masterstrack.com calls out Rupp

HRE wrote:

If you drop out of a race claiming injury then you should get the hell out of sight if you're going to do something that makes your explanation look like crap. If there is no other venue to do the workout than on the track you've just dropped out from let the workout go, no workout is so important that it can't be re-scheduled. It makes fans and other competitors feel cheated and makes the sport look bad and if you're a professional athlete you have obligations that go beyond yourself.

I don't see how it's an athlete's responsibility to do anything other than make the best decision at the time. If Rupp felt something and dropped out to play it safe, and then half an hour later felt fine, I don't think he should have to consider the feelings of his competitors or the whiners on letsrun. He should do what's best for him, plain and simple.

a serious masters runner wrote:

Dennis Reynolds 2.0 wrote:

Serious masters runners are the most annoying subset of runners around, worse than hobby joggers by a long stretch.

This makes me want to double tomorrow and post about it just to annoy you a little more.

Do it then. I dare you.

Do it in your five fingers shoes even and tell us how free it felt.

Remember when you were a kid and one morning you told your mum that you didn't feel well and wanted to stay home from school and she let you? Then it got to be 3:00 or so and you felt much better and wanted to go to the playground and play basketball with your friends who were now home from school and your mum wouldn't let you even if you really were much better because if you were too sick to go to school that day you were too sick to go out and have fun? That's what this looks like to me. Too hurt to finish a race then you're too hurt to be all tough and focused afterward.

Take the rest that you needed a few minutes earlier. Don't tell all of the fans that this race didn't matter to you at all. Don't try to make the victory others have just won from you look hollow by effectively saying, "See, it doesn't matter. I wasn't really trying." Don't do something that's going to turn the sport into a pseudo sport. It's disrespectful to the sport and those in it to give less than your best when you turn up to compete.

HRE wrote:

You're missing the third group which has no problem with an athlete dropping out of a race because s/he felt something that they feared could be pushed into a serious injury but who cannot get comfortable when that same athlete is back running a hard workout a few minutes after dropping out with an injury.

It was a few hours after the race. Get your facts straight before you open your mouth!

HRE wrote:

Of course the explanation is plausible. But if I'd gone to that meet, and this was the first time I didn't, I would not have been happy about paying a pile of money and dealing with parking around RLC to watch a featured athlete do a workout. It's one thing to do what you describe on track by yourself or with some training partners. It's another thing to do it in a situation where a lot of people think they're racing you or are watching you race.

To be fair almost no one at the meet paid to watch Rupp run. He was added after the meet was either almost it completely sold out, so for almost anyone it was a gift they didn't pay for or expect that they were robbed of.

Mstrs800guy wrote:

Ah youth. While I agree with you that bragging on your own times is annoying at any age, we'll see how mediocre your times are when your a masters runner. Chances are, if you're still an athlete then, you will feel then, as you do now, justifiably proud of a good effort.

well, he's kinda right. Here's an example:

you said you ran the "world master's championship" in 2006. Really. "WORLD's"?? My point: it's getting a little more competitive now, but overall, the depth is pretty weak in these events. But I bet you anything, as DR 2.0 put it, you told "f'n everyone" that you ran in the WORLD's masters!!!!!! And you may have travelled 1/2 across the country or globe JUST so you could tell people that! Right?

And if you medaled, you walked around like you were a master's version of Galen Rupp, a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP medalist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but you're not. Not even close, not by a million miles.

Most of the greatest runners retire and never compete as master's. So the master's is for people who hang on and still like to compete for fun. And that's great. But just except it for what it is, and don't lie to yourself and others' that's it's more than it is. For years, the national master's meet was a joke (a little better now). Anyone who was willing to pay an exorbitant entry fee could enter and be in the NATIONALS! "Did you hear, I placed at NATIONALS!! (master's) Yes, I am a NATIONALLY ranked runner! Yes, you heard it right! Aren't I great???"

See what I mean? Good. Now you know how to be less annoying. Just run, have fun, and realize you are slow compared to the truly good runners (HS, college, post-college, pro, etc), decent in a relative sense (age-wise), but in no way, shape or form, are a national or world level runner. And stop talking about "going to WORLD's".

Hours, minutes, it makes no difference as far as I'm concerned. If you enter a race you finish it unless you're sick or hurt and if that's the case you rest.

agip wrote:

J.R. wrote:

The big pharma agency's purpose is promoting the idea that drugs make runners into super heros capable of accomplishing impossible feats. They are nothing more than promoters of drugs and drug use.

Personally I think the drugs are useless and don't help anyone, but they do send many to their early demise.

just not a science guy, are you there ol' J.R.?

I'm intrigued though. How an intelligent westerner can just throw science aside. Not many can do that.

There is nothing scientific about drugs; they are simply a ploy to hold people hostage for more money for big pharma. Many people are dying every day in every hospital from the drugs they are forcing on people, supposedly to save them.

It's a bunch of total BS, not science not truth, it is evil.

Rupp Lubers wrote:

You assume Rupp had an actual injury. That was not the case. Rupp didn't have it, so he quit. It's a mentality issue for Rupp.

Willis wasn't really attacking Rupp, he's just a very stupid person and a drunk.

HRE wrote:

Remember when you were a kid and one morning you told your mum that you didn't feel well and wanted to stay home from school and she let you?

No but I recall the time I pretended to go to school but actually ran away from home, and got caught by my mom when I went back to get something to eat.

When I first went to college, I often skipped class to go body surfing in the ocean. In retrospect, I'm very glad that I did that, as school was very boring and they weren't teaching anything worth my time.

master's debater wrote:

you said you ran the "world master's championship" in 2006. Really. "WORLD's"?? My point: it's getting a little more competitive now, but overall, the depth is pretty weak in these events.

Well then just compete in Worlds when you're that age too, if you live that long, and still are able to run.

His coach yelled at Rupp to pull out.

From the article in masterstrack.

"Galen Rupp quit with two laps to go with what he said was a sore left leg. What a wuss."

In the comments:

"It was a joke, Steve."

Mstrs800guy wrote:

I'm curious as to what makes you say this? I don't think of myself as annoying, but maybe I am :0

No idea if you're annoying or not however I understand the sentiment of master's runners placing a bit too much focus on their accomplishments in some cases.

We get the fact that you're beyond your youth and still competing. Congrats. The problem with Ken Stone and his ilk is the fact that they seem to believe that masters events have some overall importance within the sport that is even remotely related to open elite competition. It's sort of like senior baseball or softball players going on about their exploits. It's important to them and no one else. That is not like open elite competition which has a defined fanbase.

I'm in my mid fifties and no longer compete. I do offer my assistance in any fashion at any local race I have the time to do so. Masters athletes...men in particular...come across as the most self absorbed of all the age groups and classes.

HRE wrote:

Hours, minutes, it makes no difference as far as I'm concerned. If you enter a race you finish it unless you're sick or hurt and if that's the case you rest.

Or your coach sees you limping and tells you to stop.

i've always thought of masters runners as a humble, self-deprecating niche group of distance runners. most would never go on about their former prowess like being the 183rd american to break 4 in the mile (http://americanmilers.org/elite-members/) or their current abilities (http://www.runnersworld.com/masters-racing/top-masters-performances-of-2013), and are quite aware that no one cares about their record-setting performances (http://masterstrack.com/2013/03/24547/). that said, when ken said rupp was a wuss, then said he was joking, i suspect he's telling a half-truth: i don't think any fans like athletes to drop out, but i think athletes and fans alike know that occasionally, we all wuss out, even if it's still a justifiable wuss out.

except for me. i've never wussed out. i may sing a different song after tomorrow's race in boulder, though. in case you didn't know, i'm a really fast old dude running in an old man's race tomorrow and will be signing autographs for my niche fans, of which there are multitudes...

cush, yes, but you forgot to mention that it takes longer for masters guys to recover after workouts.

agip wrote:

cush, yes, but you forgot to mention that it takes longer for masters guys to recover after workouts.

not true--now that i think about it, we "recover" just like rupp. clearly that's what he was doing. it's not his fault only his coach was left in the stands when rupp came back out to finish his race...

Or wrote:

HRE wrote:

Hours, minutes, it makes no difference as far as I'm concerned. If you enter a race you finish it unless you're sick or hurt and if that's the case you rest.

Or your coach sees you limping and tells you to stop.

I was pretty sure the part "unless you're sick or hurt..."covered that.