Kim Smith's calf was ballooned up like a melon.

Dear Francis el - Never coulda, shoulda, woulda.

I saw her at the Coply afterwards , calf was not swollen like a melon.

Idiot poster.

Crimea River wrote:

Running a fast half marathon in the buildup to the full is often a setup for heartbreak. Better to be a Ryan Hall in this case.

New Orleans was more than two months before Boston. That's not the same as running New York four weeks before Boston (which worked out pretty well for Gebremariam, by the way).

What you flogs need to realise is, when Kim Smith says she is in the best shape she has ever been in SHE MEANS IT, this is not some Ryan Hall pre race work-out vid claim, or hyperbolic Alberto press release, this is statement from one of the most humble and understated athletes around.

Trust me, when Kim says she is fitter than she has ever been, she is doing mind boggling stuff in training. It is simply not in her nature to overstate anything. Remember she has run 14.38 / 30:39 so if she is in far and away better shape than that, she is going to rattle some cages.

Exactly.

Some people on this board seem to believe that taking the lead in a marathon (according to a random messageboard poster with no knowledge of her current fitness, her running style, running history and previous PB's) leads to tearing calf muscles about halfway through. But they won't provide examples of that injury happening to any other elite marathoner, ever. Nor will they explain why running 2:22 pace when you are in shape for a 2:22 is a bad strategy. Asinine.

The new Kim Smith shoe from Reebok appears to have very little structure when observed via photo:http://bostonmarathon.runnersworld.com/2011/04/new-shoes-plus-kim-smiths-boston-racing-flats.htmlThis does not appear to be the same flat she wore earlier this spring in New Orleans:http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=59312.html

zappatos wrote:

I know she was wearing the brand new 5oz Reebok road shoe. Don't know how long she has had them, but it has to be possible that the shoe (which was most likely a prototype if the model has not been officially released) affected the condition of her calves, right? That's a far-fetched explanation, for sure, but I can't help but think that sponsored athletes sometimes fall victim to having to wear/promote unproven footwear/apparel at times.

Also, I noticed that she - more so than any of the other elites - was running very close to the side of the road...could the grade of paved surfaces have affected the outcome at all?

The new shoes are called the RacerZ:

http://bostonmarathon.runnersworld.com/files/2011/04/RacerZ.jpg

The look fast, but appear to have an interesting sole; maybe not preferable for hilly courses?

dean moriarty wrote:

Exactly.

Some people on this board seem to believe that taking the lead in a marathon (according to a random messageboard poster with no knowledge of her current fitness, her running style, running history and previous PB's) leads to tearing calf muscles about halfway through. But they won't provide examples of that injury happening to any other elite marathoner, ever. Nor will they explain why running 2:22 pace when you are in shape for a 2:22 is a bad strategy. Asinine.

Dean, please give it up already. She dropped out and didn't win the race. We will never know what would have happened, but it wasn't her day. Why do you keep saying it was a freak injury? People running fast get injured all of the time in marathons. It is the nature of the beast. Kim was supposedly fitter than she has ever been, which sometimes means someone may be slighly overtrained and her calf obviously wasn't ready to produce on that day. If the calf problem had happened with a few hundred meters to go I would feel far worse for her. It however happened with over 10 miles to go. Not bad luck, just not trained properly for this marathon; whether it was overtraining, not training enough for downhills, not having enough nutrition, etc. Personally, every step she took well before the calf problem, I couldn't see how she could run the entire way at that pace looking the way she did with her strange stride.

Hopefully Kim can figure out what happened in this race and come back even better prepared for the next one. If she does like you think she should do and just pass it off as bad luck, she won't even try to figure out what happened and most likely something will happen again in her next marathon. You learn from your mistakes, but only if you're willing to accept that a mistake was made.

The shoe she wore in the flatter course New Orleans half may have been the same, just a different color, as the photos are inconclusive:

http://photos.nola.com/tpphotos/2011/02/post_132.html

However, the rubber foam sole material should be compared.

She is resting and healing. She is also addressing all the lifestyle fixes require to be in full running form again.