malmo wrote:
marathon fan wrote:Before we get ahead of ourselves, remember that a fast half doesn't always result in a fast marathon. Todd Williams never got under 2:11. Geb's 58:55 didn't help him win London last year.
While agree with the thesis in general, using Gebrselassie's race at London 2006 is a bad example that doesn't really support your contention. It's clear that Gebrselassie's half marathon time does translate well to the marathon. He just had a bad day (2:09:05).
To clarify what I meant is that people were talking about Geb running 2:02 or 2:03 in London based on that half. I agree, he didn't have a great day and I was sorry to see that because I was rooting for him to have the race of a lifetime.
To Sean Middleton (also on p. 4), yes, Geb was ranked the #1 marathoner of 2006 (and rightfully so), but still some out there would say he never achieved his potential because he hasn't broken Tergat's WR yet. I think that's a very unfair criticism of Geb. (In fact, it would have been very interesting to see what Geb could have run at Berlin if conditions were better... he clearly blew away the field to run one of the most impressive sub-2:06 marathons ever run.) But much of this unfair criticism is due to the fact that many people assume running a half in such and such a time will result in a marathon being run in such and such a time.
It just bothered me that within minutes of Ryan running the race of a lifetime, people were already talking about what he could possibly run in the marathon. Granted, the half is not an Olympic distance and so it's only natural that we Americans now see him as a great shot to medal in something at the Olympics. But we need to be careful to savor what Ryan Hall did today in and of itself.