Steve Magness just coached two athletes to top American honors at the 2016 Boston Marathon

Changed fghb e wrote:

Worst American field ever at Boston. He doesn't deserve much credit for a chick running 2:35 and a dude running 3 min slower than trials qualifier.

Yes it was a weak American Field, but give the guy some credit, times were SLOW around the board, like 6-7 minutes slow.

Here's the bottom line, there were almost 20 people in the field who had run 2:10 or better with 12 of those 2:06 or faster

On the women's side you had 13 2:24 or better and five sub 2:20.

Were the times slow? Yes, top to bottom.

Neely and Zach lined up and ran races to get them into the top 10. They raced the field and the conditions were present and found them ahead of a slew of runners they had no business competing against.

This is the problem with our sport. People obsess over times and forget what it's actually about, competition. When we obsess over times, it makes great races and performances like at Boston seem like failures.

I had no idea who Steve Magness was till the Salazar controversy. Anytime someone as opinionated as Magness is and they're constantly all over social media spouting off about this or that. What did he or you expect the outcome would be? He brought this criticism, bashing, trolling on and has nobody to blame but himself. I get the feeling though he loves the attention and being relevant. "If you can dish it out you got to be able to take it."

Hines is a professional runner and has an agent to prove it.

Heretic millennial wrote:

Lucky than good wrote:

The cold hard fact is Spence and Hine ran pedestrian times and just lucky they were first Americans since this is an Olympic trials year. Both seem like nice people though and wish them the best, but they're AVERAGE PROFESSIONAL runners at their best. I expect Magness (the same guy who ran 4:01 mile in high school and NEVER broke 4 minutes, still baffles my mind!) to totally derail their running careers like he did to his own. The bottom line is Magness, Spence and Hine "just got lucky" today and that is indisputable.

Zack Hines isn't a professional runner. He works a full time job as a chemical engineer and just runs for fun.

Why would an amateur runner have a professional coach?

Because he is fast? Not saying he has an ameteur in that he won't take prize money but he has an actual job that is not running. In my opinion that moves him from mediocre professional to very fast hobby jogger. Not very many guys working a full time job that get top ten in major marathons.

TrackCoach wrote:

Heretic millennial wrote:

Zack Hines isn't a professional runner. He works a full time job as a chemical engineer and just runs for fun.

Why would an amateur runner have a professional coach?

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Neither..... wrote:

People always get excited when someone moves up and runs a time inferior to their time at shorter distances.

Do you go faster per KM at 26.2 than 13.1? I'd like to see that.

Are you confused by the meaning of the word "inferior?"

I think it is good that people go to USADA. The result has been a lot of testing and tracking, which is good for the sport in the long run. Better sooner than later, through and, if you go to the press with a story, its best to have all of your facts straight and be prepared for follow up. It looks like he was not prepared. His anecdote about the book fell apart and he was left with one old lab test. He is also free to give an opinion on Dibaba but he should expect people to ask about it.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

Okay. Year and a half (per his Houston bio...I just looked it up) might not be "years". It is still two full track seasons.

So he can tell just from an athlete's performances that they are doping (G. Dibaba), but it took him two seasons to catch on to the unsavory behavior at NOP?

No, I do not post about him under different handles.

I am glad that he finally came forward as a whistleblower. maybe he isn't as bad as my initial post mentioned, but he either didn't have enough info to take anyone down or he is hiding the extent to which he was a part of the cheating. Same with Kara.

Ponderosa wrote:

Neither..... wrote:

She ran 32:16 in 2012. She ran a 15:25 5k last year. It's a good run, but it's just a talented girl moving up running just under 6 min miles.

People always get excited when someone moves up and runs a time inferior to their time at shorter distances.

Not a knock on Neely or Steve. It is what it is.

What part of it was a slow day all around don't you get?

Boston 2016 was a slow day not because of weather conditions but because of lack of pacers.....which I heartily endorse.

smile wrote:

No, he's the guy who joined the NOP in 2011 as a coach and left in 2012 and immediately went to USADA.

Of course, you knew that, because he's also the guy you post about under different handles.

Wasn't he asked to leave after he started dating one of his athletes (who then followed him to Texas)? Or was it after he complained about working with "lesser athletes" in NOP?

That said, I enjoy his podcast.