Yuki Kawauchi narrowly misses Top 3 at Japanese Olympic Trials after running bravest race I've ever seen

I propose a neologism to describe the mentality of your little tribe: cynousy, meaning cynicism inspired by jealousy.

Whadya think?

Don't make unfounded accusations of doping- you're just a loser.

I think the "worship" is just his aggressive front running. He is what letsrun calls a blue collar racer.

They also seem to worship him because he's not the typical pro- which I don't get.

There are a lot of 2:08-2:10 guys out there deserving of praise for their hard.

I like him, don't get me wrong. He DOES remind of the 1970's runner that I grew up following.

Like any elite runner he could be clean or could be doping. Sure he isn't setting world records, but he also averages 7 sub 2:20 marathons per year which is a miracle of recovery that even some of the best dopers would be jelous of. Not saying he is doping, just saying that we would be silly to be so naive to think it wasn't a possability just because we all love him. That said, it doesn't seem any more likely than any other runner.

Uh, the reason he didn't join a pro team was because he thought they trained too hard. He thought he needed more recovery than he would get in the team environment. His frequent races are mostly workouts at submaximal efforts. Not that different from how guys used to train in the 70s and 80s.

Yuki gets props because he's a faster version of what many of us do here: we race more than twice a year, and we go hard when we piin the number on and see where that takes us. He's a world class runner who runs the way we WISH we could: lead a marathon from start to 35K and not get swallowed up but latch on to the back on the lead pack? Hell yeah, this is the stuff that average runners dream of doing but we don't have that ability.

I think its why the hate for Kersee was so strong here over his "coaching" of Mu: he took an athlete who was enjoying her athletics career (to a certain degree) and made her stop racing and, from interviews, basically made her hate the whole thing. And only race three times last year (1x 1500, 2x 800). Basically less than a high school freshman. Yuki clearly enjoys running, enjoys racing, and is what many, many of us would like to be.

So, yeah, he's a folk hero to many of us runners around the world on how he runs, races and handles his business. Unlike the zen masters and "I only race in perfect conditions and then hide out in Addis for the other 11 months of the year", Yuki is us.

With way more talent.

No.

When he ran 2:07:35 earlier this year, he was 12th. When he ran 2:07:27 last year in Lake Biwa, he was 10th.

Yuki thrives on terrible weather. The dude races all the time and is always ready to run solid. I love the stragey.

Although I guess one could argue the weatehr still sucked so he could try running in the pack in bad weather and see what happened. I think his strategy was sound. Go out faster than anyone would logically go out. Hopefully they start jogging behind me and never catch up.

I thought I read somewhere he doesn't like hot conditions.

Japan has high ethical standards ingrained into their people from childhood and beyond. The elites from Africa are predominantly running from poverty, thus have nothing to lose and more likely to dope. The American elites are incentivized by the fact they would rather not work a regular job. So yes, there are varying levels of doping likelihood based on geographical upbringing.

I think you're referring to culture. And simply considering history should tell us that the likelihood of doping among Japanese athletes is close to zero. I can think of only one Japanese athlete, a kayaker, who has ever been found to have been involved in doping. And if I recall correctly, his crime was using a PED to contaminate ANOTHER Japanese athlete and have him disqualified. He didn't actually use the PED himself.

I think the chasers deserve some credit as well.