Wheeeeeee--
I appreciate your excellent comment.
But back to the original post, where it said that "I thought when he was coming up on my shoulder, "I've got to hold him off. I've got to hold him off". To do so would have meant kicking from 150-160 meters out which also would have cost me the race."
This sounds like a guy who is consciously racing, to me, although of course I could be wrong.
Conscious racing would seem to me to be a good thing in the 800, where placing and pacing play a big role, where there is a definite strategy and various tactics that can be implemented. In fact, it may have been exactly because he was thinking so hard that his courage could not triumph.
Although once again I do appreciate your comment, and you could certainly be correct. But, at some point in every race, there is only one tactic that is appropriate--don't think about it, and GO NOW. In the 800m you aren't always in control of that point, and sometimes you have to run somebody else's race.
Referring to the other thread, it just so happens that that point in the 100m race is at the start line.
Again, I like Symmonds a lot.