NO AMERICAN PRIDE AMONG ELITE U.S. ELITE RUNNERS

So true!

Our military personnel do the things they do so that others may have the freedom to make their own choices.

Why do you care so much about people running for the US if they are all 'elite running dipshits'?

Happy Holidays, and gobble gobble mother trucker.

But I do agree with you...my running dream is sending our 7 best runners to world xc.

He went to war because he was getting paid to do so. He desire to not go was obviously not strong enough to face the consequences of not going.

our military goes to war because they want to, it is an all volunteer military each and everyone in the military goes to war because they want to. we have the top military in the world no country can beat us. (vietnam beat us, but only politically, our troops won every battle)

with our runners, they also run voluntarily, the difference is there are 2 countries that are pretty certain to beat us and maybe 5 capable of beating us.

lets say we did send our best to lets say the world xc championships, our runners probably wont win and they may also lose their marketability, for example if ritz, solinsky, teg and rupp ran world xc and got 7th, 9th, 11th and 12th individually and 3rd as a team a great performance, absolutelely for people who know the sport.

but to the general public the reaction would be WOW there are runners in the world better than are best, so it would hurt their marketability.

as a fan, i want to see our runners run great and i find it annoying our runners (USA) dont compete in many big competitions, but i know it hurts their marketability to lose.

it looks better to have a runner win a marathon in 2:09 then to get 5th in 2:06

when bob kennedy ran 7:30 for 3k and 12:58 for 5k the americans records at the time, i was like he did great, and other people were like big deal he got 6th and 8th place, for the general public and for his marketability he would have done better by winning races in slower times against nobodies.

douglas burke wrote:

it looks better to have a runner win a marathon in 2:09 then to get 5th in 2:06

I think this whole post had errors, but this was the crux of it. You mention marketability several times and this statement might be the biggest conflict. We don't have anybody winning marathons in 2:09 either, dude. We have guys getting 3rd (Mostly guy, being Hall) and obviously Meb's big win in NY last year, but as a rule we fail to send our top guys to top international competitions or market them well. I mean the running world understands how good a top 3 finish is at a major marathon, but our guys are still losing.

They don't go to world champs because they get paid not to, brah.

Who in their right mind that would actually be good enough to place high would actually sacrifice $200,000 appearance fee and the huge prize pot of placing in top positions in the Marathon+Being known as the first American to win a Major Marathon since 1980 something(besides New York) or for those non Marathoners sacrifice precious training time and go out of their way for a meet that they would still be unlikely to place in the individual medals and at the very best get a Bronze Medal in the Team Standings?

If you were an elite, would YOU REALLY sacrifice all that and go out of your way to race guys way faster than you and loose Hundreds of Thousands of dollars in appearance money and prize money? That's the answer to your question.

For my country (USA) I would.

Why would it be any other way? wrote:

Who in their right mind that would actually be good enough to place high would actually sacrifice $200,000 appearance fee and the huge prize pot of placing in top positions in the Marathon+Being known as the first American to win a Major Marathon since 1980 something(besides New York) or for those non Marathoners sacrifice precious training time and go out of their way for a meet that they would still be unlikely to place in the individual medals and at the very best get a Bronze Medal in the Team Standings?

If you were an elite, would YOU REALLY sacrifice all that and go out of your way to race guys way faster than you and loose Hundreds of Thousands of dollars in appearance money and prize money? That's the answer to your question.

You missed the whole point jack ass.

wazinwizard wrote:

Our military personnel do the things they do so that others may have the freedom to make their own choices.

Why do you care so much about people running for the US if they are all 'elite running dipshits'?

Happy Holidays, and gobble gobble mother trucker.

so he's a loser. i'm not. i'm not stupid enough to believe that phony patriotic horse doo doo. the facts are obama and bush hate muslims and like to shoot them in the back. i don't hate muslims and i don't want to see any muslims shot in the back.

our troops won every battle

that's not true. the army got it's ass kicked on the battlefields of asia. army abandoned 10,000 militants in the heat of battle and let them become sex toys, slaves, and dinner for decades and decades after 1975. the u.s. was so humiliated by asians, pardon me ford was paralyzed, carter was too afraid, reagan was left hamstrung. for 20 years after 1975 ford, cater, and reagan let up to 10,000 u.s. militants be tortured, butt raped, mouth raped, and beaten senseless by asians. these militants have still not been accounted for. asia refuses to release the names, bones, and won't tell us who is still alive.

For my country (USA) I would.

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Not if you lost Hundreds of Thousands of dollars. Ritzenhein, Hall, Solinsky, and all these other people have familes. Would you rather starve your family by not getting any money or would you rather loose horribly at World XC and represent your Country. Hundreds of Thousands of dollars gone you could feed your family with and much better serve your country by possibly actually placing in a major, not something the U.S.A. is likely to do.

Trust me on this one, it would be really stupid to do all that if you have no chance of winning, which no U.S.A person does. If we actually had a chance of course someone like Solinsky or Tegankamp or someone would go. But clearly they know we would loose horribly and they wouldn't be able to get alot of cash to feed their families.

^I meant would you rather feed your family or would you rather loose horribly at World Xc and represent your country.

Why would it be any other way? wrote:

For my country (USA) I would.

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Not if you lost Hundreds of Thousands of dollars. Ritzenhein, Hall, Solinsky, and all these other people have familes. Would you rather starve your family by not getting any money or would you rather loose horribly at World XC and represent your Country. Hundreds of Thousands of dollars gone you could feed your family with and much better serve your country by possibly actually placing in a major, not something the U.S.A. is likely to do.

...But clearly they know we would loose horribly and they wouldn't be able to get alot of cash to feed their families.

I had no idea so many elite runner's families were living meal to meal... Nobody is going to starve.

That being said, it would be really cool to see a fast team going to world cross because cross races are more exciting than track races and most marathons. There has to be money there though, and I'm not sure how you would get it. Maybe have an amateur day the first day and run heats open to all comers in the morning for $30 and than hold an "Open Championship" in the evening for the top 30 times as a way to fund the elite race? You could even let running clubs put together their own amateur teams and do a team award too. Then again, maybe we should just cross our fingers and hope some billionaire former cross country runner drops dead and foolishly bequests his/her money with the goal of putting together a good squad.

I had no idea so many elite runner's families were living meal to meal... Nobody is going to starve.

That being said, it would be really cool to see a fast team going to world cross because cross races are more exciting than track races and most marathons. There has to be money there though, and I'm not sure how you would get it. Maybe have an amateur day the first day and run heats open to all comers in the morning for $30 and than hold an "Open Championship" in the evening for the top 30 times as a way to fund the elite race? You could even let running clubs put together their own amateur teams and do a team award too. Then again, maybe we should just cross our fingers and hope some billionaire former cross country runner drops dead and foolishly bequests his/her money with the goal of putting together a good squad.

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But considering that's unlikely to happen, I would think

an extreme elite would much rather get the $$$$ from racing then this so called "U.S. pride" which would probably be better served if a U.S. person won a Major anyway.

Either way, we should tell our elite runners to to. Period. They have no pride. They don't because they are all gung ho about the olympics which really it's all about the invidual when it come to running. Cross is more about the team. Period.

Either way, we should tell our elite runners to to. Period. They have no pride. They don't because they are all gung ho about the olympics which really it's all about the invidual when it come to running. Cross is more about the team. Period.

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I agree with you, I would love to see some of the best in World Cross. But put yourself in an elites shoes. Your not gonna win, your really not gonna beat any Kenyans or place high in the meet, your going to miss a huge amount of appearance money and prize money, people might even mkae fun of you if you place bad in World XC while if you run a Major and even place in the top five you'll get a lot of cash and from your prestige you get from placing in the top five in the next meet you run in you'll get more appearance money. So honestly I don't think it would be worth sacrificing so much until truely World Cross offers more cash.

Leave fighting wars for blacks and hispanics. White people are smart enough to let other people fight their wars and not get wrapped up in patriotism that is used as a tool to cull the weak minded. Let the minorities fight our wars, we have frat parties and keggers to attend.

In my opinion it is you who didn't get the point. I agree that it would be nice to see our top guys competing internationally as often as possible, but I don't agree for a second that they should for the reasons the OP listed. I am a jackass, but not for the reason you are claiming. What's next on the internet tough guy schedule? I think this is where you call me a coward while also letting me know that you are battle hardened.