legally blond wrote:
moss:
yes, your logic is so...well, I don't know really what your logic is, except that it isn't logical.
I didn't say steeplers could throw a baseball or be NBA players, I said it takes great athleticism to run barriers in a distance event, surging, etc than it takes to shuffle around a track for 3.75, 13.5 or 27 laps. I think Olinger has shown that he is an above average 10k and 5k runner also. I think his accomplishments speak loud enough.
I would be surprised if this yahoo "moss" has ever run a steeple. It is tremendously difficult. Most people accept that a 3k or 5k on the track is tough. Long enough to really be grueling, but not slow like a 10k. I think it is very hard. Throw in having to hurdle and water-jump off either leg and having to clear these things while in anaerobic agony and steer around other people ... well, you get the picture.
I was there at the meet last night and saw Bairu and it must have been Nelson up front. I recognized Tony Ford (I refuse to call him Antony) and Lockhart. They were a little back at that point. I wasn't sure who the OSU guy was when I looked at him, but I knew about the 8:19 steeple and the 13:45 indoor 5k by Olinger and figured it must be him, either that or the pace was slower than I thought and some other guy was having the race of his life.
Anyway, as it got around 15-18 laps in Bairu started pushing and (knowing about Bairu) I assumed he would start to drop everyone and cruise to a 28:50-29:00 or so.
As was stated, Olinger ran on Simon's shoulder for many laps and since I thought he was going to get dropped I didn't pay attention how many. I was actually watching Lockhart, Tony Ford, Nelson and Mazzocco more closely as I wanted to see if any of them coudl get under 29:00.
Then BAM! Olinger makes a move and has a good gap right away. They were lapping a lot of guys in the last 4 laps, and I thought maybe Simon was biding his time and was going to close the gap gradually over the last 2 laps, because it was managable at this point. But he didn't and the announcer (I think) said that he was on pace for a 28:45 with a lap to go. Or maybe he was saying that he was threatening the Big 10 record (of 28:45.xx) so that Olinger would know it. I couldn't tell as I was on the other side of the track.
All I know was that it was quite cold on the track (in the 40's) and reasonbly windy (although that track has decent protection) and it was "rainy" in that it rained before and after the race a lot. The track was wet in spots (puddles) also.
28:45 in what might be his first 10k is awesome.
Only other thing I noticed that was weird was how many guys were wearing spikes with litte-tiny heel wedges. Some of them you couldn't even see the midsole material from the side. The sole just wrapped around right up to the edge like a sprint spike. If I was running the 5k or the 10k on the track I would be sporting a thick heel wedge for comfort.