HILL TAKES THE 3K

Alberto: Grey area pharmaceuticals

Jerry: Grey area tactics

50 Shades Of Gray Area wrote:

Alberto: Grey area pharmaceuticals

Jerry: Grey area tactics

No like button, so I'll just post: "like."

bro, I'll be straight up, I've run many US champs and, while I may not have liked the disadvantage if I had to race against it, it's a smart move and I would have respected the tactic as a competitor. I was cheering my head off watching that race, b/c it was actually exciting as hell.

afterwards my first thought was, if there was a $20 fee to watch a race like that, put on by the bowerman guys, I'd toss $20 in a heartbeat. worth every penny. You qualify, you get to run, period. you want to go out in 5:04 for 2k, feel free, you qualified, you can jog backwards in lane 5 if that's what you want to do, you earned it when you hit the entry standard, end of story.

[quote]trutherer wrote:

bro, I'll be straight up, I've run many US champs and, while I may not have liked the disadvantage if I had to race against it, it's a smart move and I would have respected the tactic as a competitor. I was cheering my head off watching that race, b/c it was actually exciting as hell.

afterwards my first thought was, if there was a $20 fee to watch a race like that, put on by the bowerman guys, I'd toss $20 in a heartbeat. worth every penny. You qualify, you get to run, period. you want to go out in 5:04 for 2k, feel free, you qualified, you can jog backwards in lane 5 if that's what you want to do, you earned it when you hit the entry standard, end of story.[/quote

The obvious issue here is that Hill is on his own now for worlds, without his trio of teammates to help. Hill is a nice fine runner, killer in a 7:40 type 3k or 13:10 type 5k, but he really needs to be able to race by himself like a big boy. Rupp will be gone from the 5k soon so if Hill wants to actually leave a mark more than sniping Rupp when he less than his best, he should probably practice real racing because his buddies won't be there in the Olympic finals or DL races. And quite frankly neither will hill if he can't handle a faster pace.

I'd be surprised if Nike has any money for Lopez Lomong after tonight. He hasn't really done anything for a while, but tonight he looked foolish. If you can work together and push the pace, fine, but if you are going blow your you-know-what completely and walk off the track. That was lame. This is the second is championship 3000 where BTC comes off looking like amateurs. I understand Hill won, but the overall impression i felt was amateur. Kennedy, Lagat and Rupp never pulled stunts like that.

So the nop guys didn't benefit as much as the BTC guys with a fast pace? Rupp was ready for that 2800 jog and last 24.xx lap sprint, huh?

I suppose you weenises that despise BTC now also think that pack running in XC is cheating because it allows weaker team members to score higher? From your mom's basement seeing runners act as a team must be alien and scary.

Just stop wrote:

So the nop guys didn't benefit as much as the BTC guys with a fast pace? Rupp was ready for that 2800 jog and last 24.xx lap sprint, huh?

Who knows about that. Rupp looked less than sharp, but ran 7:48. He actually made the move that kept Lagat and the other guy (chelimo?) in the race at a critical point but just didn't have the sharpness to finish it off.

What would have been interesting to see is how it all would have played out without the BTC sacrifices. I think they are worried about Jenkins being in there near the end. Gosh, Jenkins beat 8:00 steepler Jäger. But what is up with Jäger? Give up the melodnium? He did hurdles and a water jump 16 seconds slower than he can handle on the flat??

I enjoyed the race very much, very dynamic for a change.

They made it honest (BTC) and did what they tought was best in order to bring 2 guys to worlds what's wrong with that?

People complain all the time about 400m races with 2600m warm up in 8+ minutes.

As someone else said, they all earned the right to be in the race.

So if they feel like they can't make the team what's wrong with spicing up the race for their team mates?

Ps: Garrett Heath ran a great race in my opinion, the dude is never afraid to follow a fast pace. Looking forward to the trials this year.

"Rupp looked slow even for a marathoner"?

What does that say about Jaeger? Imagine if Jaeger ran a marathon 28 days ago. Where do you think he would have been yesterday?

I couldn't care either way about Rupp, but some of you guys really have the hate burning inside you. It's kind of pathetic.

My takeaways:

1. BTC did not do anything that was against the rules. You might not like it, but it's true. This point trumps everything else I'm about to say.

2. After the race, Hill said the tactics were for the other BTC guys, because he could win regardless. Well, maybe. But Hill didn't lead until the very end. If the tactics were for his teammates, why didn't he do any of the work?

3. This was a national championship race, and Lomong did not run a race last night. He rabbited for a teammate, and then he stepped off the track. Not against the rules, but not cool.

4. If NOP had done this, the brojos would have had a really sensational headline, and the forum would be full of people calling them cheaters and scumbags.

5. Like others here, I'm impressed with Chilemo. Hell of a race.

6. Reminder to everyone: Rupp won the US Marathon Olympic Trials less than a month ago. Remember all that Rupp-Certified nonsense? Yeah, me neither.

This is a great comment. The last thing anyone wanted to see was a slow tactical race and we certainly didn't get that. Felt somewhat dodgy to see the team tactics but I was excited as hell watching the race. Kudos to Hill for winning it and some props to Rupp for giving it a go. And Jenkins is really coming along. Would love to see he and Ches compete against each other in an honest 3 or 5 K.

Good post by golden girl. Tactics are fine, but an outright rabbit is bad sportsmanship.

It is falling down humorous that ANYONE could possibly be upset with NOP losing over questionable ethics.

Karma bitches.

EAT MEATS wrote:

It is falling down humorous that ANYONE could possibly be upset with NOP losing over questionable ethics.

Karma bitches.

As far as I can tell, the only people mentioning NOP are those defending BTC. This isn't about NOP. The only person in the NOP in this race was Rupp and nobody thought of him as a lock coming off of a marathon like that. The criticism would have come if Rupp hadn't run at all and NOP wasn't even represented in this race. Though without Rupp, one does wonder whether they would have felt the need to employ a rabbit. NOP and Rupp in particular seem to be a bit of a boogeyman for BTC. Do you think Schumaker checks under his bed at night for Salazar?

themanontherun wrote:

EAT MEATS wrote:

It is falling down humorous that ANYONE could possibly be upset with NOP losing over questionable ethics.

Karma bitches.

As far as I can tell, the only people mentioning NOP are those defending BTC. This isn't about NOP. The only person in the NOP in this race was Rupp and nobody thought of him as a lock coming off of a marathon like that. The criticism would have come if Rupp hadn't run at all and NOP wasn't even represented in this race. Though without Rupp, one does wonder whether they would have felt the need to employ a rabbit. NOP and Rupp in particular seem to be a bit of a boogeyman for BTC. Do you think Schumaker checks under his bed at night for Salazar?

Didnt realize that kid wearing the NOP singlet who placed 3rd isnt coached by Alberto Salazar. what was his name again, Eric Jenkins right?

The tactics were more likely meant to neutralize Jenkins' kick than Rupp.

^ Ummmm.... Ever heard of Eric Jenkins?

Totally blanked on Jenkins. Mea culpa. Disregard my post (except that stuff about NOP being the boogeyman to BTC, I stand by that; the paranoia is clear).

I liked it wrote:

Ps: Garrett Heath ran a great race in my opinion, the dude is never afraid to follow a fast pace. Looking forward to the trials this year.

Heath ran a bad race. He should have run the race that Chelimo did instead of blowing his wad. Anyone can mindlessly follow a pace; great racing is knowing your own abilities on the day and having the confidence that you can reel people in.