I think Shalane Flanagan will win Boston once she decides to move up to the marathon.
You heard it here first!
I think Shalane Flanagan will win Boston once she decides to move up to the marathon.
You heard it here first!
No, the next American runner to win Boston will be one of the Gouchers kids - Adara or K-dam.
sad letsrunner wrote:
Two words: Jordan Hasay
You heard it here first.
You are obviously not a fan of running and have no faith. We have some amazing runners right now, and this excitement is going to produce even more great runners.
Your statement is like someone saying their favorite team can't and won't win a championship in their lifetime. No real fan of the sport or the team would ever say a thing like that.
Ryan Hall will win a major marathon in the next few years and Boston could be the place. Give him a break, it was his first Boston. Bill Rodgers dropped out in his first and went on to win several.
Bottom line it will happen.
True, but Bill hadn't run three marathons (like Hall) when he dropped out. Rojo: Stephano Baldini won the Olympic marathon against formidable African runners...
Such an absurd claim. I remember when people were saying 19.32 would never get broken. Ever.
OMG GERMAN OMG GERMAN I WANT HIS BABIES. HE'LL DO IT. HE'S OUR NEXT AMERICAN HOPE OMG.
distance guy wrote:
After watching the last half of today's races, I really feel like I will never see an American win Boston again, at least during my lifetime.
shut the F U C K up please. its people like you that are bad for the sport. take your negativity and shove it up your A S S.
Maybe we could win a marathon or two if we didn't keep shutting down our countries best doping shops. Put Victor Conte back in business, and we can start putting some American's on the top of the podium.
Into a 17 mph headwind, Hall and Goucher needed to be a bit more patient, rather than running at the front when they did. They proved they have the gifts, the guts and the conditoning to run at the top. We know they were pumped, that's for sure! I am sure that Goucher could have won her race. The extra energy she could have saved by drafting, rather than leading for 6 miles would have easily given her the 10 seconds she needed to come out on top. But she MADE it a race, I will give her that. She is a champion in my book. Hall ran 1:03/1:06, so I believe a more even pace and not leading until the final breakaway would have made the difference of at least one place with a sub-2:09. When runners are that evenly matched, unable to break away from each other for mile after mile, the one with the best tactics wins. Merga vs. Merga in an all out mile race will be lost by the one who tries to pass in lane 2 all the way around the last curve.
N.O. wrote:
take your negativity and shove it up your A S S.
I do not recommend this.
No, the next American runner to win Boston will be one of the Gouchers kids - Adara or K-dam.
No, I think one of the future goucher kids will marry one of the future hall kids and make super babies. I swear, Nike (and asics) have a breeding program going
rojo wrote:
I almost wrote a piece this summer saying that I thought I'd never see an American born runner without recent African ancestry ever medal at 5k or 10k in the Olympics but still like to believe in the near impossible.
I actually think a third like Willis or Mottram or Hall today is possible in an Olympics. A win? Not likely.
And why are runners of "recent african descent" so dominant rojo? well, you once wrote a piece showing that the big drop in WR times in men's distance races, and the overall drop in all time list performances coincided perfectly with the introduction of epo. Remember that scholarly piece rojo? Interestingly, nearly ALL the runners making those big drops in times were of african ancestry, and the best non-african times actually had not dropped much during the "epo era". So..... by my powers of reasoning, I came to the conclusion that your conclusion was that since the early 90's, east africans have been doping like crazy, while non-africans have not so much.
Wasn't that the only logical conclusion one could reach after reading your piece? Care to rebut?
ddt wrote:
This is garbage, Goucher could have won if she didnt lead the last 4 or 5 miles and hall let the pack get away. They both are relatively young runners and both got 3rd so saying that an American will never win is ludicrous.
Goucher will be 31 soon, and Hall turns 27 later this year.
Relatively young? Not by elite standards - not by a long shot.
KUFI wrote:
Do you celebrate after doing your job well?
BTW, if they did celebrate, there would be quite a bit of (racially based) criticism (see, Usain Bolt, NFL receivers, sprinters in general).
Haven't seen any criticism of blacks for that here, just Rupp.
I don't understand Hall and Goucher. If there's a headwind, run behind someone. If there's no wind, you're still running 11-12 mph - get behind someone. If there's a tailwind, make sure you catch it - run at the back. I know wind is a bigger factor in cycling, but these guys should watch a stage of Le Tour before treating Boston as group time trial.
Reality checker wrote:
That's a little harsh. Why not just suggest that the OP gouge his eyes out?
Because it leaves open the possibility that he might still reproduce and further dilute the gene pool.
distance guy wrote:
After watching the last half of today's races, I really feel like I will never see an American win Boston again, at least during my lifetime.
People who say this are like the people who say there will never be a woman US President, since Hillary lost. Hillary Clinton is not the sum of all women, and 4/20/2009 was not the apex of American marathon running. But some people seem to have a doom fetish.
Reality checker wrote:
That's a little harsh. Why not just suggest that the OP gouge his eyes out?
reality speaker wrote:
Because it leaves open the possibility that he might still reproduce and further dilute the gene pool.
I wasn't asking you.
Sir Lance must be getting in his required internet monitoring time at Hillel House. The E. Africans have a higher percentage of talented individuals than other peoples. They also deal with very little out of season testing (while Europeans and Asians - ask the Japanese - are literally hounded at times). This has been discussed in other threads and on other sites, as you well know. While the sport of distance running was rapidly losing the interest of "the kids" in Europe in the mid 80's to soccer and other concerns, it took off in E. Africa just a couple of years later. We are seeing some great talents out of E. Africa, and we are seeing some cheats too. Just as we see in other sports. We're probably more likely though, to see an American (of European descent) win the Boston Marathon than see a Kenyan win the World's Strongest Man contest.
in Ethiopia and Kenya, there is tremendous depth in running, hence many elites. The source of the depth is a large number of people running from an earlier age, often t/f school, and training intensely from an early age in groups at altitude on soft surfaces. Until we have comparable depth, we're going to struggle at these levels, particularly at the marathon, where it is easy for any given runner to have an off day (but not all of the 10 Kenyans and Ethiopians in the top 11). But there has been a lot of progress in middle and long distance running in this country relative to Europe and our own lot in the 1990s. The number of sub-9, sub-4:10 hs'ers has been in the double figures frequently, the collegiate times have improved, and pro A qualifiers have increased dramatically. That is why we are already seeing many more Americans competing in big races, and occasionally medaling (naturally, Lagat at World's, but also Flanagan in the Olympics and Goucher at World's) or coming close (Teg at World's).