"The Boston Marathon Was Fixed" thread.

So Meb must have been in on the scam too. What an acting job on his part. See him looking over his shoulder repeatedly during the last 2 miles. That must have told him to do that to make it look good. Love those fake tears too!

Meant Kimetto at the end of the first paragraph.

Despite London having such a deep field and KB running Paris, Boston still had 1 sub-2:04, 5 sub-2:05, 7 sub-2:06, and 9 sub-2:07. Has Boston ever had a deeper field than that?

Boston isn't a course you can "course correct". When you course correct at mile 20, you are charging up the hills of Newton and you end up blowing your load. When you course correct too early, you are pounding yourselves on the downhills and have nothing later.

I'd imagine few here have actually run the Boston course. This isn't London or Berlin. It is not a track race or a time trial with rabbits going for a WR.

Meb went for it and the Running Gods were with him.

Shalane went for it and the Running Gods smite her down for it.

That is just how Boston rolls.

Lemons wrote:

Finally, someone that's actually watched a marathon before. A surge is only matched if the field deems the surgers to be legit. Meb gets no respect because he's the slowest of the elites.

And then, all of the 14 faster people had a bad day and could not reel him in.

It doesn't get more extraordinary than that:

* the fast people let two admittedly `slow' competitors fly away... at about 2:08-2:09 pace (correct me if I am wrong);

* all of the faster people fail to catch Keflezighi;

* Keflezighi breaks his PB aged 38.

All of this the year the whole world and especially the USA have their eyes on the Boston marathon.

The conspiracy theory does not seem so crazy when faced with facts like these. I have no evidence for the following (no one here seems to have evidence for either theory anyway) but...

How could you arrange for a fast time? By not testing for PEDs. Easier to do on home soil.

Bribing all the runners would seem dangerous. Any of them could talk some day. I really don't know. Another possible twisted way: food poisoning (hotel restaurant, drinks on the course?).

It sounds crazy to me as I write it. But not quite as crazy as this race unfolding as it did in a legitimate way.

get it together wrote:

Despite London having such a deep field and KB running Paris, Boston still had 1 sub-2:04, 5 sub-2:05, 7 sub-2:06, and 9 sub-2:07. Has Boston ever had a deeper field than that?

Read my post above.

just look at the times Boston is won in - usually around 2:09, sometimes much slower. So this year some old guy tries to to run 2:07 - do you let him go and focus on your 2:05 peers? yes, you do. And once in a while it bites you.

It's not crazy at all. The field miscalculated it and let Meb go (this has happened numerous times with someone deemed to be a "non threat").

Meb then ran the race of his life and did not come back to the field. The real studs of the field that might have caught Meb spotting him 1:20 weren't on there game.

Chebet, the 2:05:30 guy, tried, but that is too much to make up for a 2:05:30 guy against Meb. 2:08:30 here is strong. Probably 2:07 or better equivalently, combine that with getting away with 1:20 lead and it's too much to ask a 2:05 guy to beat it, especially with as aggressive of a move as Chebet made (14:24 5k from 35-40k through HB hill).

Maybe if Desisa or Kimetto had been on there game they could have run Meb down, but you can't spot a 2:06 high/2:07 low guy (what Meb was today in my opinion) 1:20 and expect to win without being massively better.

Field just plain underestimated Meb, who then delivered with the race of his life BY FAR

slopenguinrunner wrote:

Meb went for it and the Running Gods were with him.

And isn't it so wonderful they were with him just when everyone was watching Boston, and when it would have been so great for the USA to show those dirty foreigners who's boss?

USA USA USA USA USA

See, now even I'm getting carried away. So glad there was a miraculous American winner of the Boston marathon this year, just to show those terrorists/foreigners of any kind just who is in charge.

No way it was a fix.

LM wrote:

Field just plain underestimated Meb, who then delivered with the race of his life BY FAR

To you and agip: what you say does carry some weight (although I really have doubts). But still, break your PB at 38 on this day? I have a hard time believing it. (And as an ageing runner, I can tell you I'd love to believe one can break PBs until 38.)

slopenguinrunner wrote:

Boston isn't a course you can "course correct". When you course correct at mile 20, you are charging up the hills of Newton and you end up blowing your load. When you course correct too early, you are pounding yourselves on the downhills and have nothing later.

I'd imagine few here have actually run the Boston course. This isn't London or Berlin. It is not a track race or a time trial with rabbits going for a WR.

Meb went for it and the Running Gods were with him.

Shalane went for it and the Running Gods smite her down for it.

That is just how Boston rolls.

Excellent point. I stand corrected.

Not that his competitors would have taken this into account, but Meb's previous PR of 2:09:13 was set 3 and a half years ago. So nobody in the pack that let him get away was imagining that he'd break that at 39 years old.

I think this was a classic example of the perfect storm: an unexpected PR on a hilly course plus groupthink contributing to a failed strategy.

Again, remember: the one thing people DO know about Meb is that he wins his big races by pacing himself well and coming back on people. So what he did today couldn't be recognized as what it was: a strategy designed to steal a win. His competitors would have been forced, by his past behavior, to misrecognize (and mistake) his early move as foolish overenthusiasm.

For those thinking conspiracy: it's impossible to keep such things quiet and, more importantly, I just don't believe that the BAA would take the risk of squandering the event's reputation. A conspiracy, leading to this result, does indeed create a big gain, but the loss that it's being made public would create is much, much larger. I don't think the BAA would take that gamble.

K55 wrote:

Meb is naturalized American but as Muslim it shows how heroic muslims can be - not all are terrorists (just 99% or so)

Meb is a devout Christian, just like his parents.

grox wrote:

To you and agip: what you say does carry some weight (although I really have doubts). But still, break your PB at 38 on this day? I have a hard time believing it. (And as an ageing runner, I can tell you I'd love to believe one can break PBs until 38.)

So you're saying what, exactly? I though the whack-job conspiracy theorists in here were arguing that the race was "fixed"--i.e., that all the other elite competitors were paid to let an American win. But now you're saying that you "have doubts" that 38-yo Meb really ran 2:08. WTF? Are you saying the race was actually won by a younger Meb lookalike (who happened to be in 2:08 shape)? Are you saying that it was CGI?

You people are so bat shit crazy that you can't even keep your idiotic conspiracy theories straight.

can you imagine the conspiracy theory if Meb was still sponsored by Nike?

Trollie McSockpuppet wrote:

grox wrote:

To you and agip: what you say does carry some weight (although I really have doubts). But still, break your PB at 38 on this day? I have a hard time believing it. (And as an ageing runner, I can tell you I'd love to believe one can break PBs until 38.)

So you're saying what, exactly? I though the whack-job conspiracy theorists in here were arguing that the race was "fixed"--i.e., that all the other elite competitors were paid to let an American win. But now you're saying that you "have doubts" that 38-yo Meb really ran 2:08. WTF? Are you saying the race was actually won by a younger Meb lookalike (who happened to be in 2:08 shape)? Are you saying that it was CGI?

You people are so bat shit crazy that you can't even keep your idiotic conspiracy theories straight.

no, he's suggesting the BAA asked Meb to dope up real good.

(I'm just reporting from the lunatic fringe)

grox wrote:

LM wrote:

Field just plain underestimated Meb, who then delivered with the race of his life BY FAR

To you and agip: what you say does carry some weight (although I really have doubts). But still, break your PB at 38 on this day? I have a hard time believing it. (And as an ageing runner, I can tell you I'd love to believe one can break PBs until 38.)

I know some of the conspiracy theorists are just trolling but you actually sound like you're being serious. If so, wtf? How could they possibly have fixed his winning time? That's even more nonsensical than the posters suggesting that the field was paid off to let him win.

Trollie McSockpuppet wrote:

So you're saying what, exactly? I though the whack-job conspiracy theorists in here were arguing that the race was "fixed"--i.e., that all the other elite competitors were paid to let an American win.

Take a deep breath, try not to be so emotional, and read it all again.

Trollie McSockpuppet wrote:But now you're saying that you "have doubts" that 38-yo Meb really ran 2:08. WTF? Are you saying the race was actually won by a younger Meb lookalike (who happened to be in 2:08 shape)? Are you saying that it was CGI?

What are you talking about? Who is crazy now?

Trollie McSockpuppet wrote:

You people are so bat shit crazy that you can't even keep your idiotic conspiracy theories straight.

Why don't you start by showing signs of intelligence before writing this sort of things?

I don't really know if the field underestimated Meb more than they underestimated the course. How many of these guys have run Boston before and how many of them had run faster than 2:10 on it...

The marathon seems to have become an extension of the track to a lot of the top runners. They train to run blistering times on fast, flat courses. It's probably my favorite thing about Boston and New York, the fastest guy isn't synonymous with the being the favorite.

As far as Meb running a pb at 39. I guess I'd be more suspicious if he just busted out and ran 2:06 or 2:05 for the win, but his time today is pretty consistent with his races in the past. His consistency is pretty amazing and it's been his biggest strength as a pro. He doesn't vary that much from course to course.

I guess I feel like 2:04 - 2:06 pb's don't mean that much when you're transitioning from a track to a course.

Meb has gone out fast and faded a lot recently (NYC), just to get Sketchers some TV time. That's probably what the field was thinking ...