Parker Valby Claims She Is Learning About Tangents

You wrote two sentences which contradict one another.

So smarter tactics woukd have had her win? If not, then her tactics were the best because they resulted in a 2nd place finish. You always contradict yourself.

katelyn ran that race injured, she just forced coach henes to let her run coz her friends were running it

coach henes then shut her training down for 2 months

Horrible coach if true and you claim Valby has excuses.

Henes sounds like a poor coach. What was she thinking? And Tuohy is 20 years old so she has had a few opportunities to run a 3000. That hazy guy makes it sound like Tuohy is 14 and just ran her first 3000.

Another issue completely ignored is the tangent may be the shortest route but not the fastest. The ground may have been harder/better not next to the "rough" where the tangent may have led. It's not easy going from soft to hard ground as it could mess with one's rhythm. Just a thought on a few spots on the course that I could see.

Given her physical talent, all-around smarter tactics, if she were capable of executing them, would have significantly improved her chances but whether enough to get the win? We'll never know.

And? Meanwhile Tuohy has all the wins.

And different tactics likely would have resulted in a worse finish because there is only one better scenario while there are hundreds of worse ones.

Yep, seriously. Do any of you know what a tangent is?

Agreed. I was just talking about smarter tactics likely improving her chances of winning.

By letsrun standards if you aren’t running 90+ miles a week you are essentially a hobby jogger.

But you really don't agree because I am saying that other tactics would have only increased her chances of a worse finish.

I take her IG post as a good natured attempt at self deprecating humor, which I give her credit for. But damn, that video really shows how much distance she added to her course at that one turn alone.

I've done this myself, usually at a point in a race where I feel like I'm going to die and just am not thinking right. But at the elite level, it's an unforced error that can be a career breaker, or maker.

The good new is, it is an easily correctable problem. Or at least it should be.

I had a funny joke but not the guts to post it

No. Other tactics is not the same as smarter tactics. Smarter tactics is a subset of other tactics which includes tactics that aren't smarter of which there are many and would yield poorer outcomes for Valby in all likelyhood. In your original post, which I was directly responding to, you said SMARTER tactics, not OTHER tactics.

So true!!! Solinsky is better, he won 2 national cross championships, coached two runners to individual titles and has coached 20+ runners to all-american status .. yup hes such a good coach and has produced so bright runners that run really smart too!

I say that there are no smarter tactics that she could have employed and I am her biggest fan. This was her absolute best strategy. Tuohy was going to beat her and she could only go further backward with a change in tactics. Every Tuohy fan will confirm this which means she and Tuohy were the smartest tacticians in the race.

If she has the mindset and patience to handle it, how about sit on Tuohy, conserve energy, and make a mover closer to the finish? How would that be expected to give her a worse result? Front running from very early on is not the best strategy to win unless you are clearly superior.