I, and a lot of other Christians, would appreciate you not labeling it as a "Christian" thing. I do understand that Josh's representation of his PR's may be faulty but to label this as a "Christian" thing is insulting and quite frankly ignorant. Considering the recent thread about the average 5k time for LRC posters, I could suggest that lying and distributing misinformation about PR's is an "LRC thing" but I wouldn't dare label everyone in this forum as such. Being tempted to embellish PR's is a HUMAN thing. And I'm sure Cox would be one of the first to admit he's human, just like you and every other runner, and therefore tempted to embellish. I'm a Josh Cox fan and a Christian. And I also agree with your sentiments concerning his race times. He needs to adjust them and if I were he, I'd do exactly as you suggested and own up to a shortcoming and a setback. Excuses won't get you any where. Concerning Hall, why drag him in? Yes, I know he trains with Cox and they are both Christians but don't lump them together outside of that. This is a thread about Cox. Maybe if we laid off Hall, let him train, and continue to develop without the pressure, he and the rest of our young marathoners (Ritzenhein, Torres, Hall) will fulfill their potential. Seems to me that Meb was out of the spotlight, unheralded, and written off.... He's also 34(?) Our young guys aren't there yet. Back off and quit with all the pressure. If they've got the weight of the country (hmmmmm... Paula Radcliffe comes to mind) on them, of course the propensity to find excuses when "failure" occurs is more likely. Not excusable but it's going to happen!
From The Stands wrote:
Common, anyone who knows running, knows Josh is a self promoter. It is how he makes a living. He will put a spin on anything to make it look as good as possible.
I couldn't agree with you more on Hall. To reason because he wasn't leading, he ran slower (a lot slower (1:30 slower than Meb)) is ridicules. Man up, say he had a bad day, needs to review his preparation, see what went wrong and be better prepared next time.
Maybe it isn’t Josh's influence, maybe it’s a Christian thing since they both use excuses.