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    • McMillan Fail Again
      • Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 6:41AM
      • McMillan Fail Again
      • Fasil dropped out AGAIN in the marathon. I am sure that he will blame it on the weather or fluids or something else that seems to only effect the McMillan runners. I don't care if this guy wins 50 US road championships he will NEVER succeed in the marathon.
    • SoCal Pete
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 6:46AM - in reply to McMillan Fail Again
      • SoCal Pete
      • He was not attempting to finish, he was just going to Japan for the long run. If he planned on competing in the marathon he would not have blasted the Thanksgiving 10k at Dana Point last week.
    • runn
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 7:24AM - in reply to McMillan Fail Again
      • runn
      • OK- here's a discussion I had with the HS coach of a guy now running 2:19 marathons:
        Why does he enter majors, like Chicago, instead of finding marathons that could be won in 2:13-2:15- he could hang with the leaders and who knows?
        We have a lot of 2:12-2:20 marathoners who could progress this way.
    • road rashed
    • Satans Helper
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 7:51AM - in reply to McMillan Fail Again
      • Satans Helper
      • Fasil keeps moving around to different coaches, different training locales, etc. with the same or similar results no matter where he goes or what he does ... what does that tell you?
    • not trying to finish
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 8:36AM - in reply to road rashed
      • not trying to finish
      • road rashed wrote:
        Lemoncello dropped too. That's 4 straight DNF's for the McMillan men
        Lemoncello's splits:

        5km: 15:08
        10km: 30:20 (15:12)
        15km: 45:29 (15:09)
        20km: 1:00:54 (15:25)
        half: 1:04:28
        25km: 1:16:58 (16:04)
        30km: 1:33:18 (16:20)

        and it was bye-bye Andrew.
    • whyohwhy
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 9:17AM - in reply to Soxshujaz
      • whyohwhy
      • I agree. That is why it is such a shame. Is it a lack of guts, poor coaching, poor race strategy, bad luck?
    • runn
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 9:21AM - in reply to whyohwhy
      • runn
      • Here's a thought- these guys all focus on the track and if they're not fast enough move up to the marathon.
        Why not make a career of road races? A lot of guys used to do that? Run the 10k-1/2 marathons- there's a tn of them around the world and make a decent living.
        Maybe the marathon isn't their thing. Maybe track 5000's and 10,000's aren't their thing.
        They can also run the Euro XC circuit.
        There're opportunities outside of the track and marathon.
        I always thought Ritz should do this- he's a 60:00 1/2 marathon guy. Concentrate on that and become a 58:00 guy.
    • Stumbling , bumbling
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 9:42AM - in reply to runn
      • Stumbling , bumbling
      • Great points , right on !
        Advice to these runners is ill put I think at times.
        Some Euro x-country would help develop them to understanding international racing.
        Life on the roads was not bad and can be a way to make a living on the sport.
        The joke term of going "pro" , is not the approach these athletes are taking. Training full time is expected , there is no option if you want to compete at the top levels. ( in the day we did it while holding a job )
        What needs to be done better is race selection , what type of racing can develop your skills , maximize your ability not your desires.
    • HRE
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 9:55AM - in reply to McMillan Fail Again
      • HRE
      • Some people take to the marathon naturally. Some never take to it. Some take to it but need several tries before that's obvious.
        It took Ron Hill seven years to go from 2:24 to 2:09. Hal Higdon had several DNFs before becoming the first American at Boston in 1963. Jim Hogan dropped out of several major marathons before winning the European Championship in 1966.

        It seems like now we think that if someone is going to be any good at the marathon they'll do well in their first couple of tries and if they don't do well then they never will. That's not always the case.
    • flatliner
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 10:23AM - in reply to runn
      • flatliner
      • Seems like Gotcher running 2:10 set the bar for the MacMillan group- one that four guys since have blown up trying to clear.
    • Procrastinator
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 10:30AM - in reply to HRE
      • Procrastinator
      • Some good points here. I really like the idea of transitioning from the track to the marathon via slow races. These guys are used to running in the lead pack. When they step up to the marathon, they're naturally inclined to do the same. But unless these guys ran their track times off marathon mileage, they're just going to run into trouble running sub 5 for 26. An example of a nice transition was de Castella. He won the first two marathon races of his career comfortably in 2:14 and 2:13. Big negative splits indicate he had more in the tank. These results gave him the confidence to hang tough in the Olympic trials and make the team.
    • Procrastinator
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 10:39AM - in reply to McMillan Fail Again
      • Procrastinator
      • Did anyone watch the race? Looking at the splits, seems Gharib threw down the gauntlet between 15-20 and then it was all over. Was Gharib running comfortably?
    • Lindgren Runner
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 11:43AM - in reply to HRE
      • Lindgren Runner
      • HRE do you believe the same will happen to Dathan ritz?
    • HRE
      • RE: Bizuneh falters in Fukuoka 12/5/2010 12:37PM - in reply to Lindgren Runner
      • HRE
      • It's definitely a different world now so I'm going to give you a hedging, waffling sort of answer.
        If you look at Hill's career from 1962 and beyond you see that he did really well on the track but that he was never going to be Ron Clarke or Mohammed Gammoudi or Ian Stewart. If he was going to win anything major, including national championships, it was going to be either at the marathon or in cross country. The same was true for Hogan and Higdon (to a much lesser degree.)
        Hill's championship games (Olympics, Euros, BCGs) choices were to be either one of the better but not best guys on the track or to concentrate on the marathon.
        Ritz has other options. If he's discouraged by his early results in the marathon he realistically can think of himself as a track guy and decide to focus on the 5,000/10,000. His 5,000 time could convice him that he is even a possible medallist on the track and that may push him away from focusing on marathons (which would not necessarily exclude running some out of season marathons for the money.)
        That said, he has planty of marathon potential and to steal a point Nobby likes to make, even his fast track times may not mean he has enough of a kick to win a madal at the Olympics or Worlds.
        I think he could do what Hill did at the marathon if he commits to it. BUT, I doubt that he will do that unless he has a race in the fairly near future that encourages him to focus on the marathon. I don't think that anyone with his track potential would spend seven years, like Hill did, or anything close to that length of time working on his marathoning seriously when there are other things he can do well and profitably.