Mo Trafeh Tunes Up for Trials With 1:01:39 Half in China

Epo_or_not wrote:

For the comparison with Ryan Hall: Hall trains at altitude, which usually indicates that the runner is NOT taking EPO. Mohammed Trafeh does not train at altitude and avoids training and running (prep) races where everyone knows he could get tested (in and out of comp).

Don't get me wrong. I don't like Hall for all his Jesus talk but I think Hall is clean.

Now you guys are just making stuff up. Mo Trafeh trains in Ifrane, which is at higher altitude than Boulder and obviously higher than Portland....

Monty Trufont FTMFW wrote:

If he was white and named Montgomery Trufont no one would have a problem with him and these accusations wouldn't exist.

Good thing no one ever says anything about any of Salazar's guys.

How am I an idiot?

You totally miss the point which is not surprising considering the people who have been posting in this thread.

The point I was making is that:

MANY SUCCESSFUL RUNNERS STRUGGLE WITH FINDING/RETAINING SPONSORSHIP. MO STRUGGLING TO FIND SPONSORSHIP HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM BEING 'SKETCHY'. IT'S BECAUSE SPONSORSHIP FOR OUR SPORT SUCKS.

If sponsorship was financially rewarding, similar to levels in other sports, our successful athletes (those on Olympic teams such as Meb and Sell), would not have to work any jobs.

Do you think NBA players who went to the Olympic games signed up for the Home Depot program? No, because they are financially secure due to their salary and sponsorships.

Do you understand yet? Is this hard to grasp?

We've always said we will allow doping discussions on LetsRun.com because we believe allowing the discussion makes the sport cleaner.

Solinsky offered to get tested more often after discussion about him, maybe Mo will as well.

I don't understand the logic that Trafeh has to be doping because he's not on the Out of Competition list. How does he control if he's on that list or not?

If he ran well at London he'd be on that list for sure.

But I think a good thing that could come out of this is that perhaps multiple US road race national champions should be on the out of competition list. People will cheat for just pride but there is a decent amount of money at stake at the US Champs.

So maybe we should urge USADA to put multiple US road champs on the list.

wejo wrote:

We've always said we will allow doping discussions on LetsRun.com because we believe allowing the discussion makes the sport cleaner.

so essentially you encourage these b.s. witchhunts based on nothing but jealous (and racist/ethnocentric?) speculation. and let's be frank, that's ALL THEY USUALLY ARE.

all these doping accusations stem from a bunch of whinging, no-talent losers who wasted years trying to run fast and didn't do anything but realize that they are, in fact, whinging, no-talent losers. So now they have to hide their newly-developed inferiority complexes under badges of speculation and finger-pointing.

And you encourage it. my, a fine website you've got going here.

Someone should invent micro sponsorships for no trafeh

Wejo, the stupidity evident in this thread by the posters is overwhelming.

It is clear by the posts that many can't seem to grasp that there is a lack of sponsorship opportunities for runners (even those who are successful at the highest levels of the sport). Mo not having a sponsor has nothing to do with being 'sketchy'.

It also boggles my mind how these posters cannot understand how runners often times (like yourself) have mediocre college careers and superb post-collegiate careers without the use of EPO. How would you respond to these peoples claims about being average in college and a great national level runner? If I read correctly from your articles you were in a very similar position to Mo (struggling in college and excelling after).

They also simply choose to overlook the fact that many top American runners have terrible college careers and then go onto excel on national and world stage. Remind me how many NCAA championships Webb won?

The posters also fail to realize that American athletes train overseas frequently (no one brought up Solinsky and crew in Switzerland).

Posters above like UTsA roadrunner come onto this thread and trash Mo, but without acknowledging the numerous other American athletes who have been in nearly the same position as Trafeh. When these posters are called out they don't back up their argument with any posts of substance.

I have no ties to or even know Trafeh but am simply sick of the obviously young and stupid posters on the site.

Houston 1/2 (US 1/2 champs): $12,000San Blas 1/2: 9th, likely little prize$ (maybe $1,000?) but possible appearanceGate River Run: $17,000 ($12,000 + $5,000 for Equalizer)Falmouth RR: 1st one out of the money- funny, they test here.Cow Harbor: $8000 ($3000+ $5000 bonus for breaking Hall's CR)Medtronic US 10mi Champs: $22,000 ($12,000 + $10,000 Equalizer)China 1/2: $??? i'm sure he didn't go for a good workout alone-So TrackCoach, why don't you enlighten us all with you math skills and do this addition so that we can see how it adds up to $30k/yr. Keep defending yuour boy, hey lots of ppl defended eddy too ;) yep, mo can't afford a few thousand in epo, that would break the bank buddy!ps. for those who don't want to add, it's AT LEAST twice TrackCoach's uninformed guess of $30k- not even counting what he's getting from NIKE- at least $5,000 per US road championship.

TrackCoach wrote:

Doping ain't free, it ain't cheap either!

Mo is only earning about $30G a year from running, unless he is getting free food and rent, he can't afford to dope.....What Mo has accomplished and way he has done it perhaps in this day and age deserves raising an eyebrow, but not accusations. Athletes are allowed to get better!

Mo not having a sponsor? since when little fella? the guys had nike since last year."many" top americans go overseas? yeah, for the european track season douchebag. then they come home. they go to flag, abq, or boulder for some altitude. here at home! not over in morocco where they are far less likely to get a surprise visit from usada. not that mo's in danger of that, apparently.Re: ncaa champs won. Webb? seriously? c'mon dude, tell me when trafeh ran a 3:53 equivalent in high school. yeah, that was a total fail on your part.finally, name one single american who has been in a "similar" situation to mo (unsponsored, running ~15min 5k's, 30flat 10k's, 1:06 1/2 marathons, etc) and gone on to success ont he leve trafeh has done in the last two years.yes, the stupidity of some posters is- overwhelming. touche!

I ran in the Gate River Run 15K back in 2009, and I remember hearing from a few of the other athletes a rumor about Mo Trafeh doping. I believe this was before he threw down anything indicative of him being one of the top runners in the country (he placed 12th that year). Obviously it's still a rumor, just interesting because it came out before he had any incredible performances.

Ok, he earned more than I thought, but he did not earn twice as much as I said. I forgot about the bundle he made from the USATF 10 mile champs. At the end of the day, his net income is probably around $30K...that's still not a lot to be investing in doping.

Have you ever thought maybe Mo has family, or friends in Morocco or other connections? Mo is not on the list to get tested out of season so it is irrelevant to where he would go.

The Webb comparison was having success in high school, moving to college and having mediocre success then moving onto post collegiate running and tearing it up. You can pick numerous other examples and the point will still stand.

As to another American you could pick a few. Our very own Wejo went from slower performances than you listed to running 28 flat 10k. Hall goes from a mediocre college career (compared to HS career) to 59 minutes.

Remember, Trafeh ran 29 minutes in highschool. To see that he was running 30 minutes in college suggests problems with motivation and coaching. His recent performances are in line with with what you would expect considering his highschool times.

Disagree with me all you want, but you have to acknowledge that his times he is running now are in line with what he did in high school. That is undeniable. Please, respond and tell me why his performances seem otherworldly now, especially considering his early success.

John Cook took his whole crew over to Mexico to train. People here thought that was about doping too (as if it isn't easy to dope in country anyway - how often did Lance test positive? How about Marion Jones?).I know there have been several American runners who trained in Kenya, of course primarily for the doping facilities available in such a country. Anyway, Trafeh is from Morocco so it's not absurd for him to train over there. He also seems unhappy about his college experience, so it's not really fair to take that as a baseline for his talent.

MT: To be honest, from my experience in college—after what happened--I cannot be coached anymore.

What happened at the University of Arizona?

MT: Well I did not have the results that I wanted to have. In high school I ran really, really fast times. I was better in high school than I was in college and that was because I did really good training. I was putting in the hard work and the mileage—whatever it took to be successful. [College] was a good experience. I made friends and everything, but as far as the running program goes, it was not made for me.

From doing a google search I found that Mo coached himself in highschool and ran ran 1:53 [800m], 3:49 [1500m], and 14:26 [5,000m] along with a 29:xx 10k.

So, my question still stands. Respond and tell me why his performances seem otherworldly now, especially considering his early success?

A highschooler coaching himself to those times and you are surprised when he runs 1:01:39 for a half marathon after college? Really?

Bob Kennedy trained with Kenyans overseas too. So according to the poster above that is suspicious. Do you think Kennedy was doping because he didn't want to train in the USA?

Bobby Curtis does a huge chunk of training in Australia every year.

None of the posters here knows whether Trafeh cheats or not, so this thread could just as easily be about any successful runner. All of the justification for accusation is speculation without foundation.

"he did not earn twice as much as i said" So you said $30k, below shows $59K, not including the San Blas race. that's about 98% of "twice as much" just admit you're wrong please.

TrackCoach wrote:

[quote]douchebags R us wrote:

Houston 1/2 (US 1/2 champs): $12,000

San Blas 1/2: 9th, likely little prize$ (maybe $1,000?) but possible appearance

Gate River Run: $17,000 ($12,000 + $5,000 for Equalizer)

Falmouth RR: 1st one out of the money- funny, they test here.

Cow Harbor: $8000 ($3000+ $5000 bonus for breaking Hall's CR)

Medtronic US 10mi Champs: $22,000 ($12,000 + $10,000 Equalizer)

China 1/2: $??? i'm sure he didn't go for a good workout alone-

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Ok, he earned more than I thought, but he did not earn twice as much as I said. I forgot about the bundle he made from the USATF 10 mile champs. At the end of the day, his net income is probably around $30K...that's still not a lot to be investing in doping.

The webb comparison is off base because 3:53 is a far cry from 29:HIGH. don't make it sound like 29min, when it's much closer to 30min. i'm not impressed by 30min.Weldon's 28flat is not even in the same zip code as 60:mid and multiple US road titles over big names, and he'll tell you that himself.Hall mediocre in college? wtf??? first three years i will give you, but 13:15 and a ncaa title to finish off is mediocre? are you high? apparently so.I will NEVER agree that his HS times are in line with what he is running now. there are TWO americans who went to HS here in the us who have run what Mo has run. there are DOZENS of high schoolers who were better than mo was in HS. it is rather impressive for him to have made sucha strong jump AFTER YEARS OF NO PROGRESSION. THAT is what is raising red flags for ppl. Non-linear progressions are nearly always suspect, therefore mo will have to deal with the stigma of being suspect, like it or not.

TLW wrote:

The Webb comparison was having success in high school, moving to college and having mediocre success then moving onto post collegiate running and tearing it up. You can pick numerous other examples and the point will still stand.

As to another American you could pick a few. Our very own Wejo went from slower performances than you listed to running 28 flat 10k. Hall goes from a mediocre college career (compared to HS career) to 59 minutes.

Disagree with me all you want, but you have to acknowledge that his times he is running now are in line with what he did in high school. That is undeniable. Please, respond and tell me why his performances seem otherworldly now, especially considering his early success.