He's shown he is capable of blasting fast times by himself before. I would have imagined he would have been inspired to break a 26 year old course record had there been no other serious challenger.
Its a shame after that weak 1st mile some other contender with no chance of beating these two just took the lead and threw down a 4:30-4:40 mile instead of 5:02 pace. I can't recall Footocker being that slow at 2 miles.
There were no other "contenders" and a move like that would have cost a likely 3rd place finish a a huge blow-up. Maybe it was a weak year for depth and no one else other than those two felt like they were jogging at a 9:50 two mile. My senior year I don't think I ever went out that slow in a cross race, even a dual meet.
If the other 38 competitors didn't know ahead of time that the those two Africans would kick their asses, they might have given it a go and provided more competition for the first 2+ miles.
This is going to come across really insensitive, but is Futsum of East African or West African descent? It would be interesting if he was your average West African American. The issue I'm alluding to is pointed out in this RW article.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-567--14124-0,00.html
Yeah, no body would be capable of 4:30-4:40 in the middle except those two. Maybe a 4:45 and then a solid third place finish in 14:55 while the other two would have certainly been near 14:40 or under. It was still a great race. Just wonder what some of the other guys were thinking the second mile. I guess it would have been pretty foolhardy to tangle with Cheserek or Futsum no matter how slow they ran the middle of the race.
Eritrea = East African
Both athletes have gone out faster in equally difficult courses. A fast 1st mile will not have affected Cheserek for sure, but when you know the record is unlikely, the smart thing is to stay up front and cover moves, which they both did.
The way both athletes charged you the 2nd hill, when you can do that that late in the race, suggest neither one of them was redlining.
Cheserek looked like he could have handled 2 miles at 9:25 and run another 4:40 which makes me wonder what the 2 mile split was for the leaders in 1985. I know they only went out in 4:38. And what was Reina's last mile? I have that race on VHS and it still is the greatest high school cross race of all time. The 1999 Footocker race was amazing too but that course on a dry day was at least 10 seconds faster compared to Balboa.
And no way 1:54 on grass for the last 800 this year even the slight downhill finish. It was probably 2:09-2:11.
break it up wrote:
And no way 1:54 on grass for the last 800 this year even the slight downhill finish. It was probably 2:09-2:11.
I call bullshit on the 1:54 too. They're both good for 1:47 if they can go 1:54 on that course in the last half mile of a 5k.
would have RUN
would have RUN
would have RUN
Sheesh. What a passel of dumbfuhcks.
Distance runners are slower than they were 30 years ago in more than one sense.
Crotchety wrote:
would have RUN
would have RUN
would have RUN
Sheesh. What a passel of dumbfuhcks.
Distance runners are slower than they were 30 years ago in more than one sense.
Thank you English major schoolteacher. Can you help me out on when do you use "who" and "whom". That's always been a problem and I think its really held me back. I just can't grasp that.
break it up wrote:
Thank you English major schoolteacher. Can you help me out on when do you use "who" and "whom". That's always been a problem and I think its really held me back. I just can't grasp that.
Why certainly, my mentally deficient little friend:
Use "who" as the subject of the verb. Use "whom" as the object.
Next.
I just saw the race and was surprised Cheserek just went for the win instead of trying to break Futsum. Late in the race you could see Futsum was laboring alittle and Cheserek was only running as hard as needed just to keep the lead.
Could this put NJ back on the top of US distance running?
Considering how close Futsum was at the finish, you have to wonder what the outcome wopuld have been if he had skipped NXN. I didn't expect it to be that close.
emurphy wrote:
If the other 38 competitors didn't know ahead of time that the those two Africans would kick their asses, they might have given it a go and provided more competition for the first 2+ miles.
I think they're more disheartened by officials being so cowardly as to let two guys in their 20's race high school kids. Political Correctness wins again!
Crotchety wrote:
Why certainly, my mentally deficient little friend:
Use "who" as the subject of the verb. Use "whom" as the object.
Next.
Cool - so, the phrase "Who dat?" is correct?