Before you mention it, yes, Rogers had the AR in the marathon which has since been bettered. As an athlete I'd sooner have a big string of major wins than a fast time in the record books. Times get beaten, medals are forever.
Also, the tone of malmo's comments seem very un-malmo like. Either this malmo is an imposter or he pissed in his own cornflakes this morning.
malmo wrote:
The problem here is that the Letsun crowd is like a bunch of little kids in a pee-wee soccer game -- they all run directly to the ball without any awareness of what's going on.
Whether or not a runner runs great, poorly or "just right" in any particular race there is little perspective to the overall picture.
Look at the reactions to Manzano's race. I mean the guy just ran 3:33 and these twits are already writing him off becasue he had a bad day. Solinsky had a great race and that somehow morphed to "embarrassing" or even an "off" day. It was neither.
This is dead on. Everything in this thread malmo has said has been clear and not antagonistic, but instead others have refused to look at the point realistically.
Think about it this way... if Solinsky had run those exact same times in reverse order how would everyone have reacted to each one. And no the 13:08 was not a bad day because he was in the race up until the beginning of the last lap and that time was not run in anything close to the conditions the real fast European races will be at.
So the second 5000 is 12 seconds slower than the first 5000 but becomes a great performance because it makes a good looking stat?
Is American soil a slower kind of substance than European soil?
Like clay vs grass tennis courts.
Think of it like the World Cup. If you blow it at the Olympics, you wait four years. Even setting records in between won't completely make up for it. El G wasn't as respected until he finally medalled. World Records and medals....those are the two highest categories a runner can ascend.
My gosh George (Malmo), what a short memory you have.
Ritz last summer was equally as good or better:
6th - World Championships 10k - 27:22.28 (in the heat)
3rd - Weltklasse Meeting 5k - 12:56.27 (American Record)
3rd - World Half Marathon Championship - 1:00:00
And in bigger, more important races.
In 2000 malmo made some strong statements about a coach on the old TnFmedia.com site, and several things he said were out of line. I pointed out the errors, and he actually conceded (a bit).I think he's right on this one too.
andre dawson wrote:
malmo has never been wrong since the inception of internet tnf boards.
doesnt kennedys longevity make him a bit better along with his placings? A decade later US guys should be running faster than him so dont play out the PR's being the whole story. If you want to go back Jim Ryun likely had some good streaks of his own in the 1500/800 but because AJ Acosta ran faster yesterday then some of those runs should that negate that?
Malmo is the robin ficker of the message board.
Yes, I forgot about Ritzenhein. You win.
malmo wrote:
'Why does a medal matter? Very few individuals will ever medal in a major athletic event. Those that don't get medals aren't any less outstanding (except to the pimple-popping crowd)
'
ukathleticscoach wrote:
I can't believe you wrote that
I can't believe that you would have deliberately omitted the post to which I was responding? Surely it was an oversight?
gwalkerruns wrote:
Think of it like the World Cup. If you blow it at the Olympics, you wait four years. Even setting records in between won't completely make up for it. El G wasn't as respected until he finally medalled. World Records and medals....those are the two highest categories a runner can ascend.
Yes world records and Olympic Medals are the highest categories an athlete can achieve. If El Guerrouj wasn't respected until he got his gold, then those who disrespected him have warped priorities and a very hollow view of athletics.
I must run in different circles than you? I don't know anyone who wasn't in awe of El Guerrouj.
The area records are cool little statistical sidenotes and well that's pretty much it. So important for curiosity's sake but that's it. But since area records don't come up on athlete contracts or in prize money or in end of year rankings by either the IAAF or TFN or letsrun, it is NOT important. I think Malmo put it up there since he needed a cool little stat near the 13:08. He won't be able to give a reason why it's important I am afraid.
Like so many have suggested, we have to be overreacting right now. Solinsky has had an incredible summer, for sure, but he's more Alan Webb than Bob Kennedy at this point. I think his next 10k will be much more of an indicator, especially with all the talk about Solinsky potentially being able to run much faster in his AR race.
I agree Chris is having a great season, but to say it is better than some of the seasons Virgin, Webb, Ryun, Marty, Sidney or even Krum put together is bit much. With only 2 performances in the tier 1 category and no national title, no Olympic or WC final is perhaps giving Chris a little more than he has earned. Although, I think Chris has not peaked and will have even better seasons than he is already having.
Interesting that Kennedy never cracked 13:00 again, especially given his fast 3000m times in 1997-98 (with a PR in '98). Only 34 runners in history have gone faster than his PR of 7:30.84.
The guy was very good AND very consistent.
Any objective person would have countered Solinsky's 10k with Kennedy's 7:31 and concluded they canceled each other out. Instead, Malmo (who probably has a Chrisk Solinksy poster hanging in his basement) gave Solinksy the 10K edge with no mention of Kennedy's 3K
Mrr82 wrote:
Malmo, while i think it's pathetic people are bashing on Solinsky for this race...i also think it's amazing and a great sign...
How long ago would a 13:08 have got everyone off their chair celebrating like crazy? It's an amazing change of events where a 13:08 is a let down. Most years in the past decade+, a 13:08 would have been the fastest time of the year.
Yeah...he is only 31 seconds off the world record running a 13:08. No reason to bash him at all.
Chuck Finley wrote:
Yeah...he is only 31 seconds off the world record running a 13:08. No reason to bash him at all.
This is why Letsrun is one of the more pathetic online communities (which is no surprise, since runners are one of the most pathetic IRL communities). You miserable ****s just want to whine and bash. He's running better than almost anyone who was ever born in our country, and yet you choose to bash him instead. Fortunately, your opinions are essentially worthless, since it's clear your goal is to simply search for something that proves the athlete in question isn't the most amazing athlete in the history of anything that's ever happened and point it out as a failure.
You are the reason why people don't respect runners.
Concerning on-line communities, is LetsRun worse than sites like Fling and other sites like that? There is a bunch of BS that goes on here, but I would hardly say it is worse than many of the other sites, if not as bad even.
Most of the people here do enjoy running, and enjoy some of a lot of humor here. If it upsets you when some anonymous poster trashes someone else ... maybe just ignore it. Chris Solinsky on remarkable stretch. If someone disses him but not true ... than not true and get over it. You know what is true.
malmo wrote:
I can't believe that you would have deliberately omitted the post to which I was responding? Surely it was an oversight?
what difference would that make...all that post (which i made) said was it was far more important for him to win a medal than to string together a bunch of times around his pr
theres not that big a difference between a 12:56 guy and a 12:53 guy, there is a big difference between a 12:56 guy with hardware and anyone without it...regardless of PR
our sport revolves around medals...id much rather see him run 13:10s all year then bust out at the world championships for a top 3 finish than have him run 10 races at 12:56 and end up 7th when it matters...
malmo wrote:
And yet Solinsky's last three races were all better than Kennedy's best over his entire career. I'm told he was wearing cement shoes at Pre, making it even more impressive.
I guess 12:58 is slower than 13:08...
fsdfa wrote:
I guess 12:58 is slower than 13:08...
he meant slower than the best 3 race series kennedy ever put together genius