josh cox half marathon

Dudes, the clock probably said 1:03:58 when he finished. Every chip timed roadrace I run I always get screwed out of 3 or 4 seconds.

Regardless of whether he was off by a second or two on his time in Las Vegas, he should know better than to repeatedly publish the claim that he has a half-marathon PR of "1:03" based on a performance that was probably not much better than about 1:05:00 on a record-quality course. Even if such fudging is routine for many middle-of-the-pack runners, it looks very bush-league for someone who wants to be taken seriously as an elite runner.

In that regard, I've also noticed that, for some time, he's listed his 10-mile PR as 47:32, set in San Diego back in January 2001. I don't recall ever seeing the name of the race, which seems odd, especially since it would arguably be the best performance of his entire running career, and a surprising performance for someone who has generally been better at longer distances. What is the story behind that time?

Yeah right, Does he really think he is too cool for actual results, does he expect us to believe that he wasn't up all night after his race looking up his result on the net. No way he didn't know what he ran that half in, he was just trying to get away with saying he ran 1:03 something when he is actually full of shit. Cox u know it is a sin to covet, so stop coveting a 1:03 half marathon it doesn't belong to you.

Remora Fish!!

this is ridiculous, the dude is ignorant!

Avocados Number wrote:

In that regard, I've also noticed that, for some time, he's listed his 10-mile PR as 47:32, set in San Diego back in January 2001. I don't recall ever seeing the name of the race, which seems odd, especially since it would arguably be the best performance of his entire running career, and a surprising performance for someone who has generally been better at longer distances. What is the story behind that time?

I bet it was in training on the course Ryan Shay talked about in this 2004 interview.

MR: Before the Trials, the word was that you were running hellacious workouts, like a 47:13 10-miler. With your injury and down time, do you feel like a lot of that fitness is lost?

RS: It's still there. When my body is rested, when I'm not fighting an infection on a daily basis or having a muscle malfunction, then my body will benefit from all the work I put in for the marathon. The good thing now is that I don't have to put in a base — I already did that getting ready for the marathon. Now I don't need to be at more than 90 to 100 miles a week. I've had so many 120+ weeks, up to 140. I can step away from marathon training for awhile.

MR: 47:13 for 10 miles — that'll win you a lot of races. Where was that?

RS: We have a measured course at Bonita Park in Chula Vista. It's a 5-mile loop around the golf course. I remember I negative-splitted it. I was feeling great during that period of training, early January.

Coming from a football background and now a runner. I am surprised you so called runners act like little jr high girls sitting around gossiping. I have never seen so many people being such haters. Be happy for the guy. I am sorry 99.99 of you have never come close to his times. Also, sorry that he can make a living off the sport he loves and is passionate about and you can't. Also, leave his faith alone. The "christian commenting" posts are sad. I am going to say a prayer for all of you. Very low to mock his faith.

On another a positive note GO JOSH! Keep with what you are doing.

I love these arguments:

a) we are jealous.

counter argument: he lied about his half-marathon time by over a minute. he embellishes his marathon time by 55 seconds.

b) it's because we aren't as good-looking.

counter argument: he lied about his half-marathon time by over a minute. he embellishes his marathon time by 55 seconds.

c) it's because we are nowhere close to his times...

counter argument: he lied about his half-marathon time by over a minute. he embellishes his marathon time by 55 seconds.

I agree...this isn't a christian thing at all. You can leave that out of this controversy. I applaud Josh for correcting his mistake and admitting to it. But even in that admission, he claims it was an innocent mistake, which I do not buy for a second.

Just to refresh his memory:

Your personal record for marathon is 2:13:55...not 2:13.

Your personal record for the half marathon is 1:04:00...not 1:03

And to those who think it doesn't matter...it does. It matters to everyone who has worked hard to run a 1:03 and here comes along a this guy claiming he's essentially run faster.

If it was a runner in my area that did this, I would call them out 10 out of 10 times. Someone at his level should especially know better.

I wuz there wrote:

The thing about Josh is that he is always running insane workouts. He is faster than even Bekele in practice. If the 4 by 3200 was an Olympic event, he would be a medal contender.

Does he use a Garmin for tracking distance and splits in workouts? I know guys who do and I question the accuracy of what they log for splits & distances.

This thread is such a non-issue, it brings a smile to my face every time I see it getting bumped. However, some good came out of it. Ryan Shay's approach above is spot on. Lay your base and threshold in preparation for a marathon, and then take the volume down a notch to prepare/refine for a shorter track/cross/road season. Ritz executed this perfectly last year.

I've often said that I personally believe the reason Ryan Hall is not "running up to potential" is because he's run too many hard marathons in too short a time frame. I also think he's seen his career PR already and me thinks he may not even facotr by 2012 for the US team at the rate he's going. Mesocycles, different physiological stimulation and adaptation, and working on core/raw speed are all necessary to "complete" a runner and thwart staleness. It's not all about volume and it's not all about speed. And it's not all about doing both at the same time year-around either, for most anyway. Always exceptions to the rule.

10 miles 47:32 San Diego, CA

What race was this at? Anyone know??

The 47:32 was a workout. Total joke to put that time as a 10 mile PR. He could never race close to that. I think it was the same loop that Shay talked about. Josh is a great guy, but some of these things are just so irritating.

not at a race wrote:

The 47:32 was a workout. Total joke to put that time as a 10 mile PR. He could never race close to that. I think it was the same loop that Shay talked about. Josh is a great guy, but some of these things are just so irritating.

exactly.

i hate to pick on josh, but he provides us with a clear example of a violation of the unwritten rules within our sport.

Thou shall not cite a personal record if it cannot be verified (or if it was from your watch).

I thought this was understood among serious runners...especially if you call yourself an "elite"!

mr. boogity you are a big time hater. give the guy a break.

brianb82, it's the principle of the matter especially when one claims that "integrity" is of the utmost importance.

did he run this personal 10 mile record in a legitimate race? that was my question. it sounds like he did not. therefore, it's pretty weak sauce to claim a personal record from a workout.

for the record, i applaud mr. cox in that he acknowledged the discrepancy of his 1/2 marathon time by addressing his twitter nation.

futhermore, i am not a hater of cox the individual...but i DO hate it when runners embellish and gloss over what they have ACTUALLY accomplished. it just disrespects those that HAVE achieved those goals.

i wish him the best this weekend and am rooting for him to get a personal record. and then to post it down to the second on his website :)

what is your evidence that he did not run this? rumor on letsrun. That sounds like you are going against your own principles and 'integrity'.

for the record, I think twitter is insane and is helping to make the world a dumber place. (NRR)

hence the question...what 10-mile race was this?

mr. boogity wrote:

hence the question...what 10-mile race was this?

I believe I have your answer.

From a Runner's World interview in Oct07 before the marathon trials:

Meb and Dan are sub-28:00 guys in the 10k. Are there in fact some workouts in which you're struggling to keep up?

JC: ...I've done workouts with Meb in the past, track work. We've done 47:30 ten-mile tempos down in San Diego.

Based on the above response, it's apparent to me that his 10 mile PR came in a workout with Meb. Hard to believe an elite would claim a workout as a PR.

Link to the interview:

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-399--12149-3-1X2X3-4,00.html

Also, in reading this interview I noticed something else. When Josh ran the Air Force Marathon to qualify for the 08 trials there was some discrepency over his official time. Some reported 2:19:29 initially, but ultimately the official results were corrected to state 2:20:57.

Interesting that in this interview, RW asked the following question:

When you went there, did you know much about the course? And you probably figured you would be several minutes better than anyone in the race, so what were you prepared to do in terms of pacing? Was 2:19 what you set out to do?

Of course Josh never bothered to corrected the interviewer in his response. He probably thought his 2:20:57 rounded down to 2:19 anyway.