Centro American Record Attempt - 7/24

Simply a weak reply. Hicham won gold. Do you understand? He also ran 3:27 in Zurich. You make no sense. They cannot both win gold.

Jackington wrote:

So not a PB effort

I'm skipping a lot of your post, but does this point matter at all? If I were to run a PR, would that be greater "effort" than a bad race, or a race 1 second slower? You can't possibly claim that there's significantly more recovery required when running 3:26.34 vs 3:27.40. Both races were almost certainly "all out." If anything the PR effort probably felt easier.

Farmers Almanac wrote:

Troothsayer wrote:

He has nothing to lose. He has the super spikes and he is not getting any younger. Why not?

I would say he’s got more than “nothing” to lose, Are Tim or Jakob gonna suddenly be scared if he runs 3:48? I suppose if he actually gets the AR it would mean something, but I don’t see him doing that now. His best bet is to keep his cards close to the vest and be more of a mystery heading into Tokyo.

I’m also old-school in my belief at focusing one thing at time. We are 10 days out from the Games, don’t be experimenting with Jerry-certified time trials

dude already has a WC silver and bronze medal and an Olympic gold medal.

has nothing to lose, not saying it's a good decision for his olympic chances. But why not go for the american record if he is fit and already has a gold medal in what will certainly be a lackluster olympic atmosphere.

He might even know something about he Tokyo Olympics COVID situation we don't. Maybe they aren't even certain the races will be held?!

Or he is planning on retiring after the olympics...?

so much speculation, i know.

i love this thread because it seems that so many Letsrun posters here only give runners credit for their fastest times.

"WR's are more impressive for a legacy than gold medals"... "Who is the best american 1500m runner ever" etc type of conversations all hinge around fastest times. Mo Farah is one of the most dominant olympic/WC runners we've ever seen but didn't run fast enough times, blah blah blah...

BUT here is Centro potentially going for the fast time, to beat our American record holder, who was a miserable championship racer, and everyone is concerned for his chances at an olympic medal instead of him running that fast time.

it's incredible how humans hold opposite philosophies in their own minds and don't realize them. We're doomed.

round and round wrote:

i love this thread because it seems that so many Letsrun posters here only give runners credit for their fastest times.

"WR's are more impressive for a legacy than gold medals"... "Who is the best american 1500m runner ever" etc type of conversations all hinge around fastest times. Mo Farah is one of the most dominant olympic/WC runners we've ever seen but didn't run fast enough times, blah blah blah...

BUT here is Centro potentially going for the fast time, to beat our American record holder, who was a miserable championship racer, and everyone is concerned for his chances at an olympic medal instead of him running that fast time.

it's incredible how humans hold opposite philosophies in their own minds and don't realize them. We're doomed.

Correct. Many of these posters want to feel smarter than Centro and Jerry so they play armchair quarterback and want to second guess them, which makes them feel important. Centro is NOT the gold medal favorite and the odds are he would not medal no matter what he did this year. Then some of these folks will feel vindicated when he doesn’t medal. Absurd on so many levels. Of course I am not immune from being absurd, like all humans.

I’m already tired of watching rowing. Can’t wait to see this AR attempt.

The idea that he won’t recover from this is ridiculous. If he wasn’t doing this he would be doing some 3x800 workout at faster than race pace. Do you guys think an Olympic 1500 taper is just running easy and playing video games?

anonymous wasp wrote:

Allow me to make a few points-

Centro is arguably the greatest American miler ever. To get the AR in the event takes the arguably out of it and just makes him the greatest we’ve ever had. Period. It’s the only thing he doesn’t have on his resume.

He’s in great shape after several years injured and this is likely his best/ last shot at the record.

He needs an Olympic tune up and he can do this without any travel or hassle.

I think this is a great move for him. I actually think with good pacing (which bowerman consistently nails) he has a tremendous shot at the record and I would wager he runs between 3:45 high and 3:47 mid.

^^This is it. He needs the record to separate himself from the American Miler Pack of Lagat, Webb, Ryun, Scott, Spivy, et al.

He’s on the wrong side of 3:30 although his 1500 pr is slightly faster than Webb... Still well behind Lagat.

Centro needs to mentally dial in his splits and goal time... He has a tendency to lock in the splits and time that get him right up to the goal without breaking through the barrier... 4:04 in high school and 13:00 last season. That’s basically 3:59 and 12:59... He needs to mentally focus, dial past the barrier and smash through the wall.

He can do it!

He can do whatever he wants, can't take away the gold. Still don't think he can hold a candle to Ryun.

Go run one of Jerry's set up time trials, pretend it's a real race, i guess at least the distance is accurate. Call it a record if he gets it, fake news. Ryun for the win.

Troothsayer wrote:

pre maturing wrote:

Well, I guess you have raced at that high of a level. Just one question "why has no one else ever done this before?"

The ignorance here is astounding. Why has nobody done what before? So Centro is time trialing a mile on July 24 and then the Olympic final is August 7th?

As one example, in 2004 Bernard Lagat ran 3:27 in Zurich on August 6th and In Athens he got the Olympic Silver Medal on August 24th. So we are talking 2.5 weeks for Lagat vs 2 weeks for Centro? And some of you clowns are acting as if something unprecedented is going on? Really?

Again, I don't think anyone is saying it is a "big deal" in terms of taking a lot of energy out of the runner. It just seems strange. I think you are comparing apples and oranges to that 2004 Zurich race. Zurich of course was a major meet. Not some made up on the spot time trial at Jesuit high school. Furthermore, the Olympics were in Athens that year. So same time zone and the athletes had already gotten their travel out of the way.

But then again, maybe that holds the clue as to why Centro is doing this. Centro could have gone to Europe to race early in July, but maybe that was too close on the heals of the Trials. Plus, it would have meant a lot of traveling to Europe and back, then all the way to Japan.

I can’t find the thread now, but when it was posted that Centro would be going after a “sub-3:50” mile, I commented on how stupid the attempt was and that it would be way cooler if he went for a sub-3:30 1500m. That was a decent take with the info I had, but now that I know it’s an AR attempt, I take it all back. This is very cool. I think he can get it.

Centro must feel he is very fit right now if he is making this AR attempt and advertising it. He must be confident he can at least get close. Are we going to be able to watch this live? Can't wait to see how this turns out.

3:30

3:50

and 13:00

are really unfortunate PRs

pre maturing wrote:

He can do whatever he wants, can't take away the gold. Still don't think he can hold a candle to Ryun.

Go run one of Jerry's set up time trials, pretend it's a real race, i guess at least the distance is accurate. Call it a record if he gets it, fake news. Ryun for the win.

Strange opinion. It's not like the Brasschaat race where Webb ran his AR was that big or competitive. Setting up a time trial shouldn't seem all that different from getting into a race where 2nd is 3:56.

1 9189 Webb Alan USA 3'46.91 00

2 9080 Smith Max NZL 3'56.46 00

3 9215 Myett Gareth NZL 3'57.46 00

4 9169 Summerside Seth USA 3'57.84 00

5 1311 TASAMA FAISA Dame* RFCL 3'58.74 Sen 87

6 9214 Sherer Steve USA 4'07.31 00

- 9188 Surrum Samson NA 00

- 9187 Youcef Abdi NA 00

- 9190 Fountain Mark AUS NA 00

This thread has a couple main talking points.

1. Is there enough time for him to recover for the olympics?

The answer is YES! Of course 2-3 day and he will be ready to go again. Athletes at this level bounce back super quick.

2. Is Centro the best American miler/1500m runner ever?

While he has an impressive championship racing record, to be the best you have to be the fastest. So this is what is required for him to be the undisputed greatest.

3. Why is he doing this?

With Cheruiyot in the race and with his style of racing it is almost certainly going to go out fast. This is most likely a preparation for that quick pace from the gun, unlike how he needed to prepare for the trials, or other races which were almost certainly going to be tactical. Finally, I think because he was dating Houliburrito, oops I mean Houlihan, he was jealous of her American record and wanted his own.

4. Can he break the record?

First off hopefully he wouldn't be hyping this up if he didn't think he could do it. Also I would love to see a fast race and the record broken. However I predict a 3:47.xx-3:50.xx

anonymous wasp wrote:

Allow me to make a few points-

Centro is arguably the greatest American miler ever. To get the AR in the event takes the arguably out of it and just makes him the greatest we’ve ever had. Period. It’s the only thing he doesn’t have on his resume.

He’s in great shape after several years injured and this is likely his best/ last shot at the record.

He needs an Olympic tune up and he can do this without any travel or hassle.

I think this is a great move for him. I actually think with good pacing (which bowerman consistently nails) he has a tremendous shot at the record and I would wager he runs between 3:45 high and 3:47 mid.

Wow, some real optimistic prognostications on this thread. I would be shocked if he goes faster than 3:49. I would say he has no chance at the record and will likely be closer to 3:50.

career wrote:

3:30

3:50

and 13:00

are really unfortunate PRs

So unfortunate that you can probably count less than 20 runners in history who have managed this.

This whole thread is too much yip yap

In just over 50 hours we will have our answer