Mike Wardian....2:30 then 2:24 a week later?

From what little I've talked with Mike I can say he's a nice guy. Whether I or you or anyone other than him agrees with what he does or not is irrelivent, he enjoys what he does, and he's good at it. He isn't harming anyone else in how he conducts business. I have no idea why you care.

With that being said, I have no idea how he recovers like he does.

Have you ever heard of Joan Benoit? A relative unknown at the time, she took the lead of the 1984 Olympic Marathon and never looked back. Those other runners never thought she could hold it and that she would come back. What if? What if Wardian had a tremendous race and won the trials? Would you still condem him? No, you would be on your knees sucking his ----. What if Benoit had crashed and burned? Would she still be known as a legend today? You are an asshole for spouting off. One thing I know is that great athletes are NOT afraid to risk big to win big. So kiss my ass and Wardians!

realityspeaks wrote:

He had no business jetting out into the lead like a maniac, knowing full well he was going to be caught in within a few miles. The race went out slow because it was terribly windy...even more a reason to stay in the pack, and conserve.

That is what you do IF you were interested in racing to best of your ability. Not taking off into a head wind by yourself when you know full well you\'re not capable of maintaining it.

There is a big difference between having guts and being an idiot. His race at the trials was an example of the latter.

You know nothing of reality wrote:

Have you ever heard of Joan Benoit? A relative unknown at the time, she took the lead of the 1984 Olympic Marathon and never looked back.

I think you are a little confused. What you are describing actually happened at the 1979 Boston Marathon, which she won in record time.

By 1984, Benoit had the world record and was widely recognized as one of the best in the world.

"realityspeaks" is just another below average runner that thinks he knows all. Obviously he's never won anything before and never will with his attitude. Go Wardian Go!

1) You don't know the person you are theorizing about.

2) Your argument is predicated on what his motivations are. In order to know his motivations, you would need to ask him.

3) This means that your entire argument is meaningless and you are an internet attention whore.

I know what the subject has been, I'm just not sure it's really worthy of discussion, especially by a bunch of yutzes (me included) who don't know him. Your opinion is only as good as what it's based on. If he's really an attention seeker, are there photos or video floating around of him preening for or playing directly to the camera or popping his jersey? If you just want to assume the worst (and even though you say you didn't say that seeking unwarranted attention is bad, how could you not know that it's implied?) then go right ahead. You're disingenuous or you're ignorant if you claim to not understand why someone would take issue with your opinion.

I'm out - all this chit chat he said / she said is making me sick. There are some things that are just not worth arguing over and I think some of us have beaten this to a pulp. I'm sure somebody will write a post about how I'm still dumb and just gave up my argument and stuff..... but I don't care, and here are my parting words:

I think MW is a great runner

I honestly mean no disrespect to him

He can grind out all those miles and recover really well

Best of luck to him, and all of you seeking to achieve your goals

Sorry if I pissed anybody off

No more bickering, only running for the rest of the day for me

I'm out - bye

Runningart2004 wrote:

I don't think he's running 15-25 marathons a year.

That would be 1-2 a month. Aside from his back to back marathons I don't think he's run all that many this year.

Alan

He really does run that many. He runs one nearly every week in the spring and the fall.

I am in the greater DC area as well (well, pretty far from the actual city but close enough to look at the running coverage). I've run in several of the same races with him, including Apple Blossom 10k and Shamrock. I ran Steamtown in '06 and after the race ran into Mike. I don't know him from Adam but recognized him and had heard that he finished second at the awards ceremony. I congratulated him, he asked how I had done. I told him I missed by BQ by about 7 seconds (I know, that sucks, all you letsrunners can make fun of me). I asked him his time and he said he missed his OTQ by about 22 seconds. Didn't seem as bummed about it as I was about mine. He just said, "well, I'll have to run faster next time." Me, too.

When I first saw him on the scene I thought he was a stupid runner and would be more successfull if he raced sparingly and focussed on running fast.

Let's say he could run 2:15.

That's good but but what he is doing now is more noteworthy and interesting.

He is doing his own thing and I respect that.

I still think he is a genetic freak for being able to recover so quickly from races.

MW hits a nerve w/ a lot of people....

Could he be a better marathoner by not racing so frequently? Perhaps...and I bet he has considered alternatives.

the fact that he ran <2:30 back to back reminds me of how Geb does 3:00 runs 2x/week and that is considered Herculean. Perhaps MW has those same powers of recovery. Not the FT fibers, nor the desire, but some of that sort of talent.

I am jealous! Others are as well.

From what I see, what incenses people is the fact that MW treats this as a hobby. A very serious hobby, but a hobby nonetheless.

Again....MAYBE this "lack of seriousness" is his source of success, and others (including me) could benefit from this sort of approach, rather than treating an OT qualifying berth as some sort of "date with destiny"

I agree. It's not like he went out at world record pace. he was just running a pace he thought he could hold and has held in the past. realityspeaks just goes to show what happens when you let kids use a computer unsupervised. It's a shame what our country has gone too.

I haven't seen the financial reason mentioned either yet. He tends to pick mid-sized marathons in which he will usually finish top 5, most the time top 3. Therefore, he is picking up anywhere from 100$-3,000$ for his efforts. Given he is so consistent, he gets to do what he loves and take in a little extra spending cash on the weekends.

Who knows if this is his real motivation, but it doesn't hurt.

Also, on top of that, I heard he ran the Delaware Marathon because his wife is from the state and her family had never seen him run. Whether that is verifiable or not, I have no clue. Plus, as aforementioned he picked up an easy $500 setting the course record in 2:27.

Wardian just won the Mad City 100K (US championship race). He was 6 minutes behind Bob Busquaert at 60k, but I guess Busquaert dropped. Their 10k split paces were

B: 6:30, 6:17, 6:17, 6:24, 6:21, 6:28

W: 6:55, 6:31, 6:51, 6:46, 6:08, 6:04, 6:16, 6:44, 7:26, 7:26

Wow, 6:56 for 100K - very impressive. I did not think he would beat Greg Crowther, but apparently Crowther could not keep up the pace. Looks like he dropped out before 70K.

Looking at the results, were there really only a couple dozen people in the non-relay race?

There were about 35 people who registered for the individual race. If you look at the lap times, people started dropping out around the 5th lap. I left the aid station I was working at 11 hours after the start and I think there were still 4 people out on the course at that point who aren't entered into the results yet. So there should eventually be more finishers, but you're right - there weren't too many individuals running to begin with.

Congratulations to all of the runners for braving a second consecutive year of less than ideal weather!

Results and splits

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=7556

last 20k looks like evrybody was crawling....

Michael Wardian finishes 2nd in the JFK 50 Miler on 11/19 (2nd fastest time ever - 5:43:24).

LESS than a week later on Thanksgiving (11/24), he drops down in distance and runs a 25:13 5 Miler.

I've never run an ultra, but marathons always left me trashed. I cannot imagine how he bounces back so quickly.