Official The Track Meet 2020 Live Discussion Thread

Trying to find a solution but at 1pm today hotels close for all guests that are not “essential.”

Technically professional sporting events can still happen but this meet does not qualify. Barely a few of the participants could actually be called ‘professionals’ so it’s a slippery slope.

I’d say 50/50 as of now but there’s probably either a brown envelope being passed or someone is on their knees offering some other type of ‘gratuity’ to save tonight’s meet.

Of course if the owners of this site had any contacts within the running community they could probably get the inside scoop. But that’s asking a lot of the Brojos.

sport in decline wrote:

Trying to find a solution but at 1pm today hotels close for all guests that are not “essential.”

Technically professional sporting events can still happen but this meet does not qualify. Barely a few of the participants could actually be called ‘professionals’ so it’s a slippery slope.

I’d say 50/50 as of now but there’s probably either a brown envelope being passed or someone is on their knees offering some other type of ‘gratuity’ to save tonight’s meet.

Of course if the owners of this site had any contacts within the running community they could probably get the inside scoop. But that’s asking a lot of the Brojos.

Most athletes would be checked out by 1:00 anyway. SoCal sherriffs won't stop the event and Newsom is probably in Maui hanging out in Maui with LimoLib buddies laughing it up, so I say go forward and let healthy people run.

[/quote]

Most athletes would be checked out by 1:00 anyway. SoCal sherriffs won't stop the event and Newsom is probably in Maui hanging out in Maui with LimoLib buddies laughing it up, so I say go forward and let healthy people run.[/quote]

+1

No. Adidas had expectations which is why they signed him. But I have my own brain and so do you so we can form our own opinions. If adidas tells you that Hunter is going to run 12:45 next year, that doesn't change my opinion of how fast I think he can run. Sounds like it raises your expectations though.

You're certainly in the minority on this board, then. The overwhelming consensus when he ran 3:57 was that he was immensely talented. If you were clever enough to go against the grain on this, I commend you. But don't act like that's the average opinion on this board.

The Real Winner wrote:

No. Adidas had expectations which is why they signed him. But I have my own brain and so do you so we can form our own opinions. If adidas tells you that Hunter is going to run 12:45 next year, that doesn't change my opinion of how fast I think he can run. Sounds like it raises your expectations though.

So in your brain, you expect a guy being paid $0 to run to perform exactly the same as a guy being paid $1million to run?

Was Villarreal a rabbit in the 13:45 group 5k? His talent is entirely confined to mid distance so I’m surprised the ON group even let him run. They are taking a huge risk with him as a pro in comparison to their Klecker and Hoare signings.

Guy got swamped all 4 years in XC and bombed the 1500m both times he qualified for NCAAs. Think he was ranked #1 or 2 both times after running 3:37 in season and dropped a 4:11 in prelims. Coaches must have a hell of a lot of faith in his Pan Am 1500m victory.

running2begood wrote:

rare wrote:

I’m not sure if he did. If he was injured with Tinman, who doesn’t prescribe a lot of high intensity training from what I know, then I think he would have been perpetually injured in just about any top NCAA program. I doubt he would have a better contract after college than the one he’s currently on given that. Also, Tinman obviously isn’t a great pro-level coach, but for all we know Hunter would be injured right now with Bowerman. Maybe this is about as good as he can be.

if he was on bowerman he would have access to a lot better PT, chiropractors, ect. maybe he’d be less injured on bowerman.

s

Lots of Bowerman TC runners get injured also. Jager, Solinsky, Infeld come to mind as Bowerman runners who have missed significant time due to injury.

I doubt Nike/Bowerman were offering D. Hunter anything close to the kind of contract he got with adidas. And, for all we know, the happiness he gets from being part of Tinman and his overall situation may more than compensate for any doubts he may have about his times or improvement right now.

After Hunter signed his contract, SI reported he said “I’m just really excited to take a different route than most people,” “It’s unique and will have its learning curve but I’m ready for the adventure ahead."

He is still young and still has ~six more years to go as part of this different adventure. He has the flexibility (and financial security) to make changes or take a "different route" as he chooses.

Hunter is in a better situation than Teare , Grijalva or almost all other pros are likely to ever realistically get. He will be ok.

usnspecialist wrote:

rojo wrote:

Shouldn't Shelby lead this whole thing? I'm serious. Why in the hell is Lipari having to lead nay of this? Shelby should do these other women a favor and do ALL of the work.

Lead pack of 4. Big surprise is Dana Giordano. 909 at 3k.

why? Shelby knew that she and Cranny (her teammate) could get under the standard easily, why help everyone else and potentially hurt her other teammates who are not racing by giving them more competition at the trials next year. She doesn't owe anyone else in this field a damn thing.

No Schweizer? Is she injured?

People holding up 1M over 10 years as incredible money are overestimating it I think. That’s 100k a year, 10% going to agent so 90K a year, plus paying coach, probably 80K a year, and then getting taxes as though you got the full 100K (that is how t works unfortunately) and he’s probably looking at...35-40K a year? Until his late 20’s?? I’m not sure that’s such a killer deal

I don't base my expectations on how much somebody is getting paid. Track would not be much fun if we did because we rarely know how much runners make. And I guess I should expect the college guys to run slow because they don't get paid. College guys sometimes compete in the olympics. How much does Keira D'Amato get paid? If she gets sponsored tomorrow, you are telling me that you immediately expect that she will run faster. I look at her age and expect that she may have peaked. But you base your expectations of times on who a sponsor pays and how much. Maybe Quigley gets a big contract because she is attractive and can sell product. Maybe Hunter got a nice contract because he was signed as a high schooler which the sponsor thought would attract a young crowd.

The Real Winner wrote:

I don't base my expectations on how much somebody is getting paid. Track would not be much fun if we did because we rarely know how much runners make. And I guess I should expect the college guys to run slow because they don't get paid. College guys sometimes compete in the olympics. How much does Keira D'Amato get paid? If she gets sponsored tomorrow, you are telling me that you immediately expect that she will run faster. I look at her age and expect that she may have peaked. But you base your expectations of times on who a sponsor pays and how much. Maybe Quigley gets a big contract because she is attractive and can sell product. Maybe Hunter got a nice contract because he was signed as a high schooler which the sponsor thought would attract a young crowd.

It's really quite simple: If you are a professional runner, I expect that you will be faster than a collegiate runner. And, if you are paid in the top tier of professional runners (which I believe 100k per year is), then I expect you to be much faster.

This is the same as expecting an NFL quarterback to be better than the quarterback on my local pickup football team.

fghrunner wrote:

People holding up 1M over 10 years as incredible money are overestimating it I think. That’s 100k a year, 10% going to agent so 90K a year, plus paying coach, probably 80K a year, and then getting taxes as though you got the full 100K (that is how t works unfortunately) and he’s probably looking at...35-40K a year? Until his late 20’s?? I’m not sure that’s such a killer deal

It is pretty good for a pro runner, especially because it's guaranteed. Unfortunately most pro runners make peanuts.

The Real Winner wrote:

I don't base my expectations on how much somebody is getting paid. Track would not be much fun if we did because we rarely know how much runners make. And I guess I should expect the college guys to run slow because they don't get paid. College guys sometimes compete in the olympics. How much does Keira D'Amato get paid? If she gets sponsored tomorrow, you are telling me that you immediately expect that she will run faster. I look at her age and expect that she may have peaked. But you base your expectations of times on who a sponsor pays and how much. Maybe Quigley gets a big contract because she is attractive and can sell product. Maybe Hunter got a nice contract because he was signed as a high schooler which the sponsor thought would attract a young crowd.

Oh, and yes. If D'Amato were suddenly given 100k per year to rain, I would expect her to drop her PRs significantly, as now she can run as a full time job and wouldn't have to worry as much about money. She would also have significantly more resources to put towards PT, gear, travel, coaching, etc.

The days of amateurs dominating the running world are long gone. Is it really so absurd to say that professional runners (who have no other jobs) should be out-performing hobby joggers?

So now we know what you expect. Nobody cares just like nobody cares what I expect from professional or amateur runners. Why not move on now and just evaluate runners based on performance. Hunter is a great runner but it appears that Grijalva is a bit better. There are some better runners in the world but not very many. Hunter may become a sub 13 runner or he may not. I sort of hope that he gets fat and lazy for the last $500k of his contract. You will still be expecting him to run 13 flat based on what he is getting paid but all of the rest of us will know that a 200 pounder can't run that fast regardless of how much he is paid.

The Real Winner wrote:

So now we know what you expect. Nobody cares just like nobody cares what I expect from professional or amateur runners. Why not move on now and just evaluate runners based on performance. Hunter is a great runner but it appears that Grijalva is a bit better. There are some better runners in the world but not very many. Hunter may become a sub 13 runner or he may not. I sort of hope that he gets fat and lazy for the last $500k of his contract. You will still be expecting him to run 13 flat based on what he is getting paid but all of the rest of us will know that a 200 pounder can't run that fast regardless of how much he is paid.

Of course I am going to discuss my expectations for RUNNERS on a RUNNING forum. What's the fun in all this if I can't set my expectations far into the future? It's speculation. It's fun. It's why I'm here.

Yeah, he will be disappointing my expectations massively if he's 200 pounds for the last 5 years of his contract. There's nothing wrong with having expectations. I'm not saying anyone has to care.

And yes, Maton and Slagowski did disappoint my expectations. But, I can't really blame them because they were never really paid just to run.

Drew's career is pretty wild so far when you think about it. All his biggest pro achievements come with these weird caveats.

Indoor US 2-mile champion* (but did it from the slow heat)

World Championship 5k team* (but he actually finished 5th in the race)

13:17 for 5k* (but lost to 2 collegiate runners younger than him)

Here's what I think: He had a really bad foot injury and from what I understand quite a long layoff. Some guys never 100% come back from that kind of thing, others get trapped in a never ending injury cycle and fade away. So far he's been injury free since then and just ran a 5-sec 5k pr. I think it's unfair and premature to judge his training and his talent until after the spring track season. If he gets his doors blown off at the trials then we can talk.

Bonkers wrote:

Drew's career is pretty wild so far when you think about it. All his biggest pro achievements come with these weird caveats.

Indoor US 2-mile champion* (but did it from the slow heat)

World Championship 5k team* (but he actually finished 5th in the race)

13:17 for 5k* (but lost to 2 collegiate runners younger than him)

Here's what I think: He had a really bad foot injury and from what I understand quite a long layoff. Some guys never 100% come back from that kind of thing, others get trapped in a never ending injury cycle and fade away. So far he's been injury free since then and just ran a 5-sec 5k pr. I think it's unfair and premature to judge his training and his talent until after the spring track season. If he gets his doors blown off at the trials then we can talk.

My view is that Drew is incredibly talented, but is not served well by Tinman (injuries, underperforming).

Sounds like most of us are just much better at assessing talent and predicting future success than you are. I like Hunter but I think his performance was very good for him. You think he should be running 13 flat. I am not sure what you are seeing that the rest of us are not.