Americans both 3rd, what does this mean?

This is a stupid thread. What in God's name do you mean by, "what does this mean for the future?" Outside of the context of Goucher and Hall's careers, their races intimate nothing about the future. Your thinking here is synecdochal, which is rather dangerous. BTW...what do Flanagan's, Meb's, Kastor's Olympic Medals mean? How about Goucher, Flanagan and Rupp's triumphant indoor seasons? Teg busting out 8:07 and 13:02, and missing podium by a step at worlds? German Fernandez soloing 3:55 indoors and getting 11th at worlds (that is, 11th amongst 13:00-13:30 guys) with a stress reaction? Hall going 59:43, 2:06:17 on the first and second tries respectively? Lagat (despite the Letsrun controversy regarding his not having been born, bred, and corn fed in America) repeatedly trumping Bekele and the 1500 crowd at Worlds? We’ve hardly fallen into a golden age; American running is rather weak in some areas. It is also true, however, that we’re no longer bottom of the totem pole, for some of our athletes are on equal footing with the absolute best in the world. Today at Boston, our runners walked away from the podium drowsed by the scent of another's laurels. And though it is true that they, if anyone, have had occasion to doubt the legitimacy of their wishes, one cannot deny them those privileged moments, acutely felt, when that burden's lifted. If just for a moment we would renounce the letsrunner's frenzy for stats--those incessant, self-conscious valuations that kill runners in the womb--and think about what went down today at Boston, I think we'd have to admit that our runners helped us glimpse one of those special moments. On the heap of statistics, Ryan and Kara's races are specks of dust, merely 3rd place; and yet what each delivered was a performance that shined more brightly than bronze, indeed, "blazed like a fire in the night." In any race, necessarily, everyone loses but one. There is, however, a certain "aesthetics of racing," which joins itself to the agonistic spirit at large. From Jacob wrestling with the Elohim, to Homer vs. Hesiod, on to Pindar vs. his Athletes, and all the way up through the other great cutting competitions (between the Renaissance artists, the German composers, the English Romantic Poets, the German Philologists, the Great apex of jazz musicians, etc...), this spirit has prevailed and informed the worth of all human productions. The wreath falls only upon the head of a single individual, yet we learn to judge the worth of his subordinates by the degree of their perseverance. Wordsworth was in as different a league compared to Coleridge as Sonny Rollins was to Marsalis and Geb to Tergat--but for the haunting, almost melancholy beauty of their bravery, none of these lessers shall be easily forgotten. I’ve always found it rather ironic that Ryan’s imaginative poverty for “transcendent performances,” bespeaks an orientation that is wholly pagan/Emersonian rather than traditionally Christian. Regardless, even if both he and Kara fell short of transport, they certainly gave us a race worth watching and a race that we Americans, out of sympathy for the genuine efforts of our fellows, should find worthy of remembrance.

WTF is all that gibberish?

total crybaby bs

Bill Rogers ran approx these times [today's race] with a hand lettered GBTC tee shirt 30 years ago

he ate pizza bones and mayo

Kara busted wind?

Ryan broke balls?

The 1st poster seriously wasn\'t serious.

0/10

U tried way too hard.

Hey butch! Youuu Stiink! wrote:

This is a stupid thread. What in God's name do you mean by, "what does this mean for the future?"

For a rather stupid thread you make it a point to type a lengthy explanation. I usually don't reply to "stupid" threads, but thats just me I guess.

With all of the attention this past week about "Will an American finally win Boston?," I wondered since the Americans did not win, what are the repercussions of this if any.

This race built hype for Americans who knew little about running. I had non-runners in my office get into the race because of what they read in the newspapers, but now that the Americans were defeated they have lost interest so quickly.

Did this race effect other runners or non-runners personna of US distance running?

Next year they'll have to make even more of an effort to make sure they have no competition.

It means we have some pretty damn good Americans running now.

trollism wrote:

Next year they'll have to make even more of an effort to make sure they have no competition.

I don't see how they can win against the dark legs. We might have to create an american cyborg.

"I’m thinking about getting metal legs. It’s a risky operation, but it’ll be worth it.”

JP: Are you afraid of it?

Kane: No I just don't like techno.

JP: You would if you had robot ears

3rd place but the best looking wrote:

K Goucher is a fine looking woman, even after running for 2.5hours..

She had enough time to relax during that slow race. Like a trip to the spa. ;-)

it means they got put on the bitch

I think the Americans did a little better than expected given there experience level. There is no doubt in my mind that these two guys can win a major city marathon. But they are new to this event. For most runners...It takes at least 3 years to get marathon ready..

10 years ago.. if we said ... 3 americans will be in the top 3... i would not believe it. I believe there are a couple of good runners in the US and it seems to be continuing.

Great run by the Americans. It is always to beat a stacked field of Ken/Eth/Mor but can be done?

Great runs by Ryan and Kara. They should have no regrets.

It is easy to comment in retrospect, but the Women's race basically came down to a 10K race at the end with the 20 mile warm up. The pace was really pedestrian for these World class runners through 20 miles.

Perhaps had Kara stayed behind and protected from the wind and then unleashed a long kick from 1000 meters out she may have had a chance, but who knows she may have been out kicked anyway.

The Men's race was over when Merga threw in his violent surge, as long as he was able to maintain his momentum after that no one was going to catch him. Ryan ran great, almost nabbed second.

Ryan apparently wanted an honest pace from the gun. He may have used up too much energy being in front for so long. He lost about 7 seconds per mile to Merga over the last 8 miles.

I'm a freshman at North Iowa Area Community College (Mason City,IA) and I'm looking guys. Not just any guys, guys with at least a 10-inch dick. I live on the A wing in the Dorms.

Goucher has to thank nike i guess

It means $50k for each of them from BAA, Plus money from Nike and Asics. I'd say they has a good day.

I'd say they both had a good day, I also wonder how many 3:42.x and 1:51 800 HS'ers were in Hall's race, he never showed or has ever shown a serious 10K effort, not once, was not in our top 3 at 10K after a 13:16 5K. I wonder why everyone thinks he will beat anyone that good?

Is this that frigging mystifying? Going downhill at 1:17 above the best 5K you ever ran , 1:00 above what you ever ran at 10K Once,what did people think was going to happen.

Folks thought he was going to do better from there?

he was out leading at 1:0x or in there, did not run as fast as Salazar, actually watch he race and then pick out the flaws.

The guys that won this race, i.e. Salazar were almost as good at 5K better and better at 10K. And so were many others since.

There was a step skipped here.And was a long time ago.

Salazar marks.

13:11.93 for 5,000 m (July 6, 1982 - Stockholm) and 27:25.61 for 10,000 m - (June 26, 1982 - Oslo).

You lose all credibility because how could you forget Jenny Barringer, easily the most impressive American runner this winter.