Luke Watson Quotation and LR Headline

bruce lee wrote:

So the leaders veer off-course (their mistake) for about 20 seconds, and he wins by well over 3 minutes.

this is correct. not only that, but watson himself was confused about the turn and came to a stop.

you guys whining about this are pathetic little bitches.

What Luke did is on par with a linebacker recovery a running backs fumble. You think the linebacker would say "hey you dropped this here ya go"?

He should have done the classy thing and stopped and waited for them to catch up, like the guys in the 10000 Olympic final did when Viren fell down.

Here's another article on the race.

http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110117/SPORT05/701179983

Another quotation from Watson:

“When I saw the two guys ahead of me take a wrong turn I figured that if it was going to be that kind of race then I'd hit back a little bit,” he said.

That quotation also sounds odd to me. I wonder if there's some important contextual information being left out of the reporting.

Some of the comments on this thread are a bit disturbing (although unsurprising) to me. I don't know enough about the circumstances of this particular race to have any strong views about what occurred, but I'm troubled by comments that seem to conflate a competitor's minimal obligations under the rules of a sport and an individual's sense of propriety and fair play. Just as I would hate to live in a society where people feel free to do whatever is not illegal, I would hate to be associated with a sport where participants feel free to do whatever is not against the rules of the game.

If I could redirect a competitor back onto the course of a marathon just by calling out to him, I sure as hell hope that I'd do so. I don't really feel that course navigation skills should be part of the competition in a road marathon. If the sport were orienteering, my thoughts about the matter would probably be quite different.

Again, I'm not commenting about the circumstances of this particular matter, beyond observing that the quotations seem rather odd to me.

Something similar happened to me in a half marathon a little over a year ago. Though we weren't competing for the win, we were going for 3rd and 4th respectively...in a race where there was no prize money.

Just before mile 10, I'm running just off his shoulder and he suddenly tries to turn right when he should've turned left. It was clearly his mistake because the course was well marked and he had to veer behind a car to go the way he thought was the correct way. By pure instinct alone, I yelled "HEY!" and he quickly stopped and turned around and maybe only lost 3 seconds of time....maybe more accounting for lost momentum. He ended up beating me by 10 seconds. I didn't know the guy, we weren't friends, but I just reacted in the moment and prevented him from really straying off course. It didn't matter to me, I still PR'd.

Point is, it's hard to say what any of us would do in that same situation. Given another chance, I may have reacted differently.

Avocado's Number wrote:

“When I saw the two guys ahead of me take a wrong turn I figured that if it was going to be that kind of race then I'd hit back a little bit,” he said.

That quotation also sounds odd to me. I wonder if there's some important contextual information being left out of the reporting.

(1) they were surging on him at water stations. If they're going to do that, he owes them nothing when they make a mistake.

(2) He won by way more than he made up on them in that short 15-20second period.

(3) it's so touching that you're troubled by comments here saying that he did nothing wrong. you are a moral giant.

caution hot wrote:

(1) they were surging on him at water stations. If they're going to do that, he owes them nothing when they make a mistake.

If that, indeed, was Watson's reasoning -- and I'm not taking your word that it was -- then the letsrun headline would be fair commentary, in my view.

The "Sportsmanship" headline is inappropriate and isn't even vaguely alluded to in the article itself. What was Watson supposed to do?

The first roadrace I ever "won," actually, was a small local thing when I was just 16. I was in fourth place. Three guys ahead of me took a wrong turn. I shouted to them telling them it was wrong, but they kept going. What would have been the "sportsmanlike" thing to do? Follow them? Stop? Quit?

Avocado's Number wrote:

If that, indeed, was Watson's reasoning -- and I'm not taking your word that it was -- then the letsrun headline would be fair commentary, in my view.

It doesn't matter what Watsons reasoning was - he's done nothing wrong. He won the race fair and square.

dataio wrote:

Anyway, pros should know the course.

Are you a professional runner? Do you coach a professional runner? Are you an agent for a professional runner?

What makes you think that professional runners have the ability to know the route of 26 miles of running? I don't know of any who have that ability.

malmo wrote:

dataio wrote:

Anyway, pros should know the course.

Are you a professional runner? Do you coach a professional runner? Are you an agent for a professional runner?

What makes you think that professional runners have the ability to know the route of 26 miles of running? I don't know of any who have that ability.

F*** you Malmo.

malmo wrote:

dataio wrote:

Anyway, pros should know the course.

Are you a professional runner? Do you coach a professional runner? Are you an agent for a professional runner?

What makes you think that professional runners have the ability to know the route of 26 miles of running? I don't know of any who have that ability.

You must know some pretty stupid runners then. (Cannot tell if your post is sarcastic or not).

luv2run wrote:

malmo wrote:

Are you a professional runner? Do you coach a professional runner? Are you an agent for a professional runner?

What makes you think that professional runners have the ability to know the route of 26 miles of running? I don't know of any who have that ability.

You must know some pretty stupid runners then. (Cannot tell if your post is sarcastic or not).

I agree with malmo on this point. (I like saying that, if only because it makes me feel better when I express disagreement with him on other points.)

If you've led enough road, cross-country, or trail races in your career, there's a pretty good chance that you've come to a fork in the road or trail and not known which way to go. That doesn't mean you're stupid. More likely, the race organizers haven't provided adequate assistance along the course. It's silly to think that a runner should be required to know every turn in a 26.2-mile road race beforehand.

I think there's alot of context being left out here. I also think it's really unfair to rip Watson's sportsmanship here without any evidence beyond a few vague quotes. We don't know if there was anything he could have done to prevent their error, or if he did or didn't try to prevent it.

cmonman! wrote:

I think there's alot of context being left out here. I also think it's really unfair to rip Watson's sportsmanship here without any evidence beyond a few vague quotes. We don't know if there was anything he could have done to prevent their error, or if he did or didn't try to prevent it.

I agree.

yes, yes, and yes. And I always know the whole course.

This is just another example of LetsRun staff making underhanded comments aimed at undermining an athletes performance. It's most certainly not Luke's responsibility to correct other runners mistakes, and for a guy like Luke, the need to make money from these type of races is certainly going to over-ride any kind of irrational noble gesture. (This presumes of course that he even had the option to correct the other runners. There are no details given so no one can really make a judgment call)

Time after time the Brojo's demonstrate a huge lack of forethought in their comments. They have the privilege of using LetsRun as the public outlet for their thoughts but seem to want to spend more time tearing persons down than building anyone up.

getitluke wrote:

for a guy like Luke, the need to make money from these type of races is certainly going to over-ride any kind of irrational noble gesture.

I don't know Luke Watson. Do you know him well enough to make such an assessment of his character, or are you simply imputing your own values to him?

Avocado's Number wrote:

I don't know Luke Watson. Do you know him well enough to make such an assessment of his character, or are you simply imputing your own values to him?

AN,

Hasn't the whole discussion within this thread, as well as the Brojo's intial comment, been about imputing one's own values to Luke?

IMHO, Luke just ran his race. He did not mislead other runners. He did not cheat. The Ethiopians made a mistake that cost them. Luke did not make the same mistake. Based on accounts given, he won by a greater margin than what the mistake cost the runners.

Congratulations on a good double to Luke Watson!