CENTRO BACK IN ACTION AT CHICAGO MARATHON 5K

Do not read anything into his fitness by this - it was not an all out effort. I was at the race and was warming up in the same area as Centro, and overheard him saying he was just looking to get a decent effort and see how the knee felt - said he would run around 6:30 pace. When he ran much faster than that I gave him a hard time about it in the finishing chute, and he laughed and said that the race plan went out the window in the first mile, but that he was just happy to get in a good effort and the knee felt good. But he was clearly just there as a result of the Nike tie-in and wasn't actually racing at full effort. (Rupp was there as well and jogged it in a hoodie and sweat pants, but does not appear in the results - cue banditing scandal talk.) You can see pictures from the race on MarathonFoto.com (Centro is bib 2016, get it?) - not only is he in Pegs, but he's wearing a long sleeve quarter-zip, jogging pants (not even tights, we're talking wind pants here) and a backwards hat. Pretty odd attire for anyone planning to run all-out.

If this was a pace job, this is relatively exactly five minute pace; could have been a workout of some form? Either way nice to see him running again.

I felt the attack on americas lack of fast runners was on point. As usual they cant handle the criticism.

Let's not forget that Nike/BTC athletes have these crazy stipulations in their contracts which require them to race a certain # of times/year so that they don't get reduced or cut. Remember when the team was running 4 x 400s and slow AF track races just to fulfill these obligations? GDS (I'm aware she's no longer BTC but is still Nike) has raced two 8k's (one xc and one road) in the last couple of weeks while coming back from a stress fracture and they've been incredibly slow. The only possible explanation for her running these races is her Nike deal. Centro may be in the same boat.

I saw GDS at a road race in Vancouver the other week. There was a 10km and 5km back to back and she "raced" both. No shade against her, saw her stop and take pictures with people and was all smiles but honestly it just looks terrible for Nike. I get why they would want contractual protections to make sure people don't just pocket the money and do nothing, but the fact that athletes who clearly are coming back from injury and wouldn't be doing events otherwise... it just isn't a good look. I just felt bad for her.

She's probably the highest profile/best woman in Canadian track right now and Centro is an Olympic Champion. If this is how Nike treats their stars imagine how they treat the small fish.