Swish22 wrote:
I defer to earlier post, Are you trying to win or just run for a time? Can anyone name who got 2nd and 3rd at any of the top world marathons last year? Realistic racing is boring and not good TV. Hopes and Dreams make America great, hence why Molly is loved. Her day went bad but we applaud the effort because we know to be on the big stage you have to take chances.
No argument that it makes great TV. In fact marathons should pay runners to run aggressive like this instead of paying pacers to run even. It makes it more fun to watch. Maybe give out a most aggressive money award or something.
The thing is, you can’t run like that when you are out classed and expect a good result. If you are the 15th best xc runner in the ncaa, surging off the front continually is not a good race strategy. You aren’t “hurting” anyone but yourself.
It is not really a defensible opinion that CJ wouldn’t run faster in this race with a more even paced race. If you combine that with some of his sub optimal training like running 2:10 in practice he has the potential to be much faster that his results indicate.
You can read this as tearing him down, but it is instead wanting him to succeed.