Ryan Hall 30 min 10k!!!!!

It's not about greed. They are professional runners. They are paid to run. It's their job to run. So it makes sense to show up to a race where you are guaranteed to make money.

Cool your jets everybody! Is it wrong for him to do a 10k run for fun?

No, by all means - have an opinion. Doesn't make what your saying anymore ignorant than it already is. You can second guess or evaluate all you want - you just look like an idiot doing it because you have no idea his motive, training plan, mileage, etc. Your just spouting off nonsense without any real knowledge besides what you see in a single 10k race.

People overreact too much for pros racing too often.

Not only would a 10k not at all negatively reflect on his training, a marathon today would not have hindered him at all for London 3 months down the line.

If it did then he would never have a chance to gain a medal for the Olympics, ever.

5k runners have to do it in rounds, most countries have their marathon qualifies a month before the Olympics.

Thank you, someone had to say it. The rest of you are idiots.

No, by all means - have an opinion. Doesn't make what your saying anymore ignorant than it already is. You can second guess or evaluate all you want - you just look like an idiot doing it because you have no idea his motive, training plan, mileage, etc. Your just spouting off nonsense without any real knowledge besides what you see in a single 10k race.[/quote]

hallh8r wrote:

WTF?

Hostile handle, bro.

But really, this is brutal. 10k at slower than marathon pace is nothing at all to recover from, especially for someone with Ryan's background mileage.

He's focused on the Olympic marathon, some people whine. Well, check this out: so are his competitors, and those guys are dropping 27:xx 10ks, 59:xx HMs and 2:04-2:05 marathons in the spring of the Olympic year, while he hasn't raced since January.

He obviously isn't up to running a hard 10k right now, and I say (1) shame on NYRR for paying him to run a televised workout (not even much of a workout) and (2) shame on him for doing it. If he absolutely had to show up to appease his employers NYRR/Mary W, he should have fired the starting pistol, posed for photos and carried on with his training.

At least Meb and Abdi put in an effort.

He was paid to show up and RUN, not show up and RACE. Athletes need to pay bills too. I would be more critical of Hall if he changed his training to race a 10km for prize money instead of appearance money. That 30min 10km likely fit well into his training week better than a 28:xx win or a 29:00 hard effort.

Central Park trotter wrote:

He had nothing to prove.

It's a business and he has to pay the bills

Everyone at NYRR and surrounding them was thrilled to get to shake his hand, wish him well and get a picture.

It's in the NY media which helps build his brand for future endorsements.

When your business is running you can't please everyone. Certainly not the purists on message boards.

I just want to know...are you the pot or the kettle?

[quote]NYCRunner wrote:

I was near the finish line yesterday and Hall looked very relaxed, quote]

How relaxed exactly? Like on a scale of 1 to Webb?

First of all, you must understand the experience of many (probably the majority) of LR readers. They are current/former high school and/or college runners. Every week or more there was a race and each one was run all out. This was what was expected of them. Those that are now out of school and continue to run enter local races and run those all out as well. Why wouldn't they?

As a result, these people cannot even comprehend entering a race without the intention of killing yourself to PR or place. The concept makes absolutely no sense to them. It is not their fault - they simply have no basis for understanding running at the very top level. Most of them THINK they understand (and thy base their understanding on their own personal experience). Unfortunately this is why so many posts devolve into the bickering you see here.

Back in the '80s, the top marathoners earned a living off of appearance fees from running 10ks on a regular basis. 30 minutes give or take a little was a really common time for Bill Rodgers and guys like that. Hall was just showing up for a paycheck, and perhaps as a favor to Whittenburg.

If you are not interested in the discussion, then GTFO!

I don't care if he's been logging 150 mile weeks. Cam Levin does that and can break 4 in the mile. A 30:00 10k is piss poor for a runner of Hall's caliber.

I remember my first 10k...

These are very true statements. But they are also not completely accurate to the situation. Hall said he was disappointed with his performance...meaning he did try, and knows he was slow. The hard part for people to understand is going slower then marathon pace for a 10k.

Spencer T wrote:

Nutella1 wrote:

Have the names for the mini 10k already been announced? I'd bet we see Kara, Desi or Shalane. At least one of them.

Hansons athletes are generally smarter than most and not as likely to chase the easy payday. Not likely to see Desi in this race unless Hansons have seriously changed their ways.

Shalane is managed by her husband, so I would not be shocked at all to see her in this race.

Kara will follow Shalane.

THAT I AGREE WITH.

I looked up that Gasparilla 15k. 43:26. I'm not gonna trash talk the guy's running because I'll never be that fast, and we've all had bad races. It would be great to see an American born athlete take home the Gold in the Marathon (or win any major Marathon), but I'm not gonna hold my breath. Someone mentioned earlier that he isn't training at altitude. He definitely does at least some of his training in Flagstaff (7,000ft). I know because I live there, and I've seen him. He's also doing a speaking thing here on Sunday. Maybe I'm missing the point, but I don't see why people are making a big deal out of it. Will a crappy 10k, or even a WR 10k really matter in a few months? I ran like crap at a marathon yesterday, and I'm not at all concerned about how it will effect the one I do this weekend. Good for him if he just did it for some money. I'm not sure you could pay me enough to spend a weekend in NYC.

re; running races out of your comfort zone -

Solinsky told a fascinating story on an RT podcast...of how he prepped for his first European season.

During his last track season in college, his coach would play games with him - not tell him what event he would run til an hour before the race, not let him warm up, make him warm up 3 hours too early, etc.

The coach's goal (was it schumacher?) was to get him ready for Europe, where it can be very hard to stick to a schedule and perform at a high level.

The relevance here is that maybe Hall was replicating a London experience in some way to make himself uncomfortable. We don't know what he was doing, at healthy kidney otehr than getting a paycheck, doing a tempo and getting some press with a stunt (all three OG marathoners in one race). Probably he was seeing how it felt to be in a foreign city, sleeping badly and racing.

You guys need to stop ragging on him maybe that's around what he's capable of for 10K anyway on top of him obviously running it with a training mindset and the money. Look at his time on the street mile and this was around when he was in "2:04" shape, some people just can't handle running fast but are beasts at the marathon