alicia johnson pacing - wtf ?

If you look at AJ's splits she did get faster, so once someone would decide to make amove past her she was starting to increase the pace. I'm not saying they shouldn't have passed her, but in a big and tough field when you are planning to cruise the first part, it's a big change in race plans and some might pause before becoming the next rabbit. In a 1500, that ain't much time.

And acyually as a rabbit, you are being paid to babysit. That's the whole point of a rabbit and the whole point of this thread. If AJ was running as part of the field she could do what she wanted, but she wasn't.

A rabbit is paid to hit a pace, they aren't paid to make sure that anyone else in the field is keeping up or not running too fast. We don't know what pace AJ was told to run, she may have done what she was told (I doubt it, she probably just did a crappy job). The field was made up of professional athletes. It's up to them to make sure they don't run like dog squeeze. If I was Twell, I'd rather rabbit and lose in 4:01, than not rabbit and STILL lose in 4:10.

Whenever I paced for a race, I knew clearly what was expected. Also, they would give me any split I wanted to make sure I was comfortable. Almost every track had a clock at the 200 and finish line. I would occasionally ask for a 100 meter split just to be sure. Any adjustment could be made gradually from there to the 400 and then I was on my way. In my experience, 800 meter runners made the worst rabbits. They really had no concept of pace at all. I shared on another post that one time the pacer was supposed to go 2:10, which she did. Problem was, she ran the first lap in 60 and the 2nd in 70. She couldn't understand why everyone was upset. She didn't get paid, and I never saw her rabbit again.

While I believe the rabbit totally flopped, everyone knew it by the time they saw where they were at 200 meters. Plus I'm sure they could feel it. At that point they have to decide if they want to sacrifice themselves and do the work for everyone, or go for the win and know the time won't be fast. Going for the win is the smarter plan. There will be other chances to run fast, hopefully.

Rabbits sometimes screw up, and you have to deal with it. This one was particularly bad. Ah, for the days of Mary on the starting line. You knew exactly what was going to happen!

Ruth, always enjoy your posts and perspective.

It is a little odd that somehow, even with a pacer, that Willard said in her post interview that she knew the pace would be slow.

Rabbits never are used to slow down a race - NEVER. Usually, if there is a mess up, it's from going out too fast not way way to slow.

Stating the obvious wrote:

Ruth, always enjoy your posts and perspective.

It is a little odd that somehow, even with a pacer, that Willard said in her post interview that she knew the pace would be slow.

Rabbits never are used to slow down a race - NEVER. Usually, if there is a mess up, it's from going out too fast not way way to slow.

Perhaps the reason she thought it would be slow is because many of the marks over the 2 day meet were not particularly fast. Wind, weather, whatever. Perhaps the atmosphere of the meet was don't expect much. Also, if Monaco is supposed to be such a barn-burner, maybe there was a bit of letdown as they anticipated the next race. Maybe, for some reason, they didn't have confidence in the pacemaker.

I have heard from reliable sources that the rabbit for the ladies 1500 meter race in London was hired to dupe everyone into THINKING there was going to be a fast pace, when, in fact, the rabbit was given specific instructions to dictate a slow pace in an effort to give Dobriskey an (unfair) advantage in her effort to make the British team for Worlds.

All but two athletes (Dobriskey and Willard) were told that the pace was going out in a quick 2:07 - 2:08 half.

Whatever happened to fair play? If Twell and England do not make the British Team, I hope their coaches and agents raise bloody hell!

The thing is 200m into the race it was too late. 200m-600m was 1:37, slightly over 4:00 pace.

Egg-xactly

Something smells very rotten in old London town!

Diabolical!

If UK athletics wanted a slow race they would just not hire any pacemaker!

Name your reliable source

Either put up or shut up!

Uhm, they weren't going to have a pacer (but planned one for the men's race...wha?) but the field insisted on a rabbit so the meet organizers got one so they wouldn't lose the field.

Really, you think a 2:00 800M runner would take out the first 200M at 40 sec because she's just not that good at it?

Twell is showing both inexperience and immaturity here. This whole thing is pathetic and shows why western athletes are consistently getting trounced at the international level -- inability to step up and to react to changes within a race. Diagnoses: too many time-trial paced "races" and not enough actual racing.

I have been at races where Kenyan runners hissed at, touched, shoved, or even PASSED the rabbit if the pace was off. And f#cking 7:20 mile pace should be slow enough to be detected and reacted to pretty damn fast by supposedly professional athletes. I don't care what they were told ahead of time...See/hear a number greater than ***40*** at 200? Time for a change of plan.

why would she want to run 2:06 through 800? thats 4:12 pace. She aint runnin no 1500 equivalent of a 4:12 1600m. The rabbit did her a favor.