London race director already making excuses for Bekele:"Kenenisa has not always been able to train in the way he would normally"

lol asif the lockdown only affected Bekele... I get it was difficult over there but it didn't help him putting on so much weight...

Bekele DNF by Mile 21, only going for appearance fee

It is easy to mock someones running during a civil war when trolls can safely jog around their mom's basements. I'd like to drag most of the posters here out of the basements and get them to try and run in the hotspot areas of the war and see how long it is before they stop and beg to be returned home. The race director is talking about all the previous times he ran in London where he wasn't prepared. This year is much different. It is the longest he has been injury free since before he started running the thon

Bekele doesn't owe you or anyone anything. He is a world class athlete. Its not like they picked him up out of nowhere to run London .

For all i know he can run 1 minute into the marathon and stop if that's his decision.

Would i be mad about that ? Of course. But who am i? I am just a spectator

You think this is the end of the road for him? Maybe retirement soon?

Nahhh he's playing so Kipchoge underrates him. He will sit just behind Kipchoge and the leading pack for much of the race, before starting a magistral winning kick 6 miles before the finish line. Kipchoge won't know how to react and it will mess with his mental state and he'll lose.

Average High School Runner wrote:

You think this is the end of the road for him? Maybe retirement soon?

On one hand I think it'd be silly to say retirement after running 1.01.41 just last year, but his Marathon performances are patchy and I think it comes down to his mindset/willingness to push on at this age.

Maybe another crack at a fast HM(?) but he doesn't seem as 'in the game' anymore

NaughtyF$$$er wrote:

Nahhh he's playing so Kipchoge underrates him. He will sit just behind Kipchoge and the leading pack for much of the race, before starting a magistral winning kick 6 miles before the finish line. Kipchoge won't know how to react and it will mess with his mental state and he'll lose.

1) When has Bekele ever *not* front-run in a road race? He only does well when he leads

2) If anyone in the world knows how to react it would be Eliud (see: Berlin 2017 vs Adola, or London 2019 vs Geremew)

BYEkele wrote:

NaughtyF$$$er wrote:

Nahhh he's playing so Kipchoge underrates him. He will sit just behind Kipchoge and the leading pack for much of the race, before starting a magistral winning kick 6 miles before the finish line. Kipchoge won't know how to react and it will mess with his mental state and he'll lose.

1) When has Bekele ever *not* front-run in a road race? He only does well when he leads

2) If anyone in the world knows how to react it would be Eliud (see: Berlin 2017 vs Adola, or London 2019 vs Geremew)

not really, in both his Berlin races, he only took the lead in the last few kms

BYEkele wrote:

NaughtyF$$$er wrote:

Nahhh he's playing so Kipchoge underrates him. He will sit just behind Kipchoge and the leading pack for much of the race, before starting a magistral winning kick 6 miles before the finish line. Kipchoge won't know how to react and it will mess with his mental state and he'll lose.

1) When has Bekele ever *not* front-run in a road race? He only does well when he leads

2) If anyone in the world knows how to react it would be Eliud (see: Berlin 2017 vs Adola, or London 2019 vs Geremew)

Speaking of, that whole Adola deal didn’t age very well. Whatever happened to him?

honestly, i haven't read anything right before bekele's 2:01:41 in berlin that his training went well. but he dropped the bummer. nice surprise. perhaps he is in a good shape, perhaps not. who knows.

is there any need for him to prove his greatness? of course kipchoge does not need to prove it as well.

Banana Bread wrote:

since before he started running the thon

Heh heh, heh heh. He said "thon." Heh heh, heh heh.

Banana Bread wrote:

It is easy to mock someones running during a civil war when trolls can safely jog around their mom's basements. I'd like to drag most of the posters here out of the basements and get them to try and run in the hotspot areas of the war and see how long it is before they stop and beg to be returned home. The race director is talking about all the previous times he ran in London where he wasn't prepared. This year is much different. It is the longest he has been injury free since before he started running the thon

right.

i'm sick of haters spoiling these boards, and life in general

and contributing nothing but bad vibes.

its sick

NaughtyF$$$er wrote:

Nahhh he's playing so Kipchoge underrates him. He will sit just behind Kipchoge and the leading pack for much of the race, before starting a magistral winning kick 6 miles before the finish line. Kipchoge won't know how to react and it will mess with his mental state and he'll lose.

I'll hold.this against you.

We'll see each other on Sunday.

BYEkele wrote:

Average High School Runner wrote:

You think this is the end of the road for him? Maybe retirement soon?

On one hand I think it'd be silly to say retirement after running 1.01.41 just last year

Thank you. Dude was *claps* that close to taking Kipchoge's marathon WR.

He's not toast quite yet.

Although he did talk about how he just wants to have a few more world-class races before riding off into the sunset. I honestly think he'll hit the Toyko games, then call it quits.

5/10

Kenenisa is just such sort of a runner, that you'll never know what shape he's in. He hardly knows himself. His career is scattered with big breakthroughs, but also big blow ups, so at this point one just learns to never write him off. Marathon provides few racing options and doesn't really suit him, as each mistake is costly. At the same time I believe that he could be really good at racing 3-4 marathons per year, as they did in the past. Not as fast as 2:02-2:03, of course. Kenenisa is not a meticulous performer. He's a journeyman runner and a genius one, so love him for what he's worth.

Idk this quote just reads as a comment on the pandemic -- not necessarily his fitness. I mean, it's Bekele. He's either going to win or DNF but you can bet he'll go with the pace until he can't. This little "article" was set up to say that the pandemic affected the training of elite athletes to be relatable to all of us who have had our lives thrown out of whack. Maybe later this week he'll sandbag at an actual press event but we don't and won't know how fit he is until raceday.

I'm hoping we get the best version of KB. I want to see him go H2H against Kipchoge. We missed having them duel it out in Berlin last fall and the two of them put together identical days in back to back years on that course. I would say conditions were less ideal for Bekele. I'm just hoping for a good race. Not trying to read too much into fluff pieces and quotes. They're all gonna say they're fit over the next few days. They'll all say it was tough to train through the pandemic if questions are phrased in that manner.

Bekele always has an excuse, even when he runs well.

Always at 80% or didn't train blah blah. After saying things like this the last 10 yrs it seems perhaps what he calls 80% is in fact his maximum. All athletes at that level have to deal with training, injury , motivation etc.

BYEkele wrote:

lol asif the lockdown only affected Bekele... I get it was difficult over there but it didn't help him putting on so much weight...

Bekele DNF by Mile 21, only going for appearance fee

This reeks of lame excuses, I agree. DNF