German Fernandez JR Oklahoma State 4:14.69

German, you are great and you will have the respect of thousands regardless of your season opener. We keep the faith and you should too. Take care brother.

He's mad shook.

there's nothing to judge in this performance, because he stopped to fix his shoe. how many people ever have stopped to fix their shoe and still run 4:14 or faster in the same race?

Hall's had a declining series of performances since spring 2008 (3 years!) and he hasn't come close to his pr half from his first race, so there are going to be legitimate doubts, particularly in the marathon where strong early performances are often followed by an unending series of worse performances. Now I think that a change in strategy would get him back, not the kind of training that his "coach," God, has designed for him, but a turn to serious track work, would reconnect him with the track speed that allowed him to run 59:43 and 2:06:17, would get him back there.

jjjjjj wrote:

there's nothing to judge in this performance, because he stopped to fix his shoe. how many people ever have stopped to fix their shoe and still run 4:14 or faster in the same race?

Hall's had a declining series of performances since spring 2008 (3 years!) and he hasn't come close to his pr half from his first race, so there are going to be legitimate doubts, particularly in the marathon where strong early performances are often followed by an unending series of worse performances. Now I think that a change in strategy would get him back, not the kind of training that his "coach," God, has designed for him, but a turn to serious track work, would reconnect him with the track speed that allowed him to run 59:43 and 2:06:17, would get him back there.

I agree with your post about Ryan Hall. I disagree with your post about GF though. He stopped to tie his shoe. He still ran 34 seconds on that lap and it was early in the race. I guess I just don't see that as a reason for a 4:14. If he did after 1k then sure, but 200 meters in that shouldn't stop him from running 4:05-4:10.

That being said I am a big Fernandez fan and hope that he comes to his 09 form.

jjjjjj wrote:

there's nothing to judge in this performance, because he stopped to fix his shoe. how many people ever have stopped to fix their shoe and still run 4:14 or faster in the same race?

Hall's had a declining series of performances since spring 2008 (3 years!) and he hasn't come close to his pr half from his first race, so there are going to be legitimate doubts, particularly in the marathon where strong early performances are often followed by an unending series of worse performances. Now I think that a change in strategy would get him back, not the kind of training that his "coach," God, has designed for him, but a turn to serious track work, would reconnect him with the track speed that allowed him to run 59:43 and 2:06:17, would get him back there.

Hold on now, Hall has only been declining/having sub-par performances about the same amount of time as German has which is a year and a half or so. Hall's performances at Boston were pretty legit. So anyway, yea they've been declining for about the same time frame and here for German you have "ThisIsTheTruth" saying to keep faith in German etc, well where is that for Hall?

The thing that stood out to me with the race was aside from that lap that he ran super slow he ran splits perfectly in line with the top finishers. Yet he would have been trailing the field. Strange, would be interesting to see the race.

If German hadn't done well in XC I can't even imagine the response this thread would have gotten. THe kid will be fine, one bad race doesn't define a runner. I'm sure his next one will be much better.

"It ain't over to the fat lady sings"...

Are you serious right now? I mean, really?

oldoldrunner wrote:

Well put. I can not believe all the hate in track and field. No wonder there is no fan base in America.

I've been a SF Giant baseball fan for 48 years. In baseball when a player from another teams does well he get rooted for by the other teams fans.

But on this running forum, it all about wanting to see Americas best runners do bad.

So, I believe you Babozos, are not fans, but frustrated runners that can't or has never run very fast and are jeaslous of Americas best runners.

The only way to relieve your frustrations is to bash Americas runners.

Right, because there would absolutely be an enormous fan base for track and field in this country if only it were not for anonymous Letsrun posters spewing so much "hate" towards American runners. Please.

Also, your baseball comparison does not make any sense. If you're a fan of a baseball team, then you want your team to do well. If a player on another team does well against your team, then that results in a negative outcome for your team. A negative outcome for your team results in your team not playing well. If you root for the player on the other team, then you are rooting for a negative outcome for your team. CONCLUSION: either you contradict yourself, or you are not really a fan of your team.

Meb Is American wrote:

America is the land of the free, the land of opportunity, and the land with the most diverse nationalities that makes us strong. So next time think before you call someone not American.

No, we are no longer free, we are a freaking police state that has lost both its freedoms and its wealth, choosing rather to be bankrupt but with "the most diverse nationalities."

I'm not a German hater, and not the type to gain personal satisfaction from guys running poorly but Christ what do you people expect? This is letsrun and dumb annoying threads are why a lot of people come here and post. Fact of life at this point.

I read a lot of dumb comments in this thread that I took to be sarcastic that made people like malmo flip out and it got me thinking. Do you really think German Fernandez of all people needs you guys backing him up in a thread like this when people are clearly making jokes? Yea his shoe fell off, 4:14, whatever. Even if that didn't happen do you think he gives two shits what people write on the internet? The kid is hot shit and he knows it. No bad race or stupid message board thread is going to change that. He ran 3:55 as a freshman and just had a bad race cause his shoe came off...he doesn't need you standing up for him, that much I'm sure of. Yikes.

On another note, malmo, what makes you think someone needs to be "worthy enough to carry his water for him" in order to criticize him? Of course I'm talking about legitimate criticisms and not ones made in jest like in this thread.

I just don't think that German would have had much motivation to run fast in an inconsequential mile race where he had to stop to fix his shoe. Let him finish a race and we'll see where he is. After his performance in xc, I would assume that he's going to be running about what he did as a freshman this winter and then hopefully build on that in the spring. But we never really hear much about his health until after the fact.

Hall ran a pretty good Boston last year, 2:08:40s, but let's face it: he has never run the equal of his first half marathon and third marathon (trials was his second, and that was awfully good on that course, probably comparable with his London performance in 2008).

Right, because there would absolutely be an enormous fan base for track and field in this country if only it were not for anonymous Letsrun posters spewing so much "hate" towards American runners. Please.

Also, your baseball comparison does not make any sense. If you're a fan of a baseball team, then you want your team to do well. If a player on another team does well against your team, then that results in a negative outcome for your team. A negative outcome for your team results in your team not playing well. If you root for the player on the other team, then you are rooting for a negative outcome for your team. CONCLUSION: either you contradict yourself, or you are not really a fan of your team.[/quote]

It does make sense. Go to the MLB net work and watch the Prime 9 show on the 9 best in game performances. Then you will know what i'm mean. Your CONCLUSION is um uh, wrong.

I just thought I would chime in. I was at the race and saw German stop to put his shoe back on.... I thought it was his ankle for a minute. Anyhow, after that he jumped back in and just tacked on to the same pace as the leaders. He didn't try to close the gap and looked like he was running a relaxed pace. It looked more like an interval than anything else. I would suspect that he decided that catching up would be silly and that getting a good solid run in at this point was a better option. I guarantee you that that time means nothing, it looked so easy.

So he lost 3 seconds, then lost an addition 10 seconds. That is not exactly just going along with the pace.

Besides that he was already 2 seconds behind what he ran 2 years ago, in the first 200 meters of the race.

It seems to me that German has lost his motivation, his will to run, and his interest for running fast times.

Manzano ran a 3:5x 1500 last spring (or the spring before?), in the middle of a string of fast races.

4:14 is surprising, but who knows.

Its January...so who really cares.

Used to run at OSU before... probably one of these races where we ran a 10 miler the hour before we raced....

The two, three first indoor races were usually run as workout not races.

Also dont give too much credits to a 4.14, they probably just decided it was better to be careful for the beginning of his season (which is going to be pretty long I would guess).

GF ran top 15 at NCAA so a 4.14 doesn't really correspond to his fall potential.

Anyway enjoy the hate thread why it lasts :-) (cause it probably wont last much longer).

DP

oldoldrunner wrote:

It does make sense. Go to the MLB net work and watch the Prime 9 show on the 9 best in game performances. Then you will know what i'm mean. Your CONCLUSION is um uh, wrong.

I didn't say it never happened, just that it doesn't make rational sense. I am sorry you don't see the irrationality in cheering for another team's player if it results in a negative consequence for your team, the one you are a fan of and want to do well.

Some good points. Someone above said it, but after I saw his regionals XC this year and then NCAA XC I thought he had lost motivation for running. I'm not saying this is a certainty but it is just a feeling I got based on the change between his 08 and 10 XC seasons (09 was obviously a fluke).

Also, bringing up Leo Manzano and his horrible 1500 last year followed by low 3:30's is an excellent point. One bad race at the beginning of his season doesn't mean he won't PR this season.

I was at the race...German literally stopped fixed his shoe (someone stepped on it) and then started running fast again. However, when he came back by some coaches standing there told him to just relax. They say that he had lost at least 4 seconds and felt it wasn't worth trying to catch back up. But trust me after that point he jogged the whole way. He didn't even have his mouth open on the last few laps he wasn't out of breath at all. He finished and immediately jogged over to talk to the coaches and then went on a cooldown. Its not that he will be back, hes already here hes in good shape he just had some bad luck.