Deena --PLEASE RETIRE

Uh, alluring to former top pros, as evidenced by the number of them drawn to it. You don't have to like it, little boy, but that's how it is. Who gives a shit what you give a shit about?

Incredulous wrote:

Red Glare wrote:

Yeah, because masters competition is so alluring.

Alluring to whom? You? Who gives a shit what you like?

Precious Roy wrote:

Women's marathons can be more tactical. So, it is not necessarily a prerequisite that the top women must be ready to throw down a 2:20 to win.

"London suits me because I love to race hard from the start and I prefer races which aren't as tactical and you just go out as hard as you can.

Are you paying attention? We are talking about Deena. Read your comment and read what Deena had to say in her Pre-London interview. Deena said she prefers non tactical marathons.

Here it is wrote:

It never surprises me how quickly you ding dongs write someone off after a few bad races.

Yeah, two years of not being a threat to win is far too short to make any conclusions.

Deena needs to start being honest with herself and stop setting herself up for failure, over and over again. This is why there is an 8 page thread ragging on her. Joan did it right, downplaying herself on the career downslope.

"London suits me because I love to race hard from the start and I prefer races which aren't as tactical and you just go out as hard as you can.

Are you paying attention? We are talking about Deena. Read your comment and read what Deena had to say in her Pre-London interview. Deena said she prefers non tactical marathons.

What do you think she is going to say at the press conference for London? "I hate flat, fast courses because I am not as fast as I used to be and need a tactical race."

That is why she ran London instead of Boston you idiot. Boston had money set aside for an American female but Kara and Shalane did not want to run a marathon this spring. Deena made the choice to run London because she felt it better dealt with her strengths.

As someone who proudly and fondly knew Deena, I'm sure she's at the very least heard of this thread or others and even if she did not, has probably received at least the whisperings of this kind of talk.

When you are that as good as she has been, you have also long learned how to manage this talk emotionally. It is a fact of the sport and you eventually realize none will ever be satisfied no matter what you do and so this doesn't really stir up, or bite quite as bad as some might hope....

..but on another note, if she IS reading this, I'll be the first to say that the twilight end of one's career at this level ends pretty well. At least it did for me. I went through a year of denial (injuries, age), then anger, then depression. Then I found REAL peace (no pressures). I disappeared from everyone about two years. Then when I reemerged a more typical citizen, everyone treated me like a superstar anyway. I was shocked when I ran a race and some kid smacked me down so hard and I ran almost two minutes slower in a 5k, then I was walking to my car and he and his family wanted to get a picture with me and he looked at me as if I had just won Boston in a course record. I saw that my career was continuing to inspire people long after it was dead.

Even better, once I assimulated into a real job, I found that I possessed beyond average mental skills from my career and I moved very quickly up the social mobility chain. I had a really easy time getting dates. Best of all, in my hometown community I make a real difference in their lives. Lots of hometown kids believe it can happen to them, too and I stop to really talk to people with all the caring in the world.

I realized I had learned humility, confidence, planning and unwillingness to surrender on a totally different level than most in my profession and my life totally rocks now.

So Deena, aside from the fact that you will retire a millionaire, life beyond all this that awaits you is grand!!! (..Grander! )

maybe the designer drugs they were taking are now being tested

this is a good reason for her to retire

on the other hand, paula is still trying to come back

maybe the two of them are trying to develop a new concoction that is not yet being tested

Red Glare wrote:

Uh, alluring to former top pros, as evidenced by the number of them drawn to it. You don't have to like it, little boy, but that's how it is. Who gives a shit what you give a shit about?

Quite a few of them are drawn to it, as evidenced by the fast masters times in major marathons. fewer than in open categories but the money is lower and many of them don't feel they can compete.

I'm pretty sure Deena can figure out for herself what is alluring to her and what is not. She doesn't need your help, thanks so much.

we all age wrote:

Deena needs to start being honest with herself and stop setting herself up for failure, over and over again. This is why there is an 8 page thread ragging on her. Joan did it right, downplaying herself on the career downslope.

There is an 8 page thread ragging on her because this board is full of know-nothing, adolescents who actually believe they are in a position to tell Deena Kastor what she should do in her career.

I am amused by all those concerned about Deena tarnishing her legacy by continuing to run past her prime. A few questions: Who was the greatest base stealer in baseball history? Answer: Rickey Henderson, played into his forties. Ask anyone in Detroit who the greatest hockey player of all time was. When did he quit? Ask any layman who the greatest baseball player of all time was, 99% will say Babe Ruth. I guess hanging around a bit past his prime didn't hurt his legacy, did it?

These are just a few examples. You do what you want in life because it makes you happy. I hope she runs for many more years and racks up a bunch of top 10's....just to piss off the losers on this site.

We should all be like Johnny Kelley. Won Boston in 1935 and 1945 and ran a few more over the years.

Thanks to All wrote: She has put herself in a tough spot. If she doesn't run a sub 2:24 in NY the doubters will have even more ammo and she will drop another 10 points in the popularity contest. If you don't think that the popularity contest is important, then you don't know what her appearance money is for.

Now here's the most compelling argument yet: Deena should stop accepting appearance money to race, because if she has another bad race, she could hurt her ability to earn future appearance money?

Good thinking, boss.

Some posts need to be removed from this board because they simply speak to a level of stupidity so deeply disturbing and offensive that they need no further comment. I would hope that the Brothers Johnson would take "ofcourseshefinished's" last comment off the forum.

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If you are trolling, go somewhere else to post your bigoted comments; if you are a fan of running and have any semblance of civility you'll keep your comments to the theme and your hate-filled comments compounding a stereotype off the boards. There are plenty of other sites to support any prejudice in which you care to indulge. I think there is even a runnersarentrealathletes.com site, a iamabigotcowardhidingbehindanalias.net and even a mycommentsaddnovaluetoathreadissingagreatchampion.com

I LOVE YOU DEENA- I am 47 yrs young and still dream of crossing the finish line at Boston someday. Ever since I was 13 yrs old running the backroads and power lines in my home town, I will always dream of being an elite runner. Deena, and the likes of her continue those dreams for me. Watching her and the other American elites always remind me of why "running" IS the greatest sport in the world..no matter how fast you are or are not. The memories are forever. I love the optimism that folks post about their support of Deena. She's truly amazing, and the next time you witness a girls high school xc-country meet, you just may be witnessing the next Deena. America Running IS at an all time high right now. We all should be proud and absorb these moments in history. I dont know who the runner was that knew Deena while running, but I pray you are still running and "Yes" you are always an inspiration to us all....even the middle of the pack runners like myself. God Bless you.

Do as you please Deena. Any suggestion otherwise is a bunch of sinky stuff.

Deena does not have to be done but she does need to train differently.

THE HALF MARATHON DURING MARATHON TRAINING PRESENTS A PROBLEM.

The rust buster theory has all kinds of built in problems. If you run poorly it hurts your mindset going into the marathon. This is why Hall decided to abandon his last hal marathon attempt going into Boston.

If your training is done properly with no taper for a rust buster then you run flat and you start to question your readiness for the marathon.

Most coaches know this and do a mini taper which hurts the marathon training.

It is fairly obvious that this is what happened with Deena. Her half marathon in NY helped her confidence at the cost of hurting her marathon training.

Khalid Khannouchi would always run a rust buster half marathon so slow that everyone would count him out for his upcoming marathon. It proved to be nothing more than proper training.

Deena has had 4 years of not running very fast for the marathon. I am sure that Mahon wanted to give her the necessary confidence to know that she has not lost it. So he over tapered her for the rust buster.

This same thing happened to Kara last summer where she ran 68 minutes for the Chicago half marathon and then had a tough time breaking 2:28 in Berlin.

Hansons talk about this all the time. They think that it is counterproductive to run a half marathon during marathon training. Josh Cox talked about it during the Universal Sports broadcast of London and agreed but said that it is difficult to give up the pay day.

I have always run a tune-up race just because I thought I was supposed to but never really gained much from the experience. I may rethink my own way of doing things. Who said that you can't learn anything from Letsrun?

This is the best thread that I have ever read on this board. It took me 15 minutes to go through it all and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am a Deena fan and I also wish that she would change her role in the sport as she is no longer our top female marathoner. She has no chance of winning in New York but I will still respect her body of work.