12:53.73 @ 26:33.84 - What's the point?

Couldn’t agree more. Huge fan of Grant but I hate the way BTC operates. If everyone else raced as infrequently as they do the sport would be dead.

Directly organizing, controlling the timing, and the circumstances of the racing helps hide any, um, "impropriety" that the club may be engaging in. See: Shelby Houlihan.

People often complain about this, but why not be the change you want to see in the world? These pros who complain that the BTC only runs time trials and no races should organize their own time trials to run even faster and then also continue to race frequently on the circuit.

If they were putting up fast times AND winning races, then they would have room to critique BTC's schedule, but by choosing to emphasis racing over running fast times, they're really equally #badforthesport as Bowerman.

The Duck Track Club guys are the ones who seem to see the point of pursuing both. I'd love to see them own some these records and simultaneously rack up US titles and World medals, which I think they are very capable of.

The control freak coach is afraid of big meets and that's the reason they avoid them.

He would be racing at Pre, but the 10K trials are then. Definitely hold it against him if he doesn't run on the DL circuit the year at least two or three times I'd say.

What? Fisher ran 12:53 at the biggest BU meet of the year with plenty of fans and it was no flotrack. Should he not chase any fast times untill its at a venue of your liking?

This post is so incredibly uninformed. Fisher ran 12:53 at a MASSIVE BU meet with tons of fans and other athletes. The race was so stacked that the B HEAT was won in 13:05, and the A heat had many other top class Americans in addition to all the BTC studs (Ahmed, Scott, etc). Guess what, Rupp ran his 5k AR at BU as well, at a smaller meet than Fisher.

The 10k AR had tons of fans and competitors too. I think like 10 guys ran under 27:20 in that meet. This was one of the deepest American 10k races ever.

The problem is that Fisher is just so much better than EVERY other American right now that all his record attempts just look like time trials with him and Moh Ahmed, since he's 200m ahead of the next best American. I'd much rather see Grant run his ARs on AMERICAN SOIL than fly halfway across the world to place 3rd in some Diamond league time trial that nobody watches.

And yeah, sorry, but indoors is a total joke of an event. His American Record 10k was much more impressive to me than any world indoor medal could have been (no offense to Ryan Hall, but even he has an indoor silver).

It's also not his decision to hold the US 10000m trials the night before Pre. I guarantee that if the trials were held in June he would be running Pre, as his Nike contract would likely stipulate. Rant over.

Which "big meets" is Grant avoiding?

Fair point on the BU Classic. Pay TV I think though and the recording of the race is crap. Of course he is better than every other American (I would argue 3K and up) that's why it would be cool to watch him race against the worlds best (they are here now) and not Woody Kincaid and Florida State’s Adriaan Wildschutt.

Take your 12:53 out for a spin and let's see what it can do vs real competition.

Regardless of the accuracy of the OPs comments, the fact remains that many if not most fans of the sport are saddened that head to head competition is often disincentivized at the pro level. The problem does not rest with any particular athlete, like Fisher or Teare, nor any particular club. At the end of the day, the essence of the sport is head to head racing, and collectively better efforts should be made to have this happen more often. Has Hassan raced even once in 2022?

There's a big difference between a TT 12:53 and what a Berega, Kejelcha, or freeking Edris do to you the last 1K or so.

This is just like a year ago. Centro and Hocker were going to medal, because championship 1500s always go 3:33/34 or something. Rupp's marathon PR is still about a mile behind, you know.

Grant is running PRE.

USATF has said that he must run the 10,000 to qualify for Worlds. This is not necessarily Grant’s choice.

The 10,000 will not be contested at USATF‘s this year.

I agree that watching track sucks in its current form. But that's not Fisher's fault.

His 12:53 was set in the deepest indoor 5k in the world this year, with Ahmed running 12:56, Scott 12:57, Bor 13:00, etc. That is certainly "real competition".

Are you talking about Jakob when you say "they are here now"? Because he was a very very last minute entry at Sound Running. Other than Jakob, there is nobody else in the US currently (other than his teammates) that would give him an interesting race that wouldn't look like a time trial. So I'm not sure what would satisfy you.

Uh, I think you missed what I was implying in my post.

Correct. Here's the problem: Athletes' contracts are incentivized for global championships and records. In order to qualify for global championships, you need a time standard. So an athlete will typically race their main events only ONCE prior to championships to get a standard, typically in a time trial type setup as this has the best chance of success. Then, they will train the remainder of the time until the global championship, and avoid racing since racing in random meets gives them no financial benefit and increases their industry risk. Jakob himself said he would have been content just to jog the 5k standard at Sound running, but was too competitive to not go for the win. If he already had the standard, he would not have run that race. There is ZERO incentive to race if you already have the standard.

The current system disincentivizes racing head to heat and incentivizes time trials. It's not the athlete's fault.

Centro was the defending Olympic champ and people weren't wrong to note that Hocker wasn't just a "3:35 guy." It was the fastest Olympic 1500m ever, so it didn't play into Hocker's hands but 6th place is rather good.

I agree Fisher could use some seasoning, and he'd be well-served to race on the circuit this year. Let's hope puppet-master Jerry agrees — certainly we won't get any explanation either way.

The real problem is that Jerry does not communicate. BTC's actions are perfectly reasonable when someone actually explains them (listen to Fisher on the letsrun podcast), but Jerry is completely radio silent.

"This is not necessarily Grant’s choice."

I am hearing this a lot. Grant is a grown man with a degree from Stanford. I am pretty sure if he wants to run a certain event or gear his schedule a certain way he has the ability to do so. Josh Thompson ran indoors for Bowerman. The only guy.

"Jerry, instead of running my 683rd Time Trial with Marc Scott and Woody Kincaid can I please run against the WORLD CLASS competition at the Pre Fontaine Classic." That's all he has to say.

He is the glaring hole in this meet. Our best runner is running a 10K for time (of course) instead.

p.s. I am so worked up about this because I bought a bunch of tickets and am taking some kids to this meet. "You get to see everyone but Grant Fisher."

I think there's a meet this weekend. Called the Diamond League or something.