Not too long ago, a number of people were bashing Hall for "not being excited" about his race in Jacksonville. According to the article on the main page, Bekele "knew that it was going to be a bad race" before he even started. Hall's critics thought his attitude indicated an ability to compete at the highest level, but Bekele, almost certainly one of the greatest distance runners of all time, seems to have experienced similar pre-race emotions.
Hall fan wrote:
Not too long ago, a number of people were bashing Hall for "not being excited" about his race in Jacksonville. According to the article on the main page, Bekele "knew that it was going to be a bad race" before he even started. Hall's critics thought his attitude indicated an ability to compete at the highest level, but Bekele, almost certainly one of the greatest distance runners of all time, seems to have experienced similar pre-race emotions.
That's a good point. At least Hall had the balls to finish. Looks like Kenny B's days are over. He's washed up. Just doesn't have it any more. He needs to go back and train in LA with Carl Weathers so he can get the "eye of the tiger" back.
FPW... care to comment?
Jacksonville didn´t have ridiculous heat and humidity and (apart from Meb) not exactly the best runners in the world...
stater of things wrote:
Hall fan wrote:Not too long ago, a number of people were bashing Hall for "not being excited" about his race in Jacksonville. According to the article on the main page, Bekele "knew that it was going to be a bad race" before he even started. Hall's critics thought his attitude indicated an ability to compete at the highest level, but Bekele, almost certainly one of the greatest distance runners of all time, seems to have experienced similar pre-race emotions.
That's a good point. At least Hall had the balls to finish. Looks like Kenny B's days are over. He's washed up. Just doesn't have it any more. He needs to go back and train in LA with Carl Weathers so he can get the "eye of the tiger" back.
FPW... care to comment?
Can't compare the two. Bekele has already accomplished a ton, and if he never ran another step, he'd still be considered one of the top three runners ever (many would say best ever), and for a long time yet too. He doesn't have the history of one good race followed by bad or mediocre ones like Hall does. He usually strings several awesome races in a row before he has a bad one, and then after that bad one, he's back to his awesome self again.
Hall is awesome, and I hope he sets the running world on fire, but he's just not there yet. A bad race for Hall is way different than a bad race for Bekele. Hall's still on his way up the ranks. Bekele is already at the top and just wants to see how long he can stay there.
Oh, and hall doesn't use EPO
ya know Willy, I admire your typically sensible, reasonable posts, and your stick-to-itiveness on issues where its clear that you are wrong. I very much enjoy reading your posts, and arguing with you - albeit anonomously.
but there is one thing that i cannot stand about you. you never EVER use the quote feature correctly when replying to a post in which there is already a quote. when you are replying to a post that has a quote in it, you either delete the original post or you relocate where the two quotes begin and end. it is sometimes very difficult to figure out where your response begins and where the post you to which you are replying ends.
other than that, you're cool.
Flagpole Willy, did you start posting on Letsrun before or after you ran 15:48 22 years ago?
stater of things wrote:
ya know Willy, I admire your typically sensible, reasonable posts, and your stick-to-itiveness on issues where its clear that you are wrong. I very much enjoy reading your posts, and arguing with you - albeit anonomously.
but there is one thing that i cannot stand about you. you never EVER use the quote feature correctly when replying to a post in which there is already a quote. when you are replying to a post that has a quote in it, you either delete the original post or you relocate where the two quotes begin and end. it is sometimes very difficult to figure out where your response begins and where the post you to which you are replying ends.
other than that, you're cool.
oh yeah, you should bring back the Jim Rome schtick. that was great stuff.
So your saying you have to play baseball real well to be a fan? Shutup f***ass
"Not being excited" makes Hall sound like a whiner.
Recognizing that conditions were tough but putting everything into it to the point of almost collapsing makes Bekele look like a badass.
No comparison.
Dropping out is never badass. However, KB is still a major badass.
So Bekele and Hall and were sitting in the same boat. Somehow it gets a hole and starts to sink. Hall starts to pray for the ability to run on water. Bekele starts to swim to shore, but gets dizzy and loses his sense of how far the shore is and he gets stomach sick and lost at sea. Meanwhile Hall breaks Jesus half-marathon water record enroute back to shore.
Yeah, but they had a clock set up at 20k and Hall just missed Jesus's 20k standard. Jesus kind of died towards the end of his half 'thon.
båten wrote:
Jacksonville didn´t have ridiculous heat and humidity and (apart from Meb) not exactly the best runners in the world...
Well, he did beat all of those 'not exactly the best runners in the world'. Except for Meb. Not bad for an off day- it happnes.
Still not sure why everyone was busting his balls over the 15k. To use a football analogy, Jacksonville was like Hall's last game of the regular season. Not always easy to get highly motivated for it when he's focusing on the Super Bowl (London). Good luck to him.
THOR, GOD OF THUNDER wrote:
Flagpole Willy, did you start posting on Letsrun before or after you ran 15:48 22 years ago?
Not sure what you're getting at brother. 15:48 was NOT my best time ever though -- just best from high school. Later got it down to 14:58. Also, as little as 6 years ago I was running sub 17 for 5k still. I just don't have the passion for it anymore. Kind of wish I did, but I started running at age 8, so I've been at it for 32 years, and my best days are way behind me, so to run for anything other than just fitness seems silly. While I'm in no way comparing myself to Edwin Moses, I definitely understand his quote on the front page today. I actually did like running though for a long time. Now though, I could take it or leave it. If my doctor told me tomorrow that I couldn't run another step, I'd be fine with it. I'd just do other forms of exercise. I probably get a rush from a run once every two weeks now where it used to be ever day and I used to not be able to wait to go running. Things change. I'd rather play my guitar.
After the fall of the communist countries in Europe, the biggest drug cheat nation in athletics has been the US. Take a look at the IAAF statistics: US has by far the most doping cases.
hall and bekele are not in the same boat, hall is a prospect, while bekele is a legend, hall has an extremely long way to go to be at bekeles level, even if bekele were never to race again. even ryan hall himself, his relatives and best friends will admit this.
Hall is a nice guy but is minor league compared to Bekele. Only on letruns would his name even be mentioned in the same sentence. Bekele ran in Mombasa and failed at the greatest cross country meet in history with over 125,000 fans, officials, and support staff. Hall whined about the altitude and didn't even show up in Boulder for the minor league USA nationals which had less than 5% of the fans as 2007 Mombasa. To make matters worse, the Boulder race organizers exagerated the attendance at 10,000. The fact is that the Boulder Police Department did not have to deploy a single traffic officer, and estimated the attendance at 3,000.
HallFan, you are wishing that Hall be compared with Kenenissa in anything good or bad. Fact is: Bekele is a legend and in a class by himself (maybe a notch lower than Haile not in talent but accomplishments).
Hall my friend, as good a runner as he is, is waaaayyyy back in the line.
that's true, in regards to running accomplishments, they aren't comparable. In the previous thread though, a huge deal was made out of hall's finishing 2nd to meb and commenting he wasn't excited. The comment here from Bekele mirrors that same uncertainty, and showed when he didn't finish, yet I'm sure we would hardly call Bekele a wuss. The thing that's being pointed to is the fact that those kinds of thoughts happen, be it to Bekele, or Hall, or the high schooler down the street.