Brian Sell's Swan Song

You have to give credit to any runner who maximizes their potential but also knows when to hang it up. Shawn Found was another guy who didn't "break 10:00" in college who worked his way to a 28:33 10k and 4th plcae finish at the 2000 Olympic Trials. He definitely milked everything he could from the sport and had a nice Army subsidy for awhile as well. Similar story. I think he was a military chaplain and is now a minister somewhere back east.

From the interview:

My wife is the main breadwinner of the family, so we have to work around her schedule.

What does his wife do for a living? It is fairly well documented that Brian makes a guaranteed $100,000 a year. This means that his wife makes more than that. So lets say that his wife is making $150,000. That is some damn good money in Michigan. I don't think that I would be working at a shoe store for additional cash.

Sell "made" $100,000 per year for a couple of years maybe, but does he anymore or does he just make $8/hr and maybe a small stipend? If his wife's the main breadwinner, he ain't making anywhere close to six figures anymore.

His wife is not the main breadwinner. That is simply a false statement.

how did he burn ME? i don't know him and have never talked to him. I'm not in the know like you are. I clicked this thread to read about him.

Brian Sell made $100k this year. I guarantee it. Brian does not like to admit it because it doesn't play well for the image.

He has just as much talent as other top tier runners. He just didn't progress as early nor train as hard early. He's a great runner and works hard, but come on!

The guy is a great runner , nuts and bolts. He is a very good national class runner. Making a Oly team or World Champs team does not make you world class. You made a national team in a nationals competition. The world class stage is something different. He has not been world ranked. He would not be considered a" threat" in any major international marathon in the world.

ooh wrote:

how did he burn ME? i don't know him and have never talked to him. I'm not in the know like you are. I clicked this thread to read about him.

I'm not sure what is difficult to understand. The fact that the poster stated was available from interviews with Sell, so your sarcastic statement that he must be close to Sell and the implication that he didn't know what he was talking about were stupid. What more explanation do you require?

He finished 9th in the World Champs, 6th in Chicago and 4th at Boston. Throghout his career he has clearly been better than nationalclass.

Seeing how he stated "I would say that 10% is a max gain for a week. So if you are running 40 miles one week, don’t go more than 45 the next week" there is a reason he worked at Home Depot. Jk, he's a good guy and I like him ;)

I thought the same thing when I read it. Math is obviously not his strong suit.

I will believe the retirement when I see it. Brian talked about retiring after the trials in 2004 and pretty much every marathon since. I don't even think Brett Favre had been talking about it back in 2004?

He is a great story. 10 flat 2 miler becomes an Olympian. But I am glad that he MAY call it quits. This interview makes him look like a guy starving for attention. I would hate for him to ruin his image by becoming a 2:20 marathoner with a chip on his shoulder.

Please do us a favor and look at the world ranking lists for those specific years.

Rankings come from depth of field , times run specific to the course and finish place.

Dont get me wrong , great runner no question.

funny stuff wrote:

I thought the same thing when I read it. Math is obviously not his strong suit.

10% of 40 is 4. 40+4=44. clearly when he said "don't go over 45" he was rounding up (as if 1 mile would make a difference).

you guys really got him on this one!

(although I have to admit, I'm surprised he's espousing the 10% rule. it seems pretty arbitrary, and at really low mileage, would take forever to implement to get up to decent mileage.)

cross bluntry wrote:

funny stuff wrote:

I thought the same thing when I read it. Math is obviously not his strong suit.

10% of 40 is 4. 40+4=44. clearly when he said "don't go over 45" he was rounding up (as if 1 mile would make a difference).

Which tooth was I supposed to pull? Oh well, close enough.

cross bluntry wrote:

funny stuff wrote:

I thought the same thing when I read it. Math is obviously not his strong suit.

10% of 40 is 4. 40+4=44. clearly when he said "don't go over 45" he was rounding up (as if 1 mile would make a difference).

you guys really got him on this one!

(although I have to admit, I'm surprised he's espousing the 10% rule. it seems pretty arbitrary, and at really low mileage, would take forever to implement to get up to decent mileage.)

It seems like you would normally round to an integer and seeing how 44 is an integer...

There is really nothing incorrect about his statement even if he's not rounding. He said "don't go over 45." Running 44 miles certainly counts as not going over 45.

People pretty consistently talk about their mileage goals in multiples of 5 and I'm sure that's all Brian was doing. You guys are really reaching for something to criticize if you're this concerned about him being off by 1 mile in a statement he probably said in passing.

Bear of Bad News wrote:

There is really nothing incorrect about his statement even if he's not rounding. He said "don't go over 45." Running 44 miles certainly counts as not going over 45.

Of course 44 miles is less than 45 miles. IF he said 'don't go over 100' he would still be correct. He leads you to believe 45 is 10% more than 40. Incorrect! He stated "10% is the MAX gain for a week". Thus, the max is 44 for the next week. Geez, it was supposed to be a little joke and of course someone has to blow it up.