ttc wrote:
Then it means, since becoming self-coached, he's declined (given huge wind-aid in Boston). He used to run stride-for-stride with Geb deep into a race. Oh, I forgot- Letsrun posters aren't results-oriented. I hope he was just ill.
Since becoming self-coached? In the last couple of years before he became self-coached, what did he do that was any better than what he did today? And aside from races in which Geb ran poorly or dropped out, when was Hall ever really competitive with Geb at any distance? (In any event, running with someone "deep into a race" doesn't mean all that much when the race is a marathon. You don't have to be a world-class marathoner to be able to run stride-for-stride with world-class marathoners for 25-30k.)
From what I recall, this was Hall's second-fastest performance ever on a record-quality marathon course, and his third-fastest (out of nine, I think) when aided courses are included. Thinking back over Hall's whole running career, the only stretch in which he seemed (to me) a significantly stronger runner than he is now was from about January 2007 (Houston half) to April 2008 (London) -- a fairly short stretch. Although he hasn't shown the improvement that many seemed to be hoping for over the last several years (and that might have been reasonable after his break-out performance at Houston in 2007, his dominating performance in the Olympic trials later that year, and his aggressive performance against an excellent field in London 2008), he's remained a remarkably consistent performer at the marathon distance. And if he never wins a "major" marathon, never wins an Olympic medal, and never sets a U.S. marathon record, so what? Maybe some fans will be disappointed, and may even declare him to be a failure, but sports fans tend to be that way.