Official 2015 Dubai Marathon Live Discussion thread

OMG she just hugged Renato!

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww what a finish by Mergia!!!!!!!!!

Awesome!!!

Aselefech Mergia won the women's race over Gladys Cherono by 1 second. Time was right around 2:20:00. That one second made a $120,000 difference ($200k for winner, $80k for second).

Cherono had to make up a little ground after picking up her bottle at 40k (Mergia didn't get a bottle).

That was an INCREDIBLE finish. How often do you see women side-by-side for the last 200 in a marathon?

Thanks much to LR for the stream.

Just me, or did Cherono kind of give up a bit? Didn't seem to be grinding nearly as hard as Mergia.

The crowd at the end is insane. It's incredible how amped up these people get for running...

Dorando wrote:

Why can't they get commentators who know something about the sport. Heck, you could pretty much Google the human interest stories on all the contenders while the race is running. The main guy seemed clueless about the running scene except for the stat sheet in front of him.

I could babble on for 2 hours on numerous aspects of the marathon and the runners in a far more informative way than that guy. Most runners could.

Agreed.

Dorando wrote:

Why can't they get commentators who know something about the sport. Heck, you could pretty much Google the human interest stories on all the contenders while the race is running. The main guy seemed clueless about the running scene except for the stat sheet in front of him.

I could babble on for 2 hours on numerous aspects of the marathon and the runners in a far more informative way than that guy. Most runners could.

Isn't the main guy Tim Hutchings?

J.R. wrote:

Thanks much to LR for the stream.

Thank the Dubai Marathon/eversport. LR had nothing to do with it.

That was an incredible race!

You did an great job providing factoids.

And I liked the announcer too.

Not Cool Bro wrote:

Just me, or did Cherono kind of give up a bit? Didn't seem to be grinding nearly as hard as Mergia.

I think she was exhausted. She was giving everything she had to stay with her that last 5k.

wut??? wrote:

That was an incredible race!

You did an great job providing factoids.

And I liked the announcer too.

Plus getting to listen to Geb!

Plus NO COMMERCIALS with an excellent stream!

Amazing the energy still left in the winner!

btw, does anyone know the fastest last K ever in the big marathons? 2:45 seemed really fast to me...

wut??? wrote:

Plus getting to listen to Geb!

Yes! Yes! Exactly.

Not so much.

ethiopian wrote:

btw, does anyone know the fastest last K ever in the big marathons? 2:45 seemed really fast to me...

13:45 pace. Pretty baller; almost faster than UW's women's 1k

inhuman interest wrote:

Dorando wrote:

Why can't they get commentators who know something about the sport. Heck, you could pretty much Google the human interest stories on all the contenders while the race is running. The main guy seemed clueless about the running scene except for the stat sheet in front of him.

I could babble on for 2 hours on numerous aspects of the marathon and the runners in a far more informative way than that guy. Most runners could.

Isn't the main guy Tim Hutchings?

If it is he was a better runner than commentator!

Is it just me, or is that a yellow haze in the air?

inhuman interest wrote:

Dorando wrote:

Why can't they get commentators who know something about the sport. Heck, you could pretty much Google the human interest stories on all the contenders while the race is running. The main guy seemed clueless about the running scene except for the stat sheet in front of him.

I could babble on for 2 hours on numerous aspects of the marathon and the runners in a far more informative way than that guy. Most runners could.

Isn't the main guy Tim Hutchings?

I don't know who this guy was, but it's not TIm Hutchings. Hutchings is very good. I'd agree that this guy in Dubai seemed pretty clueless. I've seen Tim Hutchings and Larry Rawson (not that Rawson doesn't have other problems) the day before the race at the Chicago Marathon and they do a TON of work. They talk to each of the elites, asking them about their training and some interesting facts for the broadcast and write down pages of notes. Rawson asks them to pronounce their names about 50 times to make sure he has it right. They go into those races prepared to give knowledgeable commentary ... and then NBC or whichever network screws it up by cutting to commercials, or interviews with the wheelchair winner or some random guy on the street.

Here, they had a good stream with no commercials, but the guy barely knew who was who in the elite field and seemed to have done almost no research (although I didn't watch the full broadcast, so maybe he used up all his useful info in the beginning of the race and I missed it).

And Haile is great, but not as one of your main commentators. He's a guy you bring in as a bonus mid-race interview or just to offer some extra perspective. He shouldn't be calling the race (at least not in English).