Leo's last 500 at State

Why did Leo decide to slow down while Lex didn’t? Your mind reading is illogical.

Usually I disagree when Letsrun blames social media for everything, but in this case I think it might be correct. At the very least, there does seem to be something missing. My guess is that it's a combination of Brosnan leaving, and also Colin Sahlman. Based on their dynamic, it seemed like he was kind of the de facto leader last year, and they may be missing that. Either way, it's not the end of the world, and they're still running plenty fast. Hopefully at least one of them can take down a national record this year, there are a few on the books (especially the indoor 5k and outdoor 3k) that could use an improvement.

Why don't they do the California state meet at Balboa Park?

They weren't dialed in to the fall xc season because their goal is World Junior xc, which is still over three months away. They still have had an incredible, if abbreviated, campaign.

The Balboa course is waaay too small to host something of the size of the state meet - the course is very narrow and it gets uncomfortably crowded when there's more than 100 people racing. Parking is also a nightmare even during small meets. CIF-SD sectionals are held at Balboa, but the races are smaller and there are less spectators.

I disagree. Yes they've been doing a lot of social media stuff, but I don't see how that's getting in the way. They're both going 1-2 in every race they run, and this meet clearly isn't their main focus individually or as a team. Leo not having it in the last 600 and cruising it in isn't a huge deal when nobody else is a threat. They'll be fine at nationals, I bet they'll drop everyone when it counts. I think one of them could give sub 14 a scare there too (probably Lex in my opinion).

Course record at Glendoveer Golf Course, as of when Nico Young set it in 2019, is/was 14:52. Sub 14 is super unlikely.

Fresno is also within reasonable driving distance from any location in California.

U.S. cross-country races can go on roads now??

No wonder you can get Oly/WC medals but are such a joke at global XC (even though every distance runner does it for years).

It seems like a pretty good strategy to ease up if he knew the records (individual and team times) were out of reach. It's not like beating his brother lowers their team score or anything.

Neither Lex/Leo look discernibly different as runners from last year, except maybe a tad of muscle added to their frame. It’s clear they were fairly early maturers that really hit their peak junior year. I’m not convinced they’ll run faster noticeably faster on the track than last year, either.

What does 'noticeably faster' mean to you? They're already at 4:00 (1600) and 13:40 (5k).

It looks like more than a 1/2 mile but I’m not going to argue if you know the course. You would know better than I would.

Every time I see footage of a California xc race there are road sections and long stretches of compacted dirt. It’s no wonder that the times are so fast. TBH, I don’t believe that XC courses should include pavement at all, except for occasional road crossings, and I find it difficult to believe that there isn’t somewhere in SoCal that is better suited for a real XC course that is mostly contested on grass and without road and compacted dirt/trails.

Leo thought he had a shot at the course record, but Lex didn't think he had a shot. So when Leo realized he couldn't get the course record he got discouraged and slowed down.

Lex wasn't discouraged because he wasn't expecting to get the course record.

Leo deciding to slow down is why Aaron Sahlman got so close to Leo at the finish. Normally Aaron would be much farther back of Leo than that.

Since Leo won't be chasing the NXN course record, Leo will run much better at NXN.

If Leo is really weak minded, your theory makes sense. Would you have quit if you were ever in that situation?

He didn't quit, he slowed down. Would I slow down if I knew I wouldn't get a course record that I had wanted to get since last season and knew I wouldn't PR either? If I was Leo, maybe. Especially since it didn't cost Newbury Park any team points. Leo is also thinking about bigger things like winning NXN and competing in the world cross country championships.

Me personally I would push for the state title since I wouldn't be good enough to win NXN. But Leo is on a whole different level than the rest of us so sometimes he's going to think differently.

Totally off-topic, but in the videos posted, does anybody else think Lex and Leo never look "fast"? Like, if I didn't know who they were and you showed me a video of their race and told me they're the fastest runners in the country, I would say no way.

I guess it's running style or an optical illusion or something, but they just never look as optically fast as, say, the Sahlmans or even their older brother. Like "I could hang with them" (I most definitely could not hang with them). I guess it's one of those Moneyball/faulty eyeball test things. Or maybe it's just me, IDK.

Or Fast Horse or both.

They definitely have an unusual build for top-class runners, Leo in particular. But Bekele did just fine with his short, thick legs so I think it's too early to say if that will be a limitation as they move to the next level.