Dear Galen Rupp: Time to Move up to the Marathon

Prof. Noel Ignatiev of Harvard wrote:

Rak wrote:

Give me a break with that 7th in the world shit. The only reason he even finished that high was because the whole field wasn't allowed to be just kenyans and ethiopians. Kenya's B Squad would run CIRCLES around Rupp. Don't be deceived by this bullshit 7th place finish. Look at how he is in relation to the competition (aka nearly a full minute behind).

LOL

Typical racist or maybe a self hater if Rak is white. These semen swallowing peter puffing pork pullers never stop to wonder why they hate "their own", never wonder who taught them to be on auto-pilot and never really look at what they are saying about themselves. LOL Rupp sure kicked down a lot of those Afreakans finishing 2nd behind his bud Farah in that fine 5k in GB. But of course, it was an off day for the unbeatable Kenyans and Ethiopians, heh.

Rak, go fellate your Soc Professor. Bury your face in his wrinkled nut sack. Again.

Brian Rose wrote:

Frankly I don't think Rupp will ever make a mark where it counts, in world class competition. He doesn't have that depth, as others have noted. For example, the last 10K he ran prior to World Champs, was all about testing his speed in the last 600, which was quite good, except it was after rolling 70 second quarters. BFD when the Ethiopians and Kenyans can bust out the low 50 quarters after running regular 65s.

But more than that, there is something more imprecise and unscientific. He just doesn't seem to me to have that killer focus, that (excuse the awful, awful cliche) "eye of the tiger." At the start of the 10K, he looked like a scared, wide eyed little boy, not a runner capable of scoring a medal against world class competition. I've watched him race before, and every time when he's not running away for an easy win, when it's actually HARD and he's got COMPETITION, I can see in his eyes the moment when he just switches off, and is content to settle for a top 10 and a PR.

He's a product of a growing mentality that emphasizes personal bests and easy wins like top tens and winning the age group. That kind of mindset should not be acceptable.

I also think the money thing is a huge psychological factor. The Kenyans and Ethiopians are running for their VERY LIVES, and the LIVES of their FAMILY. A win means money to care for everyone for life. That is a huge mental edge, an incentive hard to transcend by our soft athletes with their Alter-Gs, altitude houses and 200K shoe contracts. They have nothing at stake.

The reason we were better back in the 60s and 70s was because those runners were, in a way, like the Ethiopians. Working class kids coming from no money, for whom running was not a career so much as a means to achieve financial security. If you won Gold, then that meant you could get a good job...but until then you had to scrape by. Hell Jim Ryun bagged groceries to pay to travel for altitude training before Mexico City. Prefontaine lived on food stamps. Shorter was enough of a realist that he got a law degree, because at the time there wasn't much of a future as a runner.

I'm not saying we should go back to the days when pro runners had to live in poverty, but I do believe the desire to escape that state of live was a incentive when it came time to racing.

Now, when our top athletes are bought a paid for by Nike, when they have that soft cushion to land on, and they can generally win races in the U.S. (yet are virtually meaningless in the world scheme), what have they at stake by not winning, not getting a medal in a world class event?

Galen=JimmyMacelroy wrote:

Galen had a great race. He's a very talented runner...for a non-African. I think expectations of what he can accomplish have been completely unreasonable, especially on this board. People posting things like "Farah = Rupp" based on some stupid logic that they train together and that they have been supposedly neck-and-neck in work outs is utter rubbish and total hype (likely perpetuated by AlSal and Nike).

Rupp simply doesn't have the aerobic ability or the finishing speed to beat the top Africans on the world stage. Everyone was salivating on this board when he closed a glorified tempo run 10000m at USA's in 1:52. Now if he could close a race like the WC 10000m in 1:52, that would be something...he would of won the race (he was 25:20 at 9200m) but he can't and won't ever be able to do so.

Does this mean he should move up to the marathon? Maybe. But even if he does he will still lack the endurance to win the big races and beat the top Africans.

My advice to the USA if they want to win distance medals: Start importing athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia, and other east African countries and make them US citizens (a la Lagat). This is the USAs best hope for success in distance running in the future.