Julien Wanders is finished for good

He suffered from gastric problems, hypoglycemia and hypothermia in this race. Please don’t write him off and many of us think that he will be back. He has invested too much into his athletics career to call this a day. The fundamentals are there and he just needs to get it all right on a certain day.

He’s been making excuses since 2019 for every single race. When are the excuses and bad luck gonna end until he just has to accept that he’s not holding himself accountable to being a pro runner. He should know these things before hand

In my opinion, Wanders should've stick with the first group during the beginning of the Paris marathon. He was alone after only 10k, it was obvious that it would be difficult to keep his pace alone for more than 30k...

Of course, he would've implode but I guess he could've done under 2:10.

@Ghost1 : I don't buy anymore his post-races excuses. It's always the same with Wanders since 2 years: before the race, everything is perfect, the training went very well and after the race, we always learn that there were some problems which explains his poor result of the day.

Not a horrible debut. Surprised he crashed at 25km, because that's exactly what Canova preaches in training to avoid.. you learn in training how to deplete your glycogen stores by 25km and search for more fuel in training. He will be back. Marathoners are a special breed.

This is nothing more than excuses...During European Cross-Country december 2021, Julien had problems with his spleen(?).
If Wanders had gastric problems, that ended up with hypoglycemia he should have been prepared enough training on refueling with carbs during training session. Then again he seems to depreciate the importance of rest before a competition. Going up at 03:55 AM(!) for a "shake out run" just shows the anxiety he has. Sure I understand that a shake out run before competetion is beneficial for many runner, BUT there is a line to draw if the race goes after 10AM (or during afternoon) compare to 08:15 in the morning. The only thing Wanders do is despair crucial resting time, ending up on the starting line with stress hormones all over the roof! It´s sad because everyone who follows Wanders on Strava knows he has a huge impressive continuity in his training! But without proper rest and tapering it´s like throwing all training sessions in the trash...

Wanders appears to be an extreme type A personality in the sense that he is super focused and driven. I remember his wife commenting in the past that when Julien walks on the road around Iten, he does not recognize and acknowledge people even if they are acquaintances because he is so focused and in his own world.

Yes, he makes excuses but they appear to be genuine and he has had bad luck in some of his recent races. Canova and ASICS would not believe in him if they did not think that he could produce the goods at some point in the future. Wanders is a magnificent site in full flight and one of the best technicians on the road of all time and he just has to produce the goods in the marathon to replicate his half marathon pedigree. Everything has to go right on the day and he is still very young with many years on his side at age 26 provided that he does not get injured or burned out.

Jake Robertson ran his best marathon 2:08:36, at age 28 in Japan. Give Wanders another four years to prove his worth at the marathon before calling him a flash in the pan. Anyway, I don’t believe in the statement “flash in the pan” because you either did a performance or you didn’t, and Wanders is a phenomenal runner on the road with 2713 and 5917 which are both monster times. He also has a 2717 10,000 m on the track which is monster like.

The marathon is such a complicated and unpredictable event. So many variables to be mastered.

Typo: magnificent site

Correct: magnificent sight

The story is not over for him, I think he can turn things around, but his comments about training hard and how Europeans and Americans focus too much on recovery and don’t train hard enough have not aged well.

these types are all over the place. head cases. train hard then can't race. high school, college, pros, they're everywhere. workout heros who can't perform on the day because they're mentally washed and weak. guys training half as much have better results because they're mentally competent, calm, and have perspective. excuse after excuse, see it on strava all day from these types at all levels of ability. nothing to do with talent or work ethic, just head cases who expect races to be easy because of some x y z workout then freak out at the first sign of trouble and shut down during the race.

Also lets not forget that he's still quite young

The armchair quarterbacks on letsrun always seem to not realize how hard it is to stay at an elite level for even more than 1 race. This sort of training is incredibly hard so to act like he is washed and a failure for not improving even more is a joke. To even reach the fitness he has obtained, however briefly, is impressive. Staying at these crazy levels is simply not possible for some. He might be "washed" in the sense he has already reached his peak, but what a peak it was.

He had stomach issues from the jump & stopped multiple times. He'll run a fast marathon within the next couple of years.

you're totally right, it's not like he's spent his entire adult life living in the Mecca of elite athletics/athletes. It's not like he spends every waking minute at altitude and has the deepest resources of training partners the world knows

oh wait.

When I lived in EA for a few years, I was frequently sick with bacterial infections, bilharzia, and GI issues. My body couldn't handle it long-term. I wonder if it's the same for Wanders and his body isn't equipped to live in Iten like his East African counterparts. For me, it would take a 2-3 weeks of living / eating food in Europe to feel normal again.

The guy is very young, for a marathoner. He's only "finished for good" if he wants to be. It might take him a few marathons to break through. There's something about a marathon that makes it much more than just "two half marathons" or "4 'slow' 10Ks in a row." It's an event not like others.

The problem was your immunity, not East Africa. And, bilharzia? I don't know of anyone who's got bilharzia and I've grown up and lived most of my life here.

That's my point. Not an attack on the region. My immunity, and maybe his. Bilharzia is also known by schistosomiasis.