Ryan Hall-- Nice Job Helping Meb Win; Rojo - Nice Reporting

Flagpole wrote:

. . . Sometimes a race just goes a certain way that benefits a certain runner, but I give absolutely NO credit to any runner in that race for Meb's win except for Meb. . . .

A race goes a certain way because of the tactical decisions by the various players and their individual fitness on the day.

Without Hall and Arciniaga at the front of the pack and unwilling to chase Meb and Biot's break, the probably would have never split from the group.

The Kenyans are worried about the Ethiopians, particularly the defending champion Desisa, so they don't lead a chase. Desisa is feeling like crap so the Ethiopians aren't motivated to lead the group back. It's pretty much up to the Ukrainian Shafar until 12k to go and he's simply not fast enough to close on Meb. The biggest Kenyan stud is having an off day and the rest aren't quite able to close the gap they've let develop by the time they get serious.

Credit to Meb for taking the chance and executing to perfection, but he needed a lot of things to fall his way and one of them was the initial separation from the main pack.

Chef Gordon Ramzi wrote:

Christ this is predictable. The brojos can't stand the fact that a BLACK AMERICAN won Boston, so they spin it to create this bullshit about how a heroic white man was the one REALLY responsible for the victory.

You know, the white guy who barely topped the best woman's time. He's the true champion.

If you can, read the article, idiot. Do you really think all the other American marathoners are going to make up a story like this? Give the guys their kudos. They ran as a team.

You are being sarcastic??? Why? One guy on the conspiracy thread??? It's 12 pages long you goofball. And at least every other poster is advocating that the fix was in. Extrapolating? I'll extrapolate. Hmmmm…From the fact that you" think it was one guy on that conspiracy thread…", I'll extrapolate that you are not especially cerebrally gifted.

I'm going to repost the below. Meb won because he was the best out there, not because he received help from fellow Americans nor because everything lined up perfectly for him. He is better than those other guys. He's a better racer and marginally slower. Meb isn't a time trialer, but based on what he has shown for fitness, if he were, he would be a 2:05 guy. No one would have discounted a 2:05 guy. Note how solid his time was when compared to past Bostons:

Meb's winning time was better than every winning time since 2001 other than 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011 (massive tailwind). Barring 2011, which I think you need to throw out as an anomaly, Meb's winning time was the 4th fastest out of the last 13 editions of the Boston Marathon.

In 2010, his time would have finished 3rd (note, he finished 5th in that race in 2:09:26), in 2008 it would have finished 2nd and in 2006 it would have finished 3rd (which, incidentally, was Meb's place that year in 2:09:56).

Meb: 2:08:37, winning by 11 seconds was a very very good performance, inline with past winning efforts., Also, 2nd and 3rd had phenomenal races as well. Look below to see which years since 2001 produced slower times then this yeqr with the differential to 2nd place. This year's race was actually significantly deeper than the large majority of Boston Marathons since 2001.

2013: 2:10:22 +5

2012: 2:12:40 (I think Korir was a bigger shock then Meb) +26

2009: 2:08:42 +70

2007: 2:14:13 +20

2005: 2:11:45 +36

2004: 2:10:37 +72

2003: 2:10:11 +23

2002: 2:09:02 +3

2001: 2:09:42 +24

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5751071#ixzz2zdKtsocg

Citizen Runner wrote:Credit to Meb for taking the chance and executing to perfection, but he needed a lot of things to fall his way and one of them was the initial separation from the main pack.

This is it. The Africans didn't run smart races or were not 100% or... (insert conspiracy theory) Meb ran the race of his life. And again there was a slight tail wind or no wind, so better runners would have run 2:05 or faster, as the 2010 winner did. Meb is simply not a 2:05 guy. on any course. Just look at what the women did yesterday when there is a real race going on in perfect conditions.

I, like you, have not read the article yet but see if this helps:

Meb needed to build a minimum of 1:13 second lead to pull off the win. The Kenyans and Ethiopians were clearly focusing on each other and would only run as fast as the pack would carry them.

If another runner, presumably an American, decides to go to the front and run just 7 seconds faster then Meb gets caught and he doesn't win.

What is so hard to understand about that? Doesn't change the fact that Meb ran a brilliant and gutsy race and clearly deserved the victory. Also, operating under the presumption that his American teammates helped him doesn't diminish his accomplishment one iota.

So why the pea-brained outrage?

You are saying the same thing I am saying (certain races develop that help certain runners) except that you aren't giving proper credit to Meb for making this happen. Who gives a crap what the other runners are "worried" about? They all toed the line with the same distance to travel. Meb got there first. NO credit to anyone else but him, not even a sliver.

Tadpole wrote:

You know what completely sucks about that interview and this thread is it takes away from Mebs win. It's not that Meb won but the other Americans had to help him win. People should really learn to stfu and think before they speak. Is there any other rain on the parade that some fool would like to share?

It doesn't take away from it. You are the one putting that meaning into it.

All of the guys just raved about Meb if you listen the interviews in their entirety.

The facts are Meb won the race with an incredibly gutsy race. To run a solo negative split in Boston isn't easy.

You seem to think that Meb's win is less real because it resulted after the top runners from Africa let him grab a big lead while they were screwing around, focused on each other. If you think that 'takes away' from his win, then that's on you.

But I have zero doubt Meb doesn't win that race if the top Africans don't just let Meb get way ahead.

Meb came ready to run. The others screwed around and lost. The fact that the Americans were smart enough to realize what was happening and help makes it even better of a story.

American ingenuity at its finest on Patriots day.

When people talk about the NYGiants super bowl win over the undefeated patriots, people don't take away the trophy simply because a huge part of it involved a huge, huge break - the WR catching a hail mary on the side of his head.

Tadpole wrote:

You know what completely sucks about that interview and this thread is it takes away from Mebs win. It's not that Meb won but the other Americans had to help him win. People should really learn to stfu and think before they speak. Is there any other rain on the parade that some fool would like to share?

It doesn't take away from it. You are the one putting that meaning into it.

All of the guys just raved about Meb if you listen the interviews in their entirety.

The facts are Meb won the race with an incredibly gutsy race. To run a solo negative split in Boston isn't easy.

You seem to think that Meb's win is less real because it resulted after the top runners from Africa let him grab a big lead while they were screwing around, focused on each other. I have zero doubt Meb doesn't win that race if the top Africans don't just let Meb get way ahead. If you think that 'takes away' from his win, then that's on you.

Meb came ready to run the full 26.2 miles. The others didn't and lost. The fact that the Americans were smart enough to realize what was happening and help makes it even better of a story.

American ingenuity at its finest on Patriots day.

-Rojo

PS.

When people talk about the NYGiants super bowl win over the undefeated patriots, people don't take away the trophy simply because a huge part of it involved a huge, huge break - the WR catching a hail mary on the side of his head.

Rojo, perhaps they can wrap their heads around it (if they can get them out of the sand first) if we explain it like this:

If Haile G is hypothetically running boston, he gets away at a water stop, and Kenny B & co are in the field, and we then find out later that Kenny & co purposefully did NOT push the pace but rather forced others to do all the work, we'd be fighting to cheer the loudest for their "teamwork."

why is this any diff? it's not, and it SHOULD be applauded. doesn't take a single damn thing away from Meb's day, just means that, much like Meb's family, everyone was in it TOGETHER.

I'll admit, before reading the article I thought "Ryan is looking self-serving here" but then you see that all the info comes from other runners, NOT Hall. kudos to Hall for not tooting his own horn, and kudos to the other yanks for stepping up and holding back for Meb.

Giddy wrote:

Nice reporting? If this were a gossip column. You'd have to have Ryan Hall quote it, then you'd have to get Meb's reaction to it and then maybe you'd have a story.

Give Meb all the credit, not most of it.

There soon will be 10,000+ people on facebook that disagree with you. The story has gone viral and might get 100,000 views today.

Meb is the victory, but noone does anything alone. You don't think Bob Larsen deserves credit? Meb's wife?

Wow, nice reporting. This should have been picked up by some of the major outlets yesterday. I'm an even bigger Hall fan now. Anyone who says this takes away from Meb's win is total troll. Meb is a bada**. A major marathon win has many ingredients. This was just one.

rojo wrote:

Giddy wrote:

Nice reporting? If this were a gossip column. You'd have to have Ryan Hall quote it, then you'd have to get Meb's reaction to it and then maybe you'd have a story.

Give Meb all the credit, not most of it.

There soon will be 10,000+ people on facebook that disagree with you. The story has gone viral and might get 100,000 views today.

Meb is the victory, but noone does anything alone. You don't think Bob Larsen deserves credit? Meb's wife?

Well, actually, Noone does EVERYTHING alone. And Noone coulda kicked Meb's butt yesterday.

Jefe in the CO wrote:

I, like you, have not read the article yet but see if this helps:

Meb needed to build a minimum of 1:13 second lead to pull off the win. The Kenyans and Ethiopians were clearly focusing on each other and would only run as fast as the pack would carry them.

If another runner, presumably an American, decides to go to the front and run just 7 seconds faster then Meb gets caught and he doesn't win.

What is so hard to understand about that? Doesn't change the fact that Meb ran a brilliant and gutsy race and clearly deserved the victory. Also, operating under the presumption that his American teammates helped him doesn't diminish his accomplishment one iota.

So why the pea-brained outrage?

10/10

Chef Gordon Ramzi wrote:

Christ this is predictable. The brojos can't stand the fact that a BLACK AMERICAN won Boston, so they spin it to create this bullshit about how a heroic white man was the one REALLY responsible for the victory.

You know, the white guy who barely topped the best woman's time. He's the true champion.

Are you nuts? In 2009, we interviewed Meb before NYC as we felt it was a disgrace he had been forgotten. On Friday, I interviewed Hawi - meb's brother - to profile his great work with Leo Manzano. I also interviewed Meb at length as well as Bob Larsen. I didn't even say one word to Ryan Hall.

We gave Meb a red, white and blue homepage and we can't stand it? We never said Meb wasn't the true champion.

We were thrilled but wanted to share insight you'd only get from coming to Letsrun.com and that we'd only get from spending a lot of time and money to be on the ground in Boston.

I don't understand why giving praise to others for a tiny assist is taking away from anything. I bet Meb is thrilled to hear what happened behind him. It's a touching story of friendship, looking out for others, and yet you see racism.

Very sad.

-Rojo

PS.

It's funny last night as author Chris Lear told me, 'I bet no matter what you guys do - someone calls you racists tomorrow.'

He was right on the money.

PPS. Also at these meets, I go out of may way to get the story of the top Kenyan and African runners. Do other websites even put up interviews or feature foreigners? Not really. We do. We cover the elite side of the sport.

50% right. but it's Kenyans fault. they couldn't go because 2.03 man had not done it .Kenyans believe in pr's

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/8996/20140422/ryan-hall-masterminds-mid-race-plan-to-help-meb-win-good-move-for-the-sport.htm

Great reporting.

Nowhere but letsrun could you get this.