Fauble, Hall, Huddle, Sisson, Ward - what happened?

Rupp is 5’11. That isn’t short for a male marathoner at all. This makes no sense. I guarantee you male runners who are shorter than Rupp are probably also lighter.

I’m 5’10” myself, and 130 lbs. A runner who looks as thin as me and his similar BMI but is 5’6” is going to be 115 lbs. 15 lbs less weight to haul up those hills

WaddleOn wrote:

oldmanstillrunning wrote:

Ward and one of his training partners, Connor McMillan, ran exactly the same mile splits throughout the race according to USATF results. They finished 26th and 27th in 2:15:55. I'm guessing Ward knew early it wasn't going t be his day and decided to just stay with the recent BYU graduate and try to stay up with him or help him out.

Sounds fishy. Think it was one of those Bib Mule situations?

Did Ward mule for McMillian, or was it the other way around? I think I saw Ward on the broadcast at one point, but that doesn't prove anything as we've see some of the recent marathon cheats have learned from Rossi's mistake and managed to get on course here and there to be photographed.

I've emailed Doubler to look into this situation on marathoninvestigation.com - hopefully we can stop these guys (IF they did cheat) before they use their times to get into the 2021 Boston Marathon.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Her training is similar to Tinman/Lydiard - lots of mileage, lots of hill running, hill sprints, no hard intervals, a lot of work around threshold and strong tempos/long runs.

Hmm mileage, hills, threshold, tempo runs. Why don't all the other marathoners try this revolutionary training style?!

I’m pretty sure S. Favor has done a LOT of things Sara has never done.

Rupp taking on Bekele and Kipchoge at Tokyo. What a race it will be.

I generally agree

I generally agree

Like there are so many elite men 185+ and women 170+. Like there are many elite women in any sport at 170+. Any you expect people to take your posts serious because why?

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Oh Please wrote:

SOmeone posted an interview earlier today with Rupp. It was 25 minutes long. He says in a nutshell that reason he thinks he is the best is because he has the best work ethic and discipline, and I believe it. There is no social media, no nothing from him but getting out there and getting it done for more than 12 years now. Aside from Lagat, who had the fastest mile PR? 3k? 5k? Rupp. Who has the fastest 10k PR? Half PR? Marathon PR? Rupp.

I still believe that he is true and clean. He works harder and does exactly what his coaches say. Extreme "Kipchoge" like discipline, only in the USA and not in the middle of nowhere Kenya.

I generally agree

Ditto.

How about Sellers .. pretty damn good to finish 11th

Too much hype. Expectation.

They weren’t wearing patented cheater flys

a skeptic and cynic..... wrote:

Laterunner phil needs to get his head out of the sand. I thought the shoes were a farce at first because of the sub 2 pacing and blocking the wind. After a couple years, I am totally convinced the shoes are worth at least a couple minutes for a marathon or 4 to 5 seconds per mile.

The reality now is that a lot of companies have similar shoes but we don't know if they are as good yet.

I totally agree with Latrunner Phil, whose post pointed out that the course was the key factor here, NOT the shoes. This is particularly true in the women's race, where as far as I can tell, the top four were NOT wearing the shoes that many people on this site thinks have destroyed running as a sport. (obviously, I disagree.)

We would have had a far different result in the women's race (and maybe even the men's although Rupp showed that when healthy, he is the one elite U.S. male marathoner. ) if the course had been flat. Then, that's when the speed boost from the Nikes would have come into play.

I love the inspirational aspects of Tuliamuk and Seidel's stories--in fact, their post-race interviews actually brought tears to my eyes. I'm an old guy with daughters who ran, and I'm thinking of the desperation of immigrants and on a different socio-economic plane, how many of my daughters competitors were suffering from eating disorders. But does anyone really think that those two would have prevailed on a flat course? I don't. It would have been Linden, Sisson, or maybe Hall. That would have been a much stronger team, in my opinion. As for the men, after Rupp, the final two would have been completely different.

In any case, the course was decided under different circumstances, and although now that the Olympics route has changed, it puts the U.S. at even more of a disadvantage then usual, I'm happy with the first two of the women's team (As a track fan, unlike Tuliamuk, I have a little trouble with Kipyego's late citizenship, although in general, I welcome her as a fellow American). The men's result, I feel was totally distorted by the course. But not, in this case, by the shoes.

This race was similar to NCAA XC when its extra muddy. Favorites evaporate and pure grinders rise up and get the job done.

Happy for everyone who made the team and they will all put on a good show in Sapporo (if they get there)

Rupps interview does make him out to be a changed man. Then you get to the awards ceremony and Rupp is a no show “last minute flight out” - dude didn’t even show up at the Olympic Trials Award ceremony which he won.

The awards started around 7:00pm. Quite strange and very difficult to get on board team Rupp when he doesn’t even celebrate with his Olympic teammates. Imagine any other pro sport where the winner just peace’s out and no shows the awards.

But this is a marathon running and nobody really cares.

Icouldbeyourmom wrote:

Rupp is 5’11. That isn’t short for a male marathoner at all. This makes no sense. I guarantee you male runners who are shorter than Rupp are probably also lighter.

I’m 5’10” myself, and 130 lbs. A runner who looks as thin as me and his similar BMI but is 5’6” is going to be 115 lbs. 15 lbs less weight to haul up those hills

Are you a woman?

10k/marathon double for Rupp again in Tokyo?

Saturday Long Run? wrote:

These athletes were in nearly everybody’s top tier to make the team. Anybody know what happened?

Huddle had an ankle injury. Fauble has been off since Boston and recently had the flu. Ward had a foot injury that limited his training. But does anybody have more concrete answers?

Do you think the best team - best marathoners - have made the team? Given the specifics of marathon training and running, would selecting athletes based on form over a period of time - like most other countries do - result in stronger competitors who are consistent over a period of time, not just on one day when everything goes right for them - or wrong for others? Missing an Olympic team by 2/100 of a second over a marathon distance must be a killer!

Saturday Long Run? wrote:

But does anybody have more concrete answers?

My guesses: The rolling hills keep you from getting in a rhythm in Atl, which equalizes to some extent. The wind was massive at times for much of the day where I was - not sure how it was throughout the course but guessing it was similarly bad. The larger the field, the more chance for unexpected results, and both fields were large. On the women’s side, Huddle has already admitted to plan B of bailing out for track if things weren’t going well. While understandable, that’s not a great mindset to take into a tough race. How many others had a similar mindset?

janitor wrote:The men's result, I feel was totally distorted by the course

Agree. I thinks people underestimate the hills in this part of GA unless they have run on them regularly. It’s not just the steepness, which isn’t objectively that bad. It’s the way they roll - you’re never able to get into a comfortable race rhythm. Pile on with where they put some of the turnarounds and the extra wind, and it had to be brutal to try to establish a pace.