Americans both 3rd, what does this mean?

Funny how before the race, they were going to win, but now...third is just dandy. Maybe the US needs to reevaluate their distance program and get better at it.

girlscoach wrote:

Funny how before the race, they were going to win, but now...third is just dandy. Maybe the US needs to reevaluate their distance program and get better at it.

Actually the odds on Hall were 3rd, not first. Second, the "US" is made up of many different groups with different systems in place.

In the end if you felt that you ran as well as you could on that day then you should be happy and f*ck what everyone else says. That is true whether you are Ryan Hall or some 4 hour marathoner.

Hey butch! Youuu Stiink! wrote:

BTW...what do Flanagan's, Meb's, Kastor's Olympic Medals mean?

It means that, due to less east African women in running respective to men, that it is easier to medal for the rest of world's population. Meb and Lagat's medals mean that our naturalized east Africans citizens can beat the native east Africans.

Hey butch! Youuu Stiink! wrote:

German Fernandez soloing 3:55 indoors and getting 11th at worlds (that is, 11th amongst 13:00-13:30 guys) with a stress reaction?

The 11th at World's is worthless, just 7 seconds in front of Derrick, who was 4th/5th in the NCAAs. He was in the same event as some fast guys, but he was hardly "racing" them, about as much as a 2:15:00 guy was racing Hall at Boston. And, I've seen great performances on stress fractures, a "stress reaction," haha.

Dang, my thread made it to the front page.

Suck it trolls!

Is it just me, or do Hall and Goucher look almost "Giant" compared to the Kenyan & Ethiopian runners. It takes alot of energy to move the extra 10 lbs. of mass they carry.

?????? wrote:

USA needs more distance runners like Kara Goucher. This is the sort of competitive spirit we need. Kara Goucher took 3rd which is amazing, and was still very disappointed about it. Watch for her in 1-3 years and win something BIG, because she is NOT going to settle for just third. Contrast that with Hall who is celebrating/happy about getting 3rd. Sure, that deserves celebration because that's a great place, but he doesn't have the competitive drive of Goucher to beat the Africans... he will just settle for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th, etc.

I kind of thought the same thing initially, Ryan does not seem to have that killer instinct. Kara is definitely about winning, which is probably why once she got close to winning big races her running really took off. Ryan seems to be a little more focussed on the process and a lot more on the spiritual aspect of running.

That may hurt him in tough races especially if it comes down to the wire, but overall it may allow him to get himself extremely strong and fit without wasting a lot of mental energy and allow him to just get better and better year after year without the mental letdowns and depressions that a lot of top athletes go through. He does seem pretty hungry though, he said he'll be back every year. I think when he's in a race for the win, he gets a flame in the eye, but if he's out of the win he goes more into the process and experience side of why he runs.

It'd be great if he wanted to make it a bit more of a battle, but the trouble with being that christian is you don't find a lot of purpose in self glory or accomplishment. At that level of running the smallest lack of desire to win makes all the difference.

It means we have strength but no depth. We have a man who, for any given marathon, is a serious threat. We have a woman who, for any given marathon, is a serious threat (amazingly, we actually have two). You really need depth to be competative on the international stage. Give us five guys like Hall and we'll start winning stuff. Just one? It's going to take a lot of luck.