Natalie Cook is going to lose Eastbay by a lot tomorrow, change my mind.

Man this is not a good take.

East bay route is a snooze fest

define "a lot"? above 18 minutes? 19? By the way, I think the usual form police you always see come crawling out of the woodwork to criticize certain runners because their form isnt perfect tend to have some of the lowest running IQ levels from what Ive seen. They dont know what else to say so they always start with "form" because they think it sounds knowledgeable when it doesnt. the truth is "form" is a factor but it is almost always overrated. the notion that you just make a few quick suggestions to her (as if no coach has ever noticed her gait) and everything will be fine is laughable. its her natural physiology not something she is doing because she learned to run incorrectly. are you going to break her hips and both femurs and reassemble her? you deal with the cards youre dealt and she seems to have adapted pretty well to her body mechanics I think. Perez or Peters may definitely beat her but it will because they burn her out on a tougher course not because shes not physically capable of running hills.

Claudia lane's running form back in the day wasn't the most efficient, but that didn't stop her from getting a national title. At the HS level you can get away with having an unusual form with raw talent and a huge aerobic engine. While I do agree that someone like Perez and Peters could excel more due to their experience with hillier courses, I wouldn't be so quick to assume Cook would run a worse race just because she hammered it last weekend and has an atypical running gait.

I hope the best for all the girls and am glad that all the top contenders will be racing together for a change! In past years it has always seemed like the best girls were running the other national meets ie: Anna Rohrer/Allie Ostrander, Katie Rainsberger/Weini Kelati, Brie Oakley/Claudia Lane, Katelyn Tuohy/Lane, Zofia Dudek/Tuohy etc.

You’ve clearly never seen Priscah Jeptoo run. Heaven forbid someone wrote her off too.

https://images.app.goo.gl/DgM1WmEAoqffN1nL8

Ever since her picture went up on the main site, I have made LetsRun my homepage so that it’s the first thing I see whenever I open a new browser window. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I would pick her over any other girl in XC or in any other contest. She is radiant, effervescent, heavenly.

So no, she will not lose. You are wrong, so very, very wrong.

simp 69 wrote:

Ever since her picture went up on the main site, I have made LetsRun my homepage so that it’s the first thing I see whenever I open a new browser window. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I would pick her over any other girl in XC or in any other contest. She is radiant, effervescent, heavenly.

So no, she will not lose. You are wrong, so very, very wrong.

I hope your in high school. I really really hope s.

Wow, I just watched the video and I see what you mean. It will be interesting to see if she can overcome her poor biomechanics and grind out the win.

Only knock on Perez is also her biomechanics. She has a major imbalance that causes her to start twisting towards the end of the race, so if she is pressured it will just get worse and she will crack at higher speeds. I think her left glute mede is not firing well from my professional standpoint.

Here is an image, but you can watch her race videos as well. So quite the conundrum.. Cook with her cringe, knees are gonna rip her IT band off or Perez with her twisty spine. I'm think then it might be a sleeper... strong lithe or solid runner we're not considering.. think of when Reed Brown won the Boy's Race.

https://eastbayxc.com/2021/regionalphotos/northeast/girlsrace/#

arodd wrote:

simp 69 wrote:

Ever since her picture went up on the main site, I have made LetsRun my homepage so that it’s the first thing I see whenever I open a new browser window. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I would pick her over any other girl in XC or in any other contest. She is radiant, effervescent, heavenly.

So no, she will not lose. You are wrong, so very, very wrong.

I hope your in high school. I really really hope s.

You hope his in high school is what?

Cook has run with that form forever, its a non-factor, its already baked into her results.

She wins because she is an overaged SR (she should be a college freshman by age) who, to my understanding, has been coached by the same coach (her Dad) since before middle school, consistency and years and years of racing experience being the key.

Cook competeted in youth track including Junior olympics prior to HS while traveling the country scoring good results, finding key high profile fast meets for years, even through HS, and has built racing acumen. In Texas UIL HS XC, she has been very good and very consistent over the years finishing 5th as Freshman, 5th as a Sophmore, and 7th as a Junior in the UIL State 6A XC meet. In track similar consistent good solid results, she got two 6A UIL state medals in 2019 finishing 2nd in the 3200m and 3rd in the 1600m and last season, just 6 months ago, finished 4th in 3200m at the UIL 6A state meet.

She wins today because she obviously has lots of miles under her legs, lots of racing experience and has now flipped a switch and figured out how to turn quality runs that may have been close losses into big wins with totally dominating performances. Improving week to week this season, she finally won the Texas State UIL 6A XC meet in near record time but more impressively a massive near 1 minute margin of victory over the 2019 6A State champ she previously lost to. But then the really big performance improvements came. She ran the fastest time ever at the Kinney/Footlocker/Eastbay South Regional (considering the 2015 course change), significantly faster than runners like Jenny Simpson, Weini Kelati, and Jenna Hutchins ever ran at that same course. And she did that despite her crazy form, like I said the form is baked into the results. When you have so much experience, more than most all HS runners, and then make a big step jump in performance I think you have things figured out, you know how to race, how to take risks, when to make moves and punish opponents. The runninglane time agrees with this. Cook has the massive experience edge and wont be beat today.

you're wrote:

arodd wrote:

I hope your in high school. I really really hope s.

You hope his in high school is what?

I get what you’re saying but it was a valid statement and you not focusing on the crucial part and instead an error is telling.

Looks identical to Colin Sahlman’s form. Might just be the stanky leg form is the ideal running form.

Wow, I just watched the video. Can we put the country back in cross country? I've seen tracks that undulate more and have a rougher surface than that so-called cross country course.

For one of the flattest states, Delaware has one of the more challenging cross country courses:

No it is not. We are built the way we are built. The engine we have is what makes us successful or not as distance runners, not running form. It is possible that she may have some injury issues as she progresses as a runner, but to say her biomechanics will keep her from winning one specific race is nuts.

OP is going home devastated.

She runs like Salazar.

Natalie Cook just changed your mind.