USATF Indoors Live Thread - Saturday

Commercial? I don't even know what to say to this kind of thing anymore.

It's slowing up. I wish German would just sya, "F it. i'm takign the lead. Run like you belong. I can't believe Derrick is slowing it down."

man the stands are empty

Ato Boldon is really making lots of mistakes on this broadcast

Lets hope they keep Stacy D around she is doing a great job - much better than any of the others

What were Ato's mistakes? I only watched the two mile. I thought the Ryan Hill interview was good by him (both).

Stacy Dragila was good I thought. She knew what she was talking about and didn't feel the need to dumb it down to someone like me

Ryan Hall looked pretty great in 2 mile final lap.

25.77 final last lap. Blankenship 26.17.

Place Name Affiliation Time

1 Ryan Hill Nike/Bowerman TC 8:26.72

2 Benjamin Blankenship Nike / OTC Elite 8:27.31

3 Evan Jager Nike/Bowerman TC 8:27.44

4 Garrett Heath Brooks 8:27.99

5 Chris Derrick Nike/Bowerman TC 8:32.51

6 Dan Lowry Boston A A 8:34.20

7 John Happe Speed Factory 8:36.91

8 German Fernandez Nike/Bowerman TC 8:37.15

9 Chris Moen ZAP Fitness 8:42.95

10 Taylor Gilland Unattached 8:45.43

11 Ethan Shaw Boston A A 8:46.16

12 Isaac Presson Furman Elite 8:55.19

13 Julian Saad Boston A A 8:55.39

I'll be honest, I was somewhat bored by most of the broadcast. I hadn't looked at the schedule beforehand and was unaware so much of it would be sprint prelims. As a fan watching from home, the only real intrigue for me was in the high jump and the men's two mile.

wejo wrote:

Stacy Dragila was good I thought. She knew what she was talking about and didn't feel the need to dumb it down to someone like me

Ryan Hall looked pretty great in 2 mile final lap.

25.77 final last lap. Blankenship 26.17.

I had a nice post-race chat with Hill afterwards. He said Jerry Schumacher made a point of telling the guys he wasn't giving them any strategy for this one - they needed to figure it out for themselves so there certainly was no team tactics coming in.

Hill said Schumacher would be thrilled with the 25.77 last 200.

I also asked Hill about German Fernandez , whom I'm sort of obsessed with (talent doesn't go away). It sounds like German just misses too much stuff with little injuries but Hill spoke a lot about how hard he works.

Ben Blankenship wasn't happy with 2nd at all. He said he just ran 3:35 and thought he should have been able to close faster:

Jager wasn't happy with his race either. He's still trying to figure out how to get the win in a race instead of just finishing top 3. Like HIll, he said Schumacher made a point of addressing each of them individually to tell them to treat this as a championship, not a race where they'd run as a team.

Derrick said he felt awful when he took the lead. He was planning on taking the lead and trying a fartlek to tire the kick out of guys but didn't feel good at all when he go the lead.

He also talks about World XC:

wejo wrote:

Ryan Hall looked pretty great in 2 mile final lap.

BEST TYPO EVER

I was with you on the talent doesn't go away premise not any more.

There is nothing there not even at two miles

There was no traffic to contend with and he backed up all the,way thru,marginal negative mile splits and had nothing even off of 838 two mile pace

Lost over 11 secs in last mile.

There is no progress and he should be able to manage better than a hs PR at this point and he didn't even do that off very moderate fractions

I was with you on the talent doesn't go away premise not any more.

There is nothing there not even at two miles

There was no traffic to contend with and he backed up all the,way thru,marginal negative mile splits and had nothing even off of 838 two mile pace

Lost over 11 secs in last mile.

There is no progress and he should be able to manage better than a hs PR at this point and he didn't even do that off very moderate fractions

Anyone else digging on the Brooks singlets with the name down the back? Haven't noticed them in earlier meets, did I just miss it or are they being debuted here?

Wife said Rowbury needs to lose the lipstick.

Yes watching tape delayed, sorry.

"Talent doesn't go away" is an overly simplistic catch phrase that sounds good and makes the speaker appear wise and introspective.

When in reality, "talent" consists of several elements including aerobic capacity, fast twitch muscles, hormonal response, etc. that only a select handful have in abundance.

Specifically for Fernandez, it appears after several years now that he simply does not have the "talent" to train at a national class level, much less a world-class level, for a long distance runner.

As the announcers mentioned, he spent most of 2013 (or 2014?) in the swimming pool because of recurring achilles problems and even now has "little stuff" come up frequently that impedes his training.

He just cannot do the mileage with the intensity necessary to compete internationally at the 10k or 5k . . . and now, possibly not even for 3k/2M.

Where does that leave him? The 1500m . . . his 3:34 from 2-3 years ago -- running for Schumacher's team -- suggests he still can train close to world class at that event. Much lower mileage that Derrick, Bumbi, Teg and the others but more intensity and more rest/therapy between hard sessions to keep the foot/leg problems at bay.

Bayer and Lomong still race the mile occasionally so German at least has really good teammates to train with.

I really hope he stays healthy and improves little by little, but it looks like his racing career is in the 1500m . . . a real meatgrinder now in the US with so much talent.

I believe Shannon's fashion choice in lipstick this indoor season is in memory of her grandmother.I only point this out because, yes, it looks terrible, but at least it has a purpose beyond her trying to project an image.

eiovjdk wrote:

Anyone else digging on the Brooks singlets with the name down the back? Haven't noticed them in earlier meets, did I just miss it or are they being debuted here?

Wife said Rowbury needs to lose the lipstick.

Yes watching tape delayed, sorry.

not debuted here, they've been wearing them in all 2015 meets. they are sick. the black tops the Hanson's DP guys are wearing are pretty cool as well (same design, different color scheme): http://www.letsrun.com/photos/2015/usatf-cross-country-boulder/imagepages/image28.php

eiovjdk wrote:

Anyone else digging on the Brooks singlets with the name down the back? Haven't noticed them in earlier meets, did I just miss it or are they being debuted here?

Wife said Rowbury needs to lose the lipstick.

Yes watching tape delayed, sorry.

HardLoper wrote:

Division 3 Ben Scheetz might make the final?!

Missed by .004 seconds.

1. Said Caz Loxam was returning to where he raced in college - don't believe PSU ever raced at Reggie Lewis ctr

2. When he was introducing ajee Wilson said that she was the 1st of the prodigies to run. Meanwhile Alexa E had already run and he never said who the other prodigies were

That is just 2 but there were many many

He is racing this year, which is way ahead of last year.

He has stated in his interviews that he is on long road to Rio plan. It's going to take time. Today he was more aggressive that in the past.

I don't believe he is done, but is still at the beginning of the long road ahead.

It funny how most on these boards slam him, yet his teammates (roommates) all support him and have nothing but nice things to say about him.

Remember it's only indoors. I believe he'll have more success this summer.

Can't wait to see Trautmann in the masters' mile. It's scheduled for 2:35pm. Hopefully they'll show the race on USATF.TV.

Trautmann, 3:59.46 FTW!!! Front ran from the gun. Gutsy run!