Official Julia Lucas Appreciation Thread!!!

I said that's not going to work when I saw her burst out into the lead, but she almost still qualified. It was a courageous, Pre-like move and it was heartbreaking when she lost out in the last stride.

there were 7 in the race with the A but fleshman and MLB weren't in shape to compete and i believe (i may be wrong) that uhl wouldn't take the spot. that meant that if the pace were slow, like it was with 1600 to go, it was 4 women to fight for the 3 spots. rather than trying to win the race outright, she should have looked around and realized that she just had to beat malloy for a spot. she didn't. she's the alternate.

You nailed it, the Ghost of Pre made his presence known in those last 10 meters.

you are not paying attention wrote:

It looks like Julia and her husband have run out of their infamous TESTO-BOOST

Now that's funny!

rojo wrote:

I don't know what to say other than - my god, I feel for you.

You went for the win and it backfired but you forever have my respect.

I have to say when I first read your post, I didn't initially feel too bad about how she ran since she did take the lead too soon and faded but after seeing the interview (posted by Wejo) and seeing her reaction/comment of the race, then I felt bad for her. She knew what she did and was humble about it.

4 years ago the A standard was 15:09...I don't know what the B Standard is, but overall the women's 5k in the US is weak right now. I think Culley ran great but I hope these girls step up in the Olympics and get closer to 15:00.

Man, the haters on this thread are pretty brutal. Obviously Lucas made a mistake, and that mistake will replay in her head ad nauseum. But all I feel is sympathy for her. Just watching it was heart-wrenching. It's easy to judge after the fact. She probably didn't intend to run a 69 second lap or whatever, but that's what happened. She was too excited, or scared, or whatever. If you've never made an ill-executed surge in a race and then paid for it later, then you just don't have much experience in the sport.

And all of the stuff about how they wouldn't have hit the A-standard...it's hard to have all that in mind with 3 laps to go in a 5000. Maybe she assumed someone that did have the standard would outkick her if she didn't go. Either way, it's hard to juggle all that info. I hope she bounces back and nails it next time.

what are you talking about? she's a professional runner. that's her job. if i were able to quickly calculate after the semis that there really were only 4 women (5 if you count uhl) with As so, if the pace were slow, the only thing that would matter would be to beat one of them, she and her coach should have been able to figure that out too. i thought the Bs would have organized beforehand to sit at 73 pace but, after the first couple of laps, it was clear that they didn't and that the As could control the pace to keep the Bs out.

conley said in her interview that she was 9:20 at the 3k and thought to herself that she couldn't run 6:00 for the last 2k but that she would go for place. lucas should have done the same calculation and said "we have paced this thing perfectly to keep the Bs out so now i just need to focus on beating one of the other As." again, she is a professional runner and it's her job to know these things and to be able to make adjustments during the race. it's not like this was a high school county xc race.

with all that being said, i watched her interview and i do feel badly for her. she was completely stand-up and admitted that she blew the race. unfortunately, that thought is going to haunt her for a long time. it probably would haunt me the rest of my life. she clearly has a lot of talent so hopefully she bounces back next year.

i definitely feel for her. but, as she says, that's the way our sport is. "there isn't five games." that being said, i don't think she made a stupid move. anyone who's ever made their move and taken the lead in a race knows that sometimes you just think you have it. you make your move thinking you can win it, and that's what she did. she just ran out of gas. i give her props for taking the race by the balls; just too bad it didn't work out. watching conley finish was exciting as hell, though!

Definitely feel bad for Julia, and for Ian, who's career ended on such a sour note. He had an excellent career- great HS times, his Stanford days and the championship XC teams around him were some of the best any college runner has ever experienced, and his pro career was solid. He was totally devastated by his wife's situation. I understand fully.

Ian, you had a damn good run my friend, and you have a great wife.

All you armchairs need to pipe down. She was in that race because she knows how to redline better than 99.9% of runners. No doubt she surged with all intention of holding that momentum all the way through, which she almost did in fact. This wasn't the 10k, there were more A's in the field, you have to go for the win.

She seems like a super sharp gal and once all the fuss settles I imagine she'll be able to make peace with it eventually.

We don't need to pipe down. I'm a great admirer of hers, but her own comments indicate she's extremely aware that she messed up.

cheetodust wrote:

you have to go for the win.

That's exactly the kind of illogical thinking that keeps good athletes off the Oly team.

Yeah, and winning = making the team!

Glad to see her admit she "screwed up" and "gave it away" because that's exactly what she did. Terrible terrible race, painful to watch.

SKL wrote:

Glad to see her admit she "screwed up" and "gave it away" because that's exactly what she did. Terrible terrible race, painful to watch.

+1

Watching her lose hurt.

She owned up to throwing it away with a poor decision. How many times have we seen someone throw out an excuse post race or hedge before the race with an issue? There were no pollen count concerns, accusations that Finns blood dope, tweets about getting bumped off the track at Worlds, complaints about team tactics, or coaches stepping in to provide excuses. That's why she gets respect and appreciation. If they all owned up to the fact that they lost plain and simple, then maybe US runners would be a little tougher when it came to facing the world. Just a thought.

What I appreciate is her talking to the press after what's probably the worst moment of her career and taking responsibility for her race tactics. To me that shows a lot of character.

Whoever said this reminded them of Pre, that's exactly what I thought too. As soon as she got 4th I thought, "where have I seen this tactic play out poorly before?" If you want to talk about "guts" she went for it way more than Pre, and it blew up in her face just as badly. Plenty of people out there will praise her for her guts, but it really was stupid.

a matter of context wrote:

Yeah, and winning = making the team!

And she didn't do either one. She got some bad advice.