Jox Cox trying to petition his way into O'Trials

I agree. I sincerely hope that the original poster has been misinformed. This sort of request for special treatment wouldn't -- in my eyes -- reflect well on Josh.

If he is making such a request, I do wonder what the basis might be. His PR, just a shade under 2:14 on a fast course in Chicago, was seven years ago. Even if he were in PR shape today, that still wouldn't make him competitive for the team. In any event, if he were in PR shape today, he should still be able to find a marathon somewhere to get a qualifying time. An even-paced 2:21+ for a sub-2:14 marathoner, especially a high-mileage guy like Josh, is just a long hard training run.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Wasn't he going to go for it in San Diego early June? If he was in shape he would have already run sub 2:22 by now. He should line up with the rest of the last chance guys in Chicago.

Alan

I have no problems whatsoever with Josh Cox, but I agree with that 100%. Who knows whether he's actually petitioning or not, but if he is, I hope they deny him. He's had the same amount of time as everyone else to get his qualifier. As a side note, this is one of the problems with having the Trials so early. It cut out a whole fall season, so now a guy like Cox who may even have a legit shot at a top-10 or even better is screwed. The Trials should have been in the spring of the Olympic year like they've always been.

Giddy wrote:

Are you guys forgetting the entire spirit of the trials system? You have to qualify to get in, and to make the team, you have to be in the top 3.

The spirit of the system is that the trials race determines everything. To help this happen, we have a system to prevent people who don't belong from running.

Would you argue that Cox is not fast enough to belong?

Remember, no one is saying we should let him go to the Olympics based on very little--just that he's shown in the past that he should have the right to try out for the team.

Sagarin wrote:

Nevermind, I found it. 28:45 seems kind of stiff and is a hell of a lot harder than 2:22. What about making it just plain old sub 30:00? Most guys who run sub-30:00 and are putting in mileage can run 2:22 or better, but it's certainly not the other way around. Even so, if you have any shot in hell at making the team, you'd better be able to run 28:45 or faster.

http://www.usatf.org/events/2008/OlympicTrials-Marathon-Men/entry/qualifyingStandards.asp

The 10k standard should be WAY harder than the marathon standard. You are running 25% of the marathon distance. 28:45 seems about right to me.

bring it wrote:

Josh's MySpace has some pretty funny videos of Meb, Dan Brown and him training at Mammoth Lakes. He certainly looks like he could get in an 'easy' 2:22 with pleanty of time to spare for the Trials.

http://www.myspace.com/coxjosh

I've seen the videos, which are fairly amusing and pretty fun to watch, except for the overkill on powerbar products. In all fairness, a guy who's pretty much dedicated his life to god and a guy who prides himself on his honesty, integrity, and hard work (which throughout his career i've always thought of him as a pretty stand up guy) shouldn't be trying to get into the trials by creating a loophole. The rules are easy. Run 2:22 by this date and get in... if not, sorry... but you've had TWO YEARS to run it.

The 28:45 10k route makes more sense. You need that sort of speed to make the marathon team anyway.

If failing that, then run Chicago.

I'm a little rusty on my elite runner tapering. Let's say that Meb went out and ran Chicago for a training run and clocked a 2:21.59. What would that do to his chances the next month in NYC?

Runningart2004 wrote:

Wasn't he going to go for it in San Diego early June? If he was in shape he would have already run sub 2:22 by now. He should line up with the rest of the last chance guys in Chicago.

Alan

Agreed. I can't imagine why this guy should get any kind of special treatment. He was 7th in the Olympic trials almost 4 years ago and his PR is 7 years old. Has he done anything in the past 4 years besides being on a reality TV show?

Clearly Cox has run fast in the past and put in a number of good performances. I'm not knocking that at all. But the idea that he should be allowed into the trials based on something he did almost 4 years ago is laughable to me. Hell, Matt Lane was 4th at the Olympic Trials in 2000 and 2004. I suppose he should come out of retirement and ask for a free pass too.

Ultramiler wrote:

Would you argue that Cox is not fast enough to belong?

Remember, no one is saying we should let him go to the Olympics based on very little--just that he's shown in the past that he should have the right to try out for the team.

What is the criteria for being fast enough to belong... in this case, its 2:22 for 26.2 miles and you have to run it within a time window, again, in this case... 2 years. So yes, I would argue that Cox is not fast enough to belong.

I'm not saying he isn't capable, god knows he is, but there are criteria set in place that give everyone an equal opportunity to run for a chance to represent our country. It's laid out in black and white. Josh has been through the process twice and has agreed on that criteria in the past. You can't not race in 2 years accept for a beer mile and expect our athletic administration to allow you in because of mammoth lakes videos and trust.

desert rodent wrote:

The 10k standard should be WAY harder than the marathon standard. You are running 25% of the marathon distance. 28:45 seems about right to me.

I can see your point, but the caliber of athlete it takes to run a 28:45 is far greater than that of a 2:22. That's not to demean a 2:22 effort at all, but anyone with modest training off of a 28:45 can run a sub-2:20.

In fact, there are plenty of anecdotes of guys over the years who could barely break 31:00 but could still run 2:22.

Josh Cox has had 100's of chances to run 2:22:00 or less before the Olympic Trials, and in fact, he has more chances coming up. There is the Berlin Marathon next month, and then Chicago one week later.

I am sure that it won't mess up his wavy surfer-boy hair too much!!

One of the greatest things about our sport is that there is always a marathon going on somewhere in the USA or the world, every single weekend. Josh Cox is not a poor boy, and can easily fly to Europe or Japan or wherever he needs to go.

Perhaps he was too busy being on TV, so he could not be troubled to get to a marathon.

Sagarin wrote:

In fact, there are plenty of anecdotes of guys over the years who could barely break 31:00 but could still run 2:22.

Well, that might explain why they were running the marathon instead of the 10,000 or the 1,500.

The 10,000-meter qualifying time for the marathon trials was never intended to be "equivalent" to the marathon qualifying time. It was intended to enable a few additional high-caliber athletes to get into the marathon trials by demonstrating their fitness by means other than running a marathon.

(As a sidenote, you should be skeptical about many of these "anecdotes" about guys who ran respectable marathon times despite being unable to run comparable times at 10K. In many cases, they just never ran serious races at shorter distances when they were in peak marathon shape. To take an extreme case, I know one marathoner whose best time in a one-mile race was 4:49.1, but who ran well under 2:20 for the marathon. As you might guess, he never ran a one-mile race when he was anywhere near peak marathon shape.)

MebK wrote:

I'm a little rusty on my elite runner tapering. Let's say that Meb went out and ran Chicago for a training run and clocked a 2:21.59. What would that do to his chances the next month in NYC?

The "tapering" and recovery should be no big deal -- a couple of easy days beforehand and perhaps a few easy days immediately after. In all likelihood, it wouldn't have a huge negative effect on his racing ability a month later. Whether it would be optimal training at that point in his preparations for the trials, however, is another matter.

He's not going to make the team so he should just go to Chicago and run 2:22. It shouldn't matter if he's up in Mammoth having fun with Meb. The guy hasn't raced in 2 years. Let's see some results.

I dont think this is a true rumor.From what I've heard, Cox is racing a half-marathon pretty soon and whats to use that to get into the Oly Trials.His reasoning is that if a guy can use a fast 5k time to get in, u should be able to get in on a fast half-marathon.

Makes sense to me.

hdoe wrote:

I dont think this is a true rumor.From what I've heard, Cox is racing a half-marathon pretty soon and whats to use that to get into the Oly Trials.His reasoning is that if a guy can use a fast 5k time to get in, u should be able to get in on a fast half-marathon.

Makes sense to me.

You are so wrong on this one. I looked it up to see if there was a 1/2 marathon standard. Guess what, there isn't one - just a track 5k & 10k.

Let the rumors fly; it makes good theatre.

Josh should try it on the TREADMILL!

he ran mid 2:20s a couple of years ago and set the World record. Its been broken but he can go for the record and get in at the same time!

Josh could always run the Indy Classic Marathon on 9/8!