Some guy in the press says, "Hall is no Meb," and way too many people get in a twist about it.
All sorts of PBs are thrown out to demonstrate the absurdity. Others spew out that the writer needs to be a runner in order to properly comment on the sport, the writer is an ass, the writer is in a tizzy about Hall and stewing over some other comment Hall made, blah, blah, blah.
This writer has no axe to grind about Hall. He doesn't have to be a runner/coach to comment on a facet of the sport...especially on his actual point as I think it's fairly obvious to anyone with some observation skills. He's a sports writer merely pointing out something between two American running competitors for the sake of reporting sport...much like I see every day on sport talk shows.
To me, the statement's intent seems obvious and what the writer really means is that Hall does not have the competitive drive that Meb has; and that seems legitimate to me. For instance, in NY, Meb rolls through 20 miles on 2:06 pace...a time he has never even sniffed before. But, he keeps driving it until he physically can't handle it anymore, pulls over to puke, and still clocks a PB.
In contrast, Hall rolls through 13 miles on 2:06 pace in Chicago, then drops gack, out of the lead pack, presumably thinking he's might blow up further down the road and he still wants to clock a decent time.
As for the PBs and accolades...sure, Hall is a more talented runner, with faster times. But this writer is correct in essentially pointing out that quite often, Hall will not contend, will not continue to roll with the leaders regardless of what 'might' happen. Rather, Meb showed that he will continue to run what most would call a suicide pace for him. Smart? Perhaps not. But it's probably the only way an American with running chops like Hall has, is ever going to find out if they have what it takes to actually win one of these major marathons.
This writer, Phil, doesn't care about some sort of twitter back-and-forth with Hall and I'm near positive he's not stewing about something Hall said. If anything, maybe the writer also thinks that a little twitter war will stay in the back of Hall's head during the next half point of a marathon race and maybe Hall will be thinking, "I'll show that Phil guy..."
LOL, maybe, given Hall's apparent disposition to actually pay attention to this stuff, it is exactly what he needs to push his limitations...maybe those limitations are not what he thinks they are. Right now, he'll never know because it seems he keeps himself well within that line.