Why the hate on Luke Puskedra from the Letrun Managment on the main page???

apologize in advance to the speeling & grammar poolice for all misssspellings.

I agree with you completely, I've posted before about how I believe the brother WE tend to state their own thoughts too much in the article headlines. I have gotten blasted for this in the past, however couldn't they simply use these radical message boards if they wants to throw their .02 cents into ever topic? It's not like he's a pro and can take slack from people, he's a kid that is going to be racing in what I believe to be a very difficult situation. He's not Alan Webb who has already run sub 4 and basically going out with a large group of guys that are going to be spread out evenly from 3:50- 4. This two mile is probably going to be heavily weighted down near the 8 flat to 8:30 range. If he's running a 8:40 he's going to get left in the middle of no mans land.

No need to make him or his coach feel stupid.

I'm assuming he has his own pacer if he's running. No one thought Fernandez was going to do anything like he did, either. Puskedra is in a better situation, with a bigger crowd. I hope he does it.

I'm predicting 8:33 though.

Don't like it, then take a hike.

If Luke can't stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen.

I think that about sums it up.

(By the way, I agree that there is no way in hell Luke gets remotely close to 8:30. I hope I don't shatter his fragile ego by saying that.)

fgdg wrote:

Don't like it, then take a hike.

If Luke can't stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen.

I think that about sums it up.

(By the way, I agree that there is no way in hell Luke gets remotely close to 8:30. I hope I don't shatter his fragile ego by saying that.)

Look at you!!! Everyone said you wouldn't turn into a flaming prick...but guess what! You proved them all wrong!

Maybe he and his coach know something we don't and have done some workouts indicating he's ready. His races don't indicate a sub 8:30. That's extremely fast. I don't recall many college guys doing that in a season when they ran 2 miles a lot (Unless their names were Spivey or Falcon).

Ritz's coach kind of made the same huge attempt with Dathan when he attempted to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the 5000 his Junior year. Went out around 8:50 and ended up running 14:13.

I think however this guy will run around 8:37 if he doesn't go out in 4:15 or faster for 1600 meters.

I think one thing helping Fernandez is that he doesn't have a preconceived set of notions of what he can do.

On this same note, I hope Puskedra ignores what some internet message baord guys think he can do and just runs fast. Plenty of people (myself included) have run way faster then even their coaches had thought they could. Certainly some message board guy is much more removed from the situation than a coach is.

In running, it's almost always easier to bet on someone not doing something that they haven't done yet. So the headline was easy. Here are a couple headlines I came up with. "Guy with no experience besides running message board becomes D1 coach. No way!" "Mediocre college runner runs 28:06 10 km. No way!"

Ok. A couple of things.

I don't want to be hating on some high school kid.

I just don't think a high school kid who isn't the best high schooler in the country is going to shatter the longest high school record (for a regularly contested event) on the books.

But college frosh do occasionally run 7:53 for 3k so it shows it is possible. (And Rupps 13:37 was way better).

Maybe he'll get inspired with the crowd and do it. Usually I'd wish him luck, but someone has taken me up on the bet. He's bet me $40 Puskedra breaks the record. With the $4k he wins I said he has to pay for me and him to fly out to Luke's house and we'll exchange the money in front of Luke and I'll shake his hand and be the first to congratulate him.

Donnie, maybe this is just what Luke needs. Maybe this will p*ss him off and make him just determined enough to do it. Comments such as these can serve just as much to motivate as to devastate. Who are we to say which way he will react (if at all)?

Meanwhile "Freedom Of Speech" marches on .....

From what I read about Puskedra, he's not the type who would really be affected much by this sort of thing. Not saying I know him or that it was a particularly classy move by Wejo, just that he appears to have enough audacity to do what he's going to do regardless of what most people think about it.

But will it get a mention on NBC?

One more thing. I seriously doubt this type of thing is what is needed to motivate Luke to break a nearly 30 year old high school record.

If this is all it takes for legendary records to fall at the high school level, we'll gladly start a letsrun.com fund.

But I'm sure Luke already has plenty of internal motivation. If a sold-out crowd isn't enough and a national tv audience I doubt some opinion on the website is what is going to put him over the top. And besides 1% isn't that bad off odds to smash such a tough record.

And let me clarify what I wrote above. The $40 bet is not on whether he breaks the 8:36 record. It is whether he runs sub 8:30.00 for 2 miles.

Wejo, I think this bet needs a front page poll and a little more publicity, don't you?

wejo wrote:

Ok. A couple of things.

With the $4k he wins I said he has to pay for me and him to fly out to Luke's house and we'll exchange the money in front of Luke and I'll shake his hand and be the first to congratulate him.

Something tells me by the time to fly out to his house, one or two people will have beaten you to congratulating him. :)

Wejo Im 100% serious when i say nothing would make me happier than for you to loose this bet, and Im seriouse nothing!

P.S. if u delete this comment it shows u really are a prick

I don't think anyone who has posted on here has even seen him run any of the decent times he has posted in the 2 mile. I watched the kid run 8:56? all by himself at 4,600 feet. I'd like to see German Fernandez do that, not saying he couldn't but I'd like to see him do it. The kid has an insane ability to crank out whatever 400 splits he needs to hit to reach his goal. I would definitely give him a 50-50 shot at breaking 8:30. It all depends on how he runs the first few laps.

so his pr is 8:46? I doubt this lanky bastard will break 8:30. Although it would crazy to have 2 high schoolers in the 8:35 range in 1 year.

100 to 1 might have been a little high on the odds. 50 to 1 but I could see you arguing 200 to 1.

guess everyone can zip it now...he CLEARLY did NOT belong in that race.