Cuffe on Hall's lack of leading: "It was tough knowing that she stayed tucked in behind me the whole way"

NO. This is stupid. Do what it takes to win within the rules just like everyone else is doing. The fact that Cuffe didn't win is no sadder than the fact that anyone else in the race didn't win.

D'Agostino 4:11.96

Hall 4:17.1

Cuffe 4:18.1

Sub-15 and sub-13 look good on paper and it's very impressive, but I don't find the paced races at Stanford and in Europe, etc as exciting as a tactical championship final. Having 5 or more runners with a chance to win it in the end is more exciting to me than a race where only the clock becomes the only competitor in the end.

Additionally, they give gold medals to the runner who crosses the finish line first, so I think that's how our sport determines the best runner on the day. I was never one to be able to outkick people in the end so I needed to find a different tactic to win. That required creativity and the ability to size up the competition well enough to know when to push and try to run away from people. If you can find that point when the kicker is feeling fatigue and push hard to put doubt in their mind, it gives you a chance. I wanted to see Cuffe win, but I was more impressed by Hall's acceleration at the end as it was something I was never able to do at that level.

Author: J.R.

Subject: RE: Cuffe on Hall's lack of leading: "It was tough knowing that she stayed tucked in behind me the whole way"

Message:

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NOP Skeptic wrote:

Yes, but drafting has been scientically proven to reduce the energy output produced by the runner drafting

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Drafting also helps the runner in front. Cuffe benefitted by Hall being slightly behind her, but Hall still beat her anyway

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I think you are referring to NASCAR.

A race is about who crosses the finish line first. That is all.

You are suggesting subjective style points for things like amount of time leading the race, does she look good in bun huggers, forefoot strike (good) versus heel strike (evil), does her hair ribbon match the uniform?

if someone is drafting off you, you have two options, slow down til they go around, or break them. Cuffe could have slowed to a jog until Hall passed, then letsrun would be whining about how it was a tactical race.

J.R. wrote:

NOP Skeptic wrote:

Yes, but drafting has been scientically proven to reduce the energy output produced by the runner drafting

Drafting also helps the runner in front. Cuffe benefitted by Hall being slightly behind her, but Hall still beat her anyway.

I didn't say it didn't help the runner in front, but that "it has been scientically proven to reduce the energy output produced by the runner drafting" COMPARED to the front runner, so the drafter is always going to benefit and when you sit on someone for 3000 whole METERS like Hall did, it's even more of a difference in energy output, so from a physics standpoint when we're talking about work (forcexdistance(cos(theta))) or the integral of force then Aisling Cuffe overwhelmingly put in more work...

msuxc1 wrote:

Sub-15 and sub-13 look good on paper and it's very impressive, but I don't find the paced races at Stanford and in Europe, etc as exciting as a tactical championship final. Having 5 or more runners with a chance to win it in the end is more exciting to me than a race where only the clock becomes the only competitor in the end.

That's silly and just nonsense. It's entirely possible to have both of what your saying. A tactical fast race. We used to have these when Bekele was still around.

Your perception of reality is off too. Those Stanford races all had multiple people going for the win with 1-2 laps to go. I don't know about Europe.

J.R. wrote:

NOP Skeptic wrote:

Yes, but drafting has been scientically proven to reduce the energy output produced by the runner drafting

Drafting also helps the runner in front. Cuffe benefitted by Hall being slightly behind her, but Hall still beat her anyway.

wut

outside observer wrote:

J.R. wrote:

Drafting also helps the runner in front. Cuffe benefitted by Hall being slightly behind her, but Hall still beat her anyway.

wut

Haha seriously ^^^ JR I'm not sure of this logic, it still doesn't mean that Cuffe wasn't at a huge disadvantage, no matter how you put it she was

kdkdk wrote:

msuxc1 wrote:

Sub-15 and sub-13 look good on paper and it's very impressive, but I don't find the paced races at Stanford and in Europe, etc as exciting as a tactical championship final. Having 5 or more runners with a chance to win it in the end is more exciting to me than a race where only the clock becomes the only competitor in the end.

That's silly and just nonsense. It's entirely possible to have both of what your saying. A tactical fast race. We used to have these when Bekele was still around.

Your perception of reality is off too. Those Stanford races all had multiple people going for the win with 1-2 laps to go. I don't know about Europe.

This too ^^^

Fast race doesn't equal no tactics, and in my opinion the fast tactical races are the best ones, watching that Payton Jordan 5k w/ Jäger, Lamong, True, Derrick trading laps was great and they ended up running 13:02 was amazing, why? You get to see a solid tactical race AND fast times! It's like a bonus, I like old fashioned racing back then when the top runners would exchange leads and literally push each other to the brink trying to win and it was more of a "last man standing race"...