Did Ryan Hall just beat a bunch of Nobodies, or were these guys legit competition?

I think so.... see the elite field preview. That being said, it looked like Hall was out for a nice tempo run and then dropped a fast mile, uphill, with little effort for the run. It would have been interesting to see how Ryan would have fared in the Great North Run, but he did have a very similar performance to Wanjiru in Fortis. Hard to really conclude anything from the performance other than he didn't go after the AR, but his race execution was perfect.

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Simon Bairu

A Canadian by way of Eritrea and Ethiopia who attended the University of Wisconsin, Simon Bairu, 26, was the 2004 and 2005 NCAA Cross Country champion. Bairu won the 5000m at this year’s Canadian Athletics Championships.

Ryan Hall

Does Ryan Hall still need an introduction? Now 26 years old, Hall owns the American record for the half marathon (59:43), which he hopes to take down in this year’s ING Philadelphia Distance run, and the fastest marathon time for an American-born runner (2:06:17). If he is on track in his preparations for October’s New York City Marathon, Hall will be very difficult to beat on Sunday.

Benjamin Limo

If anyone can beat Ryan Hall on Sunday, it is likely to be Kenya’s Benjamin Limo. He is arguably the faster runner, having won the 2005 world championship at 5000m and three World Cross Country Championships medals. However, Limo has accomplished little on the roads and is getting on in years, having celebrated his 35th birthday in August.

Samuel Ndereba

Brother of five-time ING Philadelphia Distance Run winner Catherine Ndereba, Kenya’s Samuel Ndereba, 32, is no slouch himself. He brings a half-marathon PR of 1:01:50 to the race and finished fifth in Philly last year.

Benjamin Limo has nowhere near the form he had 2-3 years ago, is a c-level road racer now(2:12 Marathon).

they ran 2:30 faster in Newcastle today....everybody was there...

Less then 2:30 faster and the Great North Run is downhill. Overall probably close to equal effort.

Off the Grid wrote:

they ran 2:30 faster in Newcastle today....everybody was there...

did rohatinsky run?

The former.

These african runners were considered the basic "C" team crew. They are the ones who every now and then are entitled to win some money, granted permission from the top A, and B african runners not showing up. Ryan lucked out in this race. If the top guys came Ryan would have either ran a minute faster or dropped out.

yeah I didn't see roharinsky's name in the results?

simon bairu did not race.

Hmmmmm not sure how elite this field was or not

But it doesn't matter Ryan was the best in the field,

He won the race this shouldn't be a debate about how good the comp was

Elite or not he put the boots to them all

and a side note i am sure EVERYONE on this thread would get there asses kicked in this race against these so called "C" level runners

Props on a nice win Ryan, all you haters need to go fetch some mileage

word to you uhh you woulda lost. thanK you for that.

When in doubt, tear down others to make yourself feel better..... the letsrun mantra.

simon ran a 14m tempo run the day before, on his twitter said it went perfect

Wanjiru was 7th in Lisbon with 61:27 four weeks before running 2:05:15 at London.

it is not about beating anyone, it is about the time you run. this is what kenyans understand and that is why they keep winning. run your time, don't worry about anyone else. how many guys run under 60 min? alot. last week alot of guys run under 1 hour. the guys who were setting the base for haile cross 21km with 61 min. hundreds of kenyans can run 61 min with their eyes close. stop building the guy, let his work build him. a lot of you put too much expectation on one guy which always turns into dissappointment. ryan hall is good but there are thousands who run the same time he did.

time has nothing to do with getting out there and competing. he likely could have tried to run away from them from the gun, but that would defeat the purpose of him having shown up at all. He can run by himself every day of the week.

Geb ran faster in Berlin.

For the first half.

hall's finish time for a half marathon was 61:52. haile's half mararthon split was 61:44..go figure

before you bust my balls, I know it was a different race, continent, objective, goal etc but???

sounds like a great thread for all the disenfranchised emo kiddies over on DyeStat. You might even supplant AJ Acosta as the most awesome person ever if you actually wore the shirt.