ukathleticscoach wrote:
Of course Rupp’s run was bound to be overshadowed by Solinskys superb sub 27
However, he has dipped under the old US record and smashed his pr by 23 seconds
Is his run being underrated?
For most people in the U.S. 27:10 would be amazing, but really for Rupp it is not. If you watched his 27:33 from 2007 you knew there was a lot more in his legs that day. A lof of us speculated that if he'd been in a race like Saturday where he went even and got stretched out he'd have been closer to 27:25. And that was back then. Think about what a different runner he became since then. He has made big jumps in the 1500/mile (twice), 3K (twice) and 5K (twice) since then and most of that was done indoors and none if in an event set up as perfectly as the 10K last saturday.
I'm sure his workouts indicated he was far and above shape to rock Mebs record but the result was he JUST beat it.
It's impressive to have a race you're not satisfied with and it be 27:10. Especially running it the way he had to. However, I guarantee you that even had Rupp won that race and now had the AR in a 27:10 time, that would be less than they were hoping for. Galens fitness and talents from 800-10K are far beyond what Mebs were when he ran 27:13 and that is why this is not a great achievement for Galen.
Galen has probably been ready to take down Mebs AR during the past 2 summers but never had an opportunity for it.
Disclaimer: Some fools will now ask why he didn't do it at the Olympics or World Championships then. It's the same reason Teg didn't run his 12:58 there and Ritz didn't run a 26:58 (rough equivalent of his 12:56) there.
At some point Galen will get into a 10K that goes at 27:00 pace or better and he won't have to lead, and then we'll see what he's capable of. Unfortunately those races don't come around often like 5K's do.