Should Geb retire now before disgracing his reputation?

I'm sure he reads letsrun daily and lives to impress people like yourself. After reading your well though out logic i'm sure he will take your advice and a press conference is forth coming.

gebquitting wrote:

The aura Geb had is definitely vanishing quickly. He needs to retire before he is way,way past his prime.

As it turns out, he really doesn't need to retire at all. He can keep running and racing until it takes him 8 minutes to cover a mile and he'll still be Haile-F***ing-Gebresellasie.

Im sure Geb has more to offer. Maybe one more shot at Tergat's WR

What about when Geb was virtually beaten by Tergat in the 2000 Olympics. He didn't give up and he came back to win. There is a lot of running left in the old dog yet.

yeah. disgracing his reputation. gotcha.

Pictures of Geb blowing Karl Rove could show up on the internet and his aura wouldn't vanish. He's the Emperor, and nothing will diminish that.

He said a few years back he saw no reason why he should ever quit & I agree with him.

why wrote:

He said a few years back he saw no reason why he should ever quit & I agree with him.

I was just about to say this, thank you.

He's embarrasing himself. Except for 2 of the fastest marathons in history this year.

It's nice to see a consensus on this issue. I agree, even if Geb is slowing down his reputation is rock solid. If he's slower now than he was before it's only because he was so incredibly fast before. That won't change.

Personally, I don't mind if at this point in his career he pulls out of races where things aren't going well. He doesn't need to prove anything by toughing it out and trying to hang on to fourth place or seventh place. If he's not going to have a great race he might as well shut down early, avoid hurting himself, and start preparing for the next race.

How quickly you forget his impressive performances at Berlin and Fukuoka in the last half year.

Paris 03: He still ran 26:50s while "giving up"

Geb is apersonality of contradiction, less than two weeks ago you all remember he said,"I am planning to get back to 10,000m very few guys can still compete with me" He went ahead to talk about olympics gold in marathon. Don't forget that this same year he talked about returning his WR in half marathon. He actually said he will do it after London Marathon!

Here is another Geb talking about his allergy, his father's asthma. He says he has suffered it for 4 years and talked to his coach about retiring. Only One week ago it was different. How do you find it?

he shouldn't quit if he still enjoys racing.

Anything negative about Gabe, Rodey Tse Tse boy is there to magnify it. Next time Geb will call your bitch ass, before he says anything about himself. You better stop tarnishing the image of Geb because You can't take away his accomplihsment. write your trash and Geb's legacy will be there for everybody to judge.

The original post is just retarded. His aura is vanishing? People drop out of marathons all the time. This is a guy who was undefeated for 8 years in the 10k. F*** off. He will probably win another 10k track gold, marathon gold, or set the marathon WR before it's over, and he's already the best of all time.

whatever ignorant a-hole that had the audacity to make a stupid post saying that Geb should retire because of one bad day is a complete and utter d-bag and doesnt deserve to run any faster than the 17 minute 5k PR he already has. Idiot...

gebquitting wrote:

In all his races I have seen him run, if he's not in contention to win or get a record he usually just flat out gives up.

Case in point:

Paris 03. Almost the same exact way, Geb gives up. Not even trying to finish with a hard effort (even if he is beaten).

It seems Geb is either at the very top of his game or just out of sight.

I think there is something to be said for just finishing the race with a respectable effort, not just run hard for 3/4 of the race and decide it's not worth finishing or keep continuing the effort.

HA HA.....couldn't be further from the truth with that example. He only lost because Bekele put on just about the most amazing performance in championship history. Even after they both were running sub 13:00 pace for the 2nd 5k, Bekele STILL somehow found the ability to SMOKE the last 200. And Geb smoked it too, but just simply didn't have enough. He was beaten quite handily that last 200, but not because he eased up at all. He just got beaten, by the fastest ever at his peak, and only by a little.

"It seems Geb is either at the very top of his game or just out of sight." What?!?! The few times he hasn't won, he has mostly come in 2nd-5th (if you count his world X-C losses too.) hardly "out of sight." Really, your entire post is about his 9th at london last year, and his drop-out this year. Other than those races, your examples are really thin. But nice try.

In fact, Geb ran 12:58 to Bekele's 12:57 in the second half of the Paris race. I agree, hardly giving up. The last 2 miles were 8:12.

Take a look back over his results. He's the greatest track runner ever.