Mebrahtom Keflezighi: here's what you should do for 2011, don't worry about Boston

I like those two options and agree preparing for another marathon and preferably a flat fast course to slash his personal best would be spectacular.

I sincerely hope Meb does something to indicate Boston made a big mistake by not making an offer to include him their field. Go for it Meb! Do a spring marathon and post a sub 2:08, make the U.S team at 10000m, or run up a streak of great US road races performances.

I hope Meb runs something fast, but he is taking the wrong approach here. He most definitely is done now with Boston for life as he has dragged their name in the mud.

Who cares...Boston snub with not offering Mr. Keflezighi anything is the deal breaker. An Olympic Silver Medalist, former Winner of NYC, and an AMERICAN who committed to a U.S soil marathon for years instead of chasing fast times overseas. It was J. Hancock who ended the professional relationship between Mebrahtom and Boston Marathon. I mean look at the list of people who did make the Elite men's list and Mebrahtom DEFINTELY have better credentials then most of the elite men.

I would hope Mebrahtom goes for a spot on the U.S World 10000m team. Even if he doesn't make it but can return to around 27:30 form that could be benefical for a impressive fall marathon performance.

Boston needs to be accountable and I'm glad he stuck for the right thing by expressing the truth. You should never hide from the truth. Especially if you know something is dead wrong. Good job Mr. Meb.

This is what he said he would do:

The cloud of not being invited to Boston already has three silver linings.

First, it has me absolutely focused on doing my very best in the 2011 NYC Half-

Marathon on March 20. Second, I will have a chance to run shorter races on the

road and possibly on the track this spring and summer. There are some great

road races that I have not been able to run yet because of Spring Marathons in my

schedule. Now I look forward to racing in these great US Road Races. Third, it

probably makes it possible for me to run both a full marathon this fall and compete

in the Olympic Marathon trials in Houston on January 14, 2012. Three marathons

within nine months might not have been physically possible. Of course, the thought

of the 2012 Olympics already has me excited – with memories of the Silver Medal

I won in Athens and the fact that I currently own three of the four fastest Olympic

trials qualifying times.

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What Meb should do, in my uninformed and nonexpert opinion:

-now until NYC Half: HM-specific, medium-volume stuff, like he's said he's going to be doing.

-March-August: nothing special, really. 100-mile weeks, threshold running, *not* fast intervals on the track. It's been too long since he raced on the track, there's an injury risk. Do a couple summer road races, but in a low-key way.

-August-September: another HM buildup for San Jose, which he's won the last two years. Hopefully he can run closer to 1:01 flat (like he did before winning NYC) than 1:01 high (like he did before NYC last year).

-October-January: short break, then a real marathon buildup - whatever he did before NYC '09. If he's had almost a year of steady if unexceptional training, without injury, he should be a good bet for the Olympic team.

I would like to see him on the track one more year since no spring marathon is in the cards this year. With the added strength from the years of marathon training and being healthy since last year, I think he could incorporate some track training and mix it up with the 10000m guys one more time. I would count on him running sub 27 but he could definitely return to his pb area and springboard into fall marathon training. This would probably be his last good year to train specifically for a track 10000m.

I think he should pay the damn entry fee to Boston and then finish four minutes behind the winner with his 5 digit bib number.

Meb is making a big mistake by chasing the $$ to run a fall marathon. He will undoubtedly do NY. A 2-month turnaround to the trials will not be enough to make the team. I know he essentially did that after Beijing (i.e. Beijing to NY) but that was clearly the beginning of his injury problems that plagued him for some time.

Being older, I don't see how Meb will be able to run 2 sub 2:10 marathons within 3 months.

What he should do is find a spring marathon, even if the appearance fee is not what he wants (London, Rotterdam)? He could still focus on the NYC Half (I bet he could run a good marathon off of half training... see Nick Arciniaga). Place as high as possible and make some cash from prize winnings. Heck, if he thinks he could win Boston, that's $150,000 in prize money there. If he get's second that is $75,000. I think third is still $40,000! No way he makes that on the roads. So if he is as good as he thinks, he'll get a better payday in prize money then not running at all. Seems as though he is cutting off his nose to spite his face.

That would set him up financially to them come back and have a track season... parlay that into road races in the fall before the Trials.

This makes a lot more sense to me then to do it the opposite way... road races in the spring and then marathon in the fall.

I'm not sure how Meb thinks he's going to run a fall marathon and be ready for the trials in Jan... that kills his career right there, imho.

Conto wrote:

Meb is making a big mistake by chasing the $$ to run a fall marathon. He will undoubtedly do NY. A 2-month turnaround to the trials will not be enough to make the team. I know he essentially did that after Beijing (i.e. Beijing to NY) but that was clearly the beginning of his injury problems that plagued him for some time.

Being older, I don't see how Meb will be able to run 2 sub 2:10 marathons within 3 months.

Who says he will need to be able to run sub 2:10 to make the team? Only Meb and Ryan Hall have been able to run sub 2:10 since the marathon trials qualifying window opened for 2012. The only guys who are close to being sub 2:10 are Hartmann, Arciniaga and Gotcher. Ritz should be able to run sub 2:10, but who knows whether he will be injured or will just give up and take a spot on the track. Maybe Patrick Smyth or Mo Trafeh will have a breakthrough at the trials. But, I wouldn't bet on it. The trials are usually a tactical race. The winner will probably break 2:10 and the rest will be 2:10+.

Fine... even so... I don't think Meb, who has proven to get injured/ill often over the last 3 years, will be able to double back and beat 3 guys. The chances of him doing that are about the same as KK making the team (my darkhorse pick). Its possible, but not likely.

whatever - Meb just got himself underdog status - I'm going to hope he beats Hall, Ritz, etc at the trials - how sweet would that be?

He should go to DisneyWorld with his family. There are some awesome water slides at Typhoon Lagoon. Fun times!

I don;t see how he has dragged BAA's name in the mud -- BAA did it to themselves. Meb just stated what happened (no offer) and said he was disappointed. It's just the truth.

This turn of events has now made me a big fan of Meb. I think he handled this in the right way.

We should all be proud of Meb for doing the right thing and not let folks try to get away with Murder. BAA did it to themselves. The irony of all this is that they were interviewed by RW in December and they were stating how they were focusing on getting more Americans. Guess what? Two Americans doesn't sound like alot of Americans to me. Antonio pulled out of the Houston Half due to injury. He probably won't even show up to Boston and if he does it won't be a good performance due to interruption of training.

I think that would be a great idea. I wonder if he can pull it off without having had the milage though?