Jurgis Rudkus wrote:
Anybody know why there aren't any East Africans running this race? With the relative dearth of high-level 10,000s nowadays it seems like some would want to take advantage of the opportunity to get a fast time.
The Kenyan Trials are in June. If you don't already have the time you can't run then so that removes the top Kenyan guys.
This usually is a low-mid 27 minute race. Thus it isn't fast enough to attract most of the top East African guys.
This race usually gets 2nd tier Africans and top tier everyone else. That's because the top tier everywhere else usually is in the 27 minute range which this race usually is.
This year on the American side the top tier doesn't have to run it as they minus Ritz already have qualifiers.
If you want to run 27:10-27:45 this is a great race. A 26:40 race in Europe doesn't help you.
On the other hand, if you want to run 26 something you'll usually pass on this race. Most of the "A" level top Africans are in that group.
So there is a reason all the top non-Africans run this and the top Africans pass. I'd love to see this race get some money and the top Africans as the weather is so great in Stanford. Instead this is the Super Bowl of 10k for everyone else.