Graham Blanks has a crucial decision to make

This is not to take anything away from the Americans who have been having great success on the track, but I think the marathon is relatively more competitive right now due to it being more lucrative for East African runners than staying on the track. I don’t see any reason to think Blanks would be more competitive internationally in the marathon than the 10K. Frankly, the 10K is looking as wide open as I can remember it being with Cheptegai moving to the roads.

Nico Young didn't have a kick as recently as 18 months ago. But he got stronger and faster and voila, he won a diamond league.

Nico probably has slightly faster middle distance speed than Blanks so yesterday’s performance indicates he is every bit as strong as the altitude trained Young. Had he attended NAU, I don’t believe he would have run anymore than a couple seconds faster yesterday or maybe none at all.

Ridiculous.

Is this thread a joke? Kid is making millions off coffee alone!

jitteryjoes.com

Graham Blanks Runner's High

Jittery Joe's Coffee

Jittery Joe's is thrilled to offer Runner's High, our celebration of Athens' own Olympian Graham Blanks. Graham, who hails from Athens, GA, is an NCAA Cross Country champion and All-American at Harvard University. And in a cu...

Link:jitteryjoes.com/products/graham-blanks...

All he does is drink coffee and train like an animal. Leave him alone!

Your mom needs to take away your internet access asap

Completely insane from OP suggesting he's not cutting it at 5k and should move up to the marathon, but yesterday's race did make me very excited for the 10k potential of American athletes. Assuming Fisher, Young, and Blanks all stick with the 5k/10k, I could see all 3 breaking 26:20 in the 10k within a few years if they stay consistent and get into the right race. All 3 are great 5k runners, but probably slightly better 10k runners.

At 28, Fisher is the least likely to improve that much during the rest of his career.

This OP take is obviously very bad.

But it does highlight something that I still wish, which is that I still wish the 3k were its own Olympic/WAC outdoor race, distinct from the steeplechase. Just to give more good runners more opportunities to qualify for different events.

people have the correct take in that American top marathoners are obviously not the best the US talent base has to offer…

but the 5k and the marathon might as well be different sports. yes you have to run a lot either way. but be real, running for 13 minutes vs 2 hours is so far from being the same thing.

range is the exception, not the norm.

i think it’d be VERY easy for a potential superelite marathon specialist to suck at the 1600m in high school and not get any substantial offers to continue running

we’re always like oh this ex-D3 guy or mediocre steepler ran this solid marathon time, imagine if we got *insert 1500m guy here who cant even run a 5k* to run 120mpw and give it a shot

…no like we’re probably also missing out on other D3 steeplers who had to get jobs

Cooper Teare wishes that too

I don’t wish that. It would just water down the distance races.

3rd fastest American ever over 5,000m and this is what you come up with?

Grant ran 26:33 in 2022 and has seemingly hit a new level since then based on his Olympic medals and indoor times since then. I expect he was probably already in 26:20 shape when he medaled this past summer. Nico and Graham still need to improve to get to that form.

True- but, given him closing hard in a 26:43 in the Paris final, it’s probably fair to assume that 26:33 isn’t his absolute peak. Hes improved substantially since the year he ran that (March of 2022) in the 1500, 5K, and 3K. So while he may not “improve”, I’m not ruling not that he is not or has not been in 26:20 shape before

Marathon is definitely not more competitive.

Crazy troll post...Blanks runs 12:48 while have recently been living in a Harvard dorm....and now he is a marathoner!...will be interesting so see how his 5K/10K times improve once he settles in as a full time pro

Well your post is not as absurd as some deem it, but there is no reason to assume that he would medal in any event, so take that away as a reason to move up. He might just want to do what he enjoys doing. The marathon is a cruel mistress. He might not be interested, and even if he is, at 23, he might want to see what he can do at 5 and 10 for a few years and he could still try a half marathon at 26 or 27 to see if he likes the notion of moving up.

As I read the first post I thought it was going to end up suggesting he go to steeplechase, which would be stupid.

But when is Teare going to figure out the steeplechase is his only hope?

Also, given the immense 1500/5000m talent we now have in this country, when is the dam finally gonna break and some of these people spill into the steeplechase? It's gotta happen soon.

Not to disrespect the guys we already have in the steeplechase...they're no slouches either.