Deleted. Is there something wrong about asking what's up with Frank Lara? A few years back he was one of our top marathoners.
Deleted. Is there something wrong about asking what's up with Frank Lara? A few years back he was one of our top marathoners.
Roots has become a running club and is not a team.
Frank Lara and Noah Droddy are both victims of this situation.
This club does not have a major shoe sponsor and athletes are forced to go out individually and pick up scraps like Altra.
Or Salomon for Droddy. Then again, aside from the time trial 2:09:01 pukefest, he's never done anything of note. Barely broke 66 minutes last week in Brooklyn.
His marathons have been 2:11:32, 2:15:57, 2:13:29, 2:12:57, and 2:14:55. All of those courses were flat, too, at Houston/Chicago/London. He's got the 20th fastest time in the past few years out of Americans on record eligible courses, 25th if you include Boston times. I guess I'm trying to say he was never really one of our top marathon runners. Or if you do consider him one of our top marathoners, then your list would be pretty long. He was 19th at the trials, that's about the level he's been running since his first marathon.
Club not a team wrote:
Roots has become a running club and is not a team.
Frank Lara and Noah Droddy are both victims of this situation.
This club does not have a major shoe sponsor and athletes are forced to go out individually and pick up scraps like Altra.
Sure, but that's all they ever were, honestly. Sort of a pre-Brooks Hansons. People who fell outside the circle of talented prospects signing shoe company sponsorship deals right out of college. Judging by appearances, it's a fairly cohesive group that helps keep a handful of people in the sport a bit longer and helps strengthen the competitiveness at least a little at the top level domestically. And that's a good thing, ultimately. Truly, Roots should be the only game in town for people not on a level to be with OAC. So Salazar or Smith might have helped Lara to squeak under 2:11, like Stinson did under his previous coach Hudson, but what's that really worth in 2024? As pointed out, barfy Droddy broke 2:10 squarely within the supershoe era and that really did nothing to elevate his prospects, either for future performance or for sponsorship value. That was a career peak and still didn't even come close to winning a c-level domestic race.
Hot Takes wrote:
His marathons have been 2:11:32, 2:15:57, 2:13:29, 2:12:57, and 2:14:55. All of those courses were flat, too, at Houston/Chicago/London. He's got the 20th fastest time in the past few years out of Americans on record eligible courses, 25th if you include Boston times. I guess I'm trying to say he was never really one of our top marathon runners. Or if you do consider him one of our top marathoners, then your list would be pretty long. He was 19th at the trials, that's about the level he's been running since his first marathon.
His best events have been 10,000m-half marathon, he has been quite competitive in that range. Running 61 flat ish and 27:45 ish.