Letsrun PLEASE get that DEENA link off the front page!

Deena runs 1:09 half and then have a off day in London and she needs to retire? Yes she's had a few sub par performances but its more noticeable because its the marathon in which they get few chances to redeem themselves. A 9.95 male 100m peformer have four years in which he runs 10.19 or slower or female 100m 10.95 runs 11.19 and not many notice yet its the same as Deena's sceanrio. She'll be back and faster than 2:26-2:35 so many predicted.

goprney wrote:

It's unfortunate you can't be a leader in the sport, wejo. You have the ability to be the internet version of Cordner Nelson when it comes to being a promoter of distance running. Instead, you're running a tawdry little circus that has an increasingly bad odor to it.

We are huge promoters of the sport. That means treating this as a SPORT. That means allowing fans to discuss the prominent athletes and what they should or not be doing. Our role is not to cheerlead and be fanboys of every athlete. Other websites can do that if they want.

Whether Deena should retire is a fair topic. No one can make her do anything. It is ultimately her decision. I assume she understands this and understands that these are just other people's opinions.

If our policy is "only positive comments allowed" LetsRun.com ceases to exist. We would be more like a PR firm for the athletes or USATF.

If there is not free discussion of our sport and our athletes then we're not doing our job at LetsRun.com. I've had very prominent people associated with some of the biggest races in America say to me, "What you said about our race stung but was true." And what did they do in return? They got better.

So I guess when Regina Jacobs pulled out of the Olympics and there were legitimate questions of performance enhancing use, we were supposed to be quite and not say anything? Just cheer lead like USATF? No, that is not our roll.

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about see here

and

where a USATF official said in response to a journalist not kissing Regina's butt and actually being a journalist, "Don’t you know that Regina is idolized in this country, and she is the most popular female athlete that we have?”

You mention Cordner Nelson. Track and Field News has done a lot of great things. My one beef with them was they were so silent on the drug issue for so long. And what happened as a result? Our sport suffered because instead of people asking tough questions, they turned the other way.

When the Houston Marathon dropped prize money at the start of the decade I guess you'd want us to not allow people to discuss this? Instead there was discussion and I actually emailed Steve Karpas, the race director. He said the comments stuck with him and he took them to heart. Less than 10 years later Houston was back in a big way with prize money. See

If Boston let's it's pro field suffer as it did earlier this decade, we should all remain quite right? No. People discuss the issue and Boston uses this as motivation to get better.

Personally, I hope Deena gets ticked off and comes back with a vengeance.

Dude, it's "quiet", not quite.

Sayings letsrun is a standard bearer for excellence in the sport is a lot like saying the Tea Party is the standard bearer for multi-cultural diversity in this country.

Regina blew up and finally got caught about a half-dozen years ago. There was some journalism involved on letsrun's part, but it wasn't anything a bright high school kid could have done.

Somehow I think the sport can and has improved without you wejo. Saying "personally, I hope Deena gets ticked off and comes back with a vengeance" only indicates you think she owes YOU something. I don't think she owes you anything.

If Deena does come back in splendid fashion, then you are going to take credit for it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a load of crap.

Elite athletes don't just decide to make big breakthroughs because some immature message board founder thought it would be "motivational" to demand her retirement from the sport.

Personally, I believe letsrun has gone down since "Portland Runner" stopped posting. Maybe it's time for the brojo's to RETIRE RIGHT NOW. It's the some logic.

same logic

Snap out of your myopia, T&FN only "led" and "promoted" the sport when it had zero competition. T&FN is irrelevant. It lacks objectivity and credibility. T&FN even got punk'd by Letsrun a few years ago.

This from the jackass who started a thread to express his disappointment in the performance of a freshman collegiate amateur? You're a hypocrite, fanboy.

VIPAM wrote:

I know Letsrun posted it because its a hot topic; however, its disrespectful towards the athlete. It was generated to belittle one of the U.S best female marathoners ever. Deena Drossin deserve some respect to have up and downs in her career after all her outstanding accomplishments. Do you think elite athletes will be kind to Letsrun in the future if such threads continue on your frontpage in the future?

If the some of the posters here don't have the decency to respect such an accomplished athlete in her downtime then surely Letsrun shouldn't plaster that hatered on its frontpage!

So the front page has a quote about her bad performance, a picture of her hanging her head down, and a link to the thread saying she should retire? Did the poll about her retirement also appear with that? I saw at least three up at the same time. That's a lot of negative attention getting thrown her way and a majority of it was placed there by the site's editors.

Editors are responsible for what they choose to make available to readers.

This thread brings me back to thinking about my first road races back in the early 70's, running on winter Sunday mornings at Riis Park in Chicago.

They only charged a quarter back then. The distance would be unusual, say 6.8 or 8.2 miles. If you finished in the top 15, your name would be in the Monday Chicago Tribune sports page. The UCTC guys usually showed up, as well as some high school distance studs looking for a hard training run.

Steam would often rise out of the lagoon when it was super cold. The competition was tough. I remember running when it was 8 above zero and I was the only guy in shorts. One guy ran alongside me once and commented on my decision to run in shorts. "I ran in shorts last week and I nearly froze my wanger solid! My wife needed a couple hours after the race to get it back warmed up."

There was an old guy named Dick King (about 65-70 years old) who always finished last. We were too dumb to know it at the time but Dick King was an early distance running pioneer who even rated a mention in Jim Fixx's "Running" book.

The thing about Dick King was he had the most awful running form. He ran as though he was hauling a piano on his back, about to have a heart attack, it seemed. As teenagers, we always we excited to see Dick King survive to run another day.

Those were extremely cold mornings at Riis Park. Every athlete who finished, however, and every spectator would wait an additional 10-15 minutes for Dick King to finish. We'd line the final straightaway and we cheer the old guy home like mad. It was a Riis Park tradition. Then we'd all retreat inside the fieldhouse and drink hot chocolate while warming our frozen toes in the fieldhouse radiator pipes.

The times, they were different back then. We all felt a real sense of community and running was what bonded us. It didn't matter if a UCTC guy averaged under five minute miles or if Dick King ran twelve minute miles.

I guess if I'm interpreting wejo correctly, it'd be acceptable to boo Dick King now or demand he stop running entirely. I guess what I lament most now is the lack of civility we runners have in our discourse. Few people probably actually knew Dick King but we all loved him even though we had to stand out in the cold for quite awhile.

Well said.

Nice story, Riis Park Strider.

You're analogizing your fun runs in the park to a pro running big money marathons? Did Dick King ever show up and declare that he was in the best shape of his life, ready to go out hard from the beginning and challenge his PR?

People run for their own reasons and who are we to question those reasons? I think it's better to simply respect anyone who does run, period.

We're not questioning reasons, we're questioning behavior, as represented by actions and statements.

Shes done still a fork in her.