll worthy.
We talked about the lack of top 10s in our full race recap.
letsrun wrote:
Today, no American woman finished in the top 10 in Boston. That hadn’t happened since way back in 2010 when Paige Higgins was the top American in 12th. So the American streak of having at least one top-10 finisher in Boston is over after 12 straight Bostons.
It’s not that shocking that the streak ended today for two reasons. 1) There were 9 women entered in the field with a sub-2:20 pb; 2) It’s an Olympic year and the US Olympic Trials were just held in February.
It’s worth noting that before the streak started in 2011, American women were rarely finishing in the top 10. In the 16 races from 1995 to 2010, an American woman only finished in the top 10 on four occasions at Boston.
Obiri got the win by running her final 4.2 plus miles at under 5-minute mile pace. Mile 23 was 4:57, mile 24 was 4:41, mile 25 was 4:54 and she ran her last mile in 4:51 to finally break free of Sharon Lokedi.
It doesn't appear that the men's or women's marathon team are a threat to medal at Paris later this year. Although Kenya and Ethiopia being limited to just three athletes does help everyone else.
