Chris Derrick Leaves BTC

Darunner37 wrote:

A very interesting move. Not sure as to if Nike is still sponsoring him. He's got Rupp level talent so maybe he can bust out a 2:08 soon.

Thoughts?

In what universe has he shown one iota of ability to run a 2:08? At what point in his career? Toward the end of his career, like at this point?

Dang, he gets dropped even after he did Nike's bidding on the burrito thing? That's cold.

roller coaster wrote:

Yeah I'm sure more racing will magically cure his recurring achilles injuries. Brilliant point. Broken ankle at Crim? Just run 3 more races that month and it will be cured. You guys are geniuses.

Why all the issues though throughout the years though? That's right - BTC training. Pretty easy to see from the outside looking (and, frankly looking at CD's race results). One has to think he would have been better off career wise with a different training group but it's hard to turn down Nike money and influence so can't fault him hard there.

And yes, racing more would be better for someone like CD. The dude doesn't need 5:45 easy days and brutal track sessions. He needs lower key training and more racing.

tarckstar wrote:

Just once, I'd like to see one of these guys go full-80s, and start road racing every weekend, jump in XC races, cover all sorts of distances. Then maybe think about Worlds. Obviously what Chris was doing wasn't working for him. This not-racing thing is a pandemic.

And yeah, nobody would know my name, but I spent years after college "just racing," which made the weeks real easy. One big workout, one speed session, and a race just about every weekend. I'd turn up or down intensity depending.

This is the kind of thing the Kenyans and Ethiopians do. They race every week at the Diamond League events and if no Diamond League event is available they do a different race. Then they run cross country and other events during the off season.

Pletan wrote:

It seems that Jerry has learned over the years what kind of athlete performs best under his program, and it shows with more recent additions. Runners with great natural speed and an "easy days easy, hard days hard" approach seem to perform well, whereas the grinders and aerobic monsters seem to stagnate and struggle (Solinsky maybe being the exception here). CD just seems to be in that latter group. Would love to see him work with a coach like Troop, whose simple and straightforward training is really undervalued.

Not a great analysis. Bairu, Tim Nelson, Solinsky, Ahmed are all "grinders". They have their moment in the sun, but it's usually short-lived. This applies to all of his athletes. Woody Kincaid will be a 2:14 marathoner in time for the next Olympics.

Remind me who Troop has coached again.

shea it aint so wrote:

Once he’s done running, I hope he remains in the sport a la Merber.

If Derrick assumes a Merber-esque role after he retires it would be a tragedy. He should get some soulless consulting job for Stanford econ majors who are convinced not only of their own genius but also that anarchic free market hypercapitalism actually works for anyone but the C-suite. He can coach a HS team in the afternoons.

shea it aint so wrote:

That said, if you look at their results after just one year of college, they’re even steven. 5K times almost equivalent to Ritz’s and the top ten finishes (what was Webb, 11th?). .

Ritzenhein was 4th behind Boaz, Torres, and Cragg. Then he made the senior XC team and finished 24th at World XC for adults.

As freshman, Puskedra lost to Rupp, Chelanga, and Andrew Ledwith from Iona, and David Kinsella from UP. Derrick got beat by the aforementioned and another Iona guy, Mo Khadraoui.

Not even close.

free shipping with purchases wrote:

Remind me who Troop has coached again.

You know NOTHING!

Darunner37 wrote:

According to the LRC podcast with Jake Riley, Chris Derrick has left BTC and is now living in Boulder under the coaching of his bff Elliott Heath.

A very interesting move. Not sure as to if Nike is still sponsoring him. He's got Rupp level talent so maybe he can bust out a 2:08 soon.

Thoughts?

Would love to see what CD could do with coaching from someone like Larsen or Vigil. Don't know what he's doing getting coaching from a college teammate, he's at an age where speed is going away. If he's serious about doing something at that level, he should get with a coach with a track record of real success in the marathon, period. Just in Boulder, he could choose from Jonesy or Troopy. But a good way to avoid building expectations is to take few to no risks. He's a nice runner but he's never shown that he's got the head and the heart to take his incredible physical talent to a major breakthrough. I don't dislike the guy at all, that's just how it looks to me. I hope he proves me wrong.

umstead wrote:

Darunner37 wrote:

A very interesting move. Not sure as to if Nike is still sponsoring him. He's got Rupp level talent so maybe he can bust out a 2:08 soon.

Thoughts?

In what universe has he shown one iota of ability to run a 2:08? At what point in his career? Toward the end of his career, like at this point?

He ran 13:08/27:31(was only a 1329 guy at the time) with a slowish mile time. That the tyoe of dude that runs a 208.

now he hasnt shown that level of talent on a while. a 2809 this year is nice but that is obviously a much worse time. Without knowing how his training has been it isnt clear if just needs 6 injury free months or if he is never getting back.

nakatomisour wrote:

Two questions:

1) Why do runners stick with coaches for so long when they are producing mediocre results? [2 to 3 years should be enough to adapt to a system]

2) When runners are 5 years off their best results, why do they decide to hang around for another Olympic cycle?

Not all pro runners are in this situation but clearly CD could make more money using his brain than his legs. He had a decent professional running career, now he can have a working career -- no shame in that.

This is one of the few insightful posts in this thread. Like CD a lot, but he’s the definition of hanging on too long and over training.

Remember hearing in a Bumbalough interview that CD was running 130 mpw AND doing all the track workouts with the BTC crew while prepping for the marathon trials. That got him a DNF and barely replicating his HS 5k time later in the year.

Still, I get the training thing. He’s a grinder and will always think that more is better and he’s one training cycle away from his 2013 form.

What I don’t get is the hanging on. Guy had close to a 4.0 in Econ at Stanford. He could almost literally do anything. Law school, MBA, med school, consulting, Teach for America, politics…

As it is, he’s wasting good years he could be preparing for his next stage in life. Maybe that made sense chasing Olympic glory, but what’s he chasing now? A minor pay day in a marathon that might replicate 6 mos salary for a first year law school grad? Another DNF or finishing amongst the semi pro runners in 2:15-2:20?

free shipping with purchases wrote:

shea it aint so wrote:

That said, if you look at their results after just one year of college, they’re even steven. 5K times almost equivalent to Ritz’s and the top ten finishes (what was Webb, 11th?). .

Ritzenhein was 4th behind Boaz, Torres, and Cragg. Then he made the senior XC team and finished 24th at World XC for adults.

As freshman, Puskedra lost to Rupp, Chelanga, and Andrew Ledwith from Iona, and David Kinsella from UP. Derrick got beat by the aforementioned and another Iona guy, Mo Khadraoui.

Not even close.

-Ritz: 4th at ncaa XC, great at world cross and great outdoors

Webb: worse than in HS but still good

Hall: totally non existent

-Puskedra: 5th at ncaa XC, very good in track (don’t remember PRs, but he was strong)

-Fernandez: amazing indoors (3:55/7:47), great outdoors (ncaa 1500 champ and faster 5K than frosh ritz)

-CD: 7th at cross, great outdoors (faster 5K than frosh ritz)

Id say after one year of college the Big 3 weren’t better than the 08 crew.

A sad day for me. I have followed his career with interest for over a decade now. His HS coach is one of the best dudes in the sport. One thing Ritz and Webb did is chase different coaches to try to find a coaching style that could maximize their talents while Chris stuck with Jerry while watching many of his friends flame out in the BTC training regime. I hope you find the secret CD, you may never have had the wheels, but you definitely had the endurance. I often think that it was the success that his good friend Evan had that kept him hanging on in Portland for 4 years too many. Different strokes for different folks. Vaya con Dios, Chris.

Chris should return to the Midwest and beg for a chance to be part of The Hansons group. Learn the marathon and extend his career. I’ve been told that they are going younger but Chris needs to regain his grit and that doesn’t happen in an over prices mountain town.

No one should criticize CD. He was great in college and as a pro moved right to the top as a rookie. He has a great attitude. I hope God blesses him with good health and several good marathons.

His fiancee was doing her postdoc in Boulder as of 2020. If she's still there, then he's there.

The Gallant Pig Man wrote:

As much as I would enjoy seeing him return to his old form and go sub 2:10, my hope for CD is that he starts running some beautiful mountain trails outside of Boulder, falls in love with the alpine, gives up the roads, stays healthy, and eventually becomes one of America's best ultra runners with a widely-read blog.

Oh man this board would LOSE IT if somebody that fast and that discussed around these parts went to ultras. That would be so cool and I would be a huge fan.

Galen is a much better talent, whether it’s innate or trained, that’s up for debate