Barringer: "The race isn't going to matter in the long run."

It's not "acceptable?"

Ok, so it's no "acceptable" for you. So Barringer should quit? She should give up any and all dreams of improving now that she's had one bad day?

How about instead you shut the hell up about things you obviously don't understand?

As malmo said a few pages back, she had a bad today. She'll have other bad days in the future. And yet, this is not the end for Jenny Barringer.

I have had bad days too, and I didn't enjoy them. But when I did I gave the guys who beat me their due credit for beating me on that day... I did not completely internalise the reasons for my defeat, nor did I call an interview to talk more about what I did and didn't do that possibly or possibly didn't cause my under performance.

Barringer has still not to my knowledge publicly said what a great race the winners ran. She has focused solely on her bad day as if that is the only story. That is arrogance.

Where did I say she should stop dreaming of improving and that she should give up? And where did I say this was the "end of Jenny Barringer"? Another example of people taking comments out of context. Assuming what I meant by one comment and not reading the post in it's entirety and addressing all of the points in a logical manner is very telling of the respondent. Telling people to shut the h#$@ up? Really? If you want to take my argument apart, do it! And if you make sense, I'll admit that there is a flaw with what I have to say and I'll shut the h%$# up.

Her attitude post race in both interviews (it's no that big of a deal, only people in my situation can understand) and her flop are terrible examples of how a champion should respond to pressure, the possibility of losing and a bad race. I just wish she would own up to what happened. I understand that in order to win races of this caliber, the thought of losing cannot enter her mind and should not be a part of her race plan. However, when things don't work out as planned, and a runner is forced to adjust their race, they shouldn't respond like Jenny Barringer did in this race.

And it's not acceptable! She keeps talking about how this race doesn't matter but she's going to be in much bigger races and with much stiffer competition. Is this how she's going to respond every time she has a bad race and she's under pressure? Probably not and hopefully not and that's why, as I said in an earlier post, I hope she learns from this and she kicks butt in the future.

MSCoach wrote:

And it's not acceptable! She keeps talking about how this race doesn't matter but she's going to be in much bigger races and with much stiffer competition. Is this how she's going to respond every time she has a bad race and she's under pressure? Probably not and hopefully not and that's why, as I said in an earlier post, I hope she learns from this and she kicks butt in the future.

I agree.

She should send you a personal letter of apology to at least go a small way to make up for her unacceptable behaviour.

I mean, how dare she let you down in this way.

I like the way you add the 'I hope she....in the future' at the end of all your posts. No you don't, you hope she fails so you can jump on your soapbox once more, but you think you add some credibility to your nonsense by saying it.

I'm not "asking" for anything. I "hope" she gets better through this. And you can believe what you want but I'm sincere about that. I'm sick of watching us get our butts kicked by tougher, better prepared competition in our distance events. Barringer could change that if this race proves to be an anomaly. I don't need an apology. Her competitors need some recognition from her. I'm just offering on opinion, so get over it.

Do you read entire posts? Or do you just blow one part way out of proportion and nitpick on the one sentence you can comprehend? I'll bet you try to find grammatical errors first and when they aren't there, you're forced to actually read the post.

MSCoach wrote:

I'm sick of watching us get our butts kicked by tougher, better prepared competition in our distance events.

I think it's time to stop living your life through other people and taking their successes and failures quite so personally.

I think once you start talking in terms of 'we' and 'our' about people who are banging out huge amounts of training with enormous self-sacrifice, whilst you are not and are just standing around complaining about them, then you have a problem.

It's just MSCoach's opinion, may be right, maybe not.

Keep stretching the discussion in as many directions as you like. You still aren't addressing the point. Who cares if I use presumptuous words like "us" and "we"? I'm using quite generally in referring to Americans. I'm sorry if you again assumed and thought I was putting myself into an "elite" class. It has no bearing on the fact that she flopped and didn't own up to the bad day or recognize those who defeated her.

I'm tired of this. Done with this thread.

MSCoach wrote:

she...didn't...recognize those who defeated her.

I don't understand why people are so obsessed with this. Who cares?! It's such a cliche.

AK-51 wrote:

Face it. We now have two topics in this thread. 1) Barringer's bad race and 2) You, and other bashers, are sad pieces of crap.

Everyone has bad races. She just happened to melt down at a national (collegiate) championship. The lightheadedness can easily be explained by hyperventilation, which does have physical manifestations--such as lightheadedness, confusion, and temporary loss of coordination. Or maybe it was a panic attack, more mental. Guess what? Many of the symptoms are the same. So what? She offered a detailed explanation of her race and events preceeding...yes it was big deal, yes she was nervous, yes she had a lot on her plate, and yes it caught up to her at the NCAA championships.

What else do you want? Seriously? WHAT THE FUKK DO WANT YOU STUPID PATHETIC CRAPHEAD? (and that goes to other bashers)

"PATHETIC CRAPHEAD"? What are you, 8 years old? Pull it together, guy.

I have no problem with JB having a bad day. I've had plenty myself, as has anyone pushing the envelope on a ongoing basis (Tergat, Geb, Bekele, Lagat, El G, whoever).

I have a problem with her saying afterward (not before, of course, because before the race she was saying it WAS important) that it wasn't important. She bombed hard at an important moment, and it cost her team a lot. If that's not important to her, she shouldn't have been in the race.

I'll say it again:

No heart.

I get a kick out of people saying she shoulda talked about the other racers. She did, at least for what she saw. Except for Kuijken, she didn't see 90% of what the others did.

Greg wrote:

Except for Kuijken, she didn't see 90% of what the others did.

Except that Kuijken got 3rd, and Barringer was 163rd.

To the OP:

You can do a lot with a quote taken out of context. She was talking about how over the course of her entire running career, bombing out this race would not mean all that much. And she's correct. This race, had it gone to form, could have been the crown jewel in a wonderful NCAA career for Jenny. Well, races don't always go to form. Jenny had a disastrous race out there for herself. I'm sure she wasn't pleased with it.

However, what was she supposed to do afterward? Wail and cry and break down and mope? Once a race is over, for better or worse, it's over. No amount of carrying on about it would change what happened. In the long scope of her career, no, this race won't matter much, especially if she continues to set American records and can make the next step towards being a factor in international races. In the even longer scope of life, this race will just be a little anecdote she might tell at Christmastime or something. So no, no matter how much umbrage you'd like to take, her quote made total sense IN CONTEXT.

I think the race is going to matter a great deal.

I was saying how can you comment on someone's race when you were back in the pack. That would be something you'd ask Kuijken and Schaaf, maybe White/McLaughlin/Marino, not #163.

Bingo. Do you think El G or Rono, any Rono, is still worrying about his last collegiate cross country race? I seriously doubt it. They found much larger stages to play on, as has JB. For Coe's sake, she is an Olympian and a national champion.

We've all let down our teams at some point - sitting in a corner and crying and saying 'I stink, I hate myself for letting everyone down" just doesn't get you to the next level. You have to smile, get back up and keep going.

I have to agree with 5er. She has handled a disappointing result in the best way possible. She gave a complete interview on something that is obviously difficult for her. How many of you could have spoken like an adult about a race that didn't go well for you? She didn't blame others. She has a lot of stuff going on; she wants to apply to law school. She came off as a very mature athlete, and I have full confidence that she will race well in the future. The pressure she has faced is unbelievable, and please try to image the stress of being favored that heavily. Part of being an elite elite is accepting things don't always go well. It shows maturity that she didn't completely lose it after one less than positive result.

*imagine

o.k. she had a bad day. time to move on, finish up school. then take a year off or maybe run the euro circuit hanging at hostels on weekdays. in the fall, move to mammoth.