"I'd say getting down to 2:18 or even 2:17 is realistic" - has Paula lost her mind?

She is in Kenya right now training with men. That alone is more then any of our "men" here in the US are doing. I would withhold judgment until after London. She is the best female marathoner in history. She can still go sub 2:20 if she is in shape and will be hard to beat in London if fit and healthy.

Yanqui wrote:

I dunno, there was just a long thread on letsrun about Kara Goucher's allegedly defeatist attitude. People here get criticized for having modest aspirations. People here get criticized for having lofty aspirations. People here get criticized, period.

Yanqui

Shouldnt you be out there camping in NYC trying to defeat capitalism, or is that not in fashion any more?

sub3over40 wrote:

She is in Kenya right now training with men.

I read that article. training with Mo. Well, at least starting the runs together and then letting go because he is too fast. Not sure why she would train with him in the first place. This is a recipe for disaster. His pace should be around 20s faster per mile than hers.

sub3over40 wrote:

... will be hard to beat in London if fit and healthy.

COMICAL.

In a tactical race, she gets rolled by Keitany, the Kiplagats, Shobuhkova, and whoever Ethiopia sends.

Lacking the footspeed even in her heyday, in London (same as in every outing she has ever had at the Olympics), her only hope is to rely on her strength and run away from the field. Thing is, she's just not good enough to put down the kind of gap she'd need to running solo. She wasn't at 10,000 in Sydney. Sure wasn't at the marathon in Athens.

Women's marathoning has made huge strides. Former greats might have just walked on and taken wins 10 years ago, or even 5, but it's not like that anymore. Expecting Paula to win London makes about as much sense as expecting Paul Tergat to. Not. Going. To. Happen.

"Women’s Marathoning has made huge strides?"

Really?

Of the 16 women’s marathons run under 2.20, only 4 have been run in the last 5 years.

And Paula has still run the 3 fastest ever.

It's the men who have made huge strides.

Nutella1 wrote:

SimpleJack wrote:

With EPO anything is possible.

Article says she trains in Kenya with Mo. Why would she stay at altitude if she takes EPO?

Easy to explain. Just to take all the suspicious away. You go to Kennya take EPO and pretend that your endurance improved due to the altitude

it is a number of years ago now. Coe has run 1:43. Do you think he still can do it?

she is a bad mother then.

Peace Out wrote:

fuzzy logic wrote:

and Deena said she was going to win the trials. Aging athletes sometimes still have the heart but are clueless when it comes to judging their fitness.

Exactly. Deena and Paula are the same age, too. But Paula is sure dedicated to her sport; not too many mothers would miss their own child's 5th birthday!

It seems like that you have never been married or have kids.

Father Time is undefeated.

No, not at all realistic, especially with the news that she has type II diabetes.

I bet that she spends a lot more time around their kids -- for a woman who certainly does bring in more than a median paycheck.

Btw, in GB _ALL_ mothers return to work after 6 months, by the way. Since abour Thatcher's time, if I am not mistaken.

She was not healthy in Athens. She has a serious infection just before the race but tried to run it anyway and DNF. What I am saying is that we do not know what she is capable of if she is healthy. Did you pick Constantina Dita to get the gold in Bejing?? I bet not. In the Olympics, anyone on the starting line in a final can win.

sub3over40 wrote:

In the Olympics, anyone on the starting line in a final can win.

You have no clue. The last 10 in 2008 all ran over 2:45. You really think those ladies had a chance to win?

Have you considered that Paula herself (and her immediate team) would have far more idea what time is realistic for her than any of us ?

We do not know the exact details of her build up to Berlin (or any of her other races for that matter), and therefore do not know how much scope for improvement she has up her sleeve. It is also a time that is slower than her PB.

Yes her age is advancing, but did that worry Dita in 2008 ? You are the same people who would have laughed your heads of if Dita had talked about winning gold as being realistic.

Things we CAN tell without any inside knowledge is that Paula is as tough as nails, and will be running at home. She may just pull out something very special.

Gazing below as I swing on a vine over this quicksand pit, thankful the vine did not break.

Guessing game wrote:

Have you considered that Paula herself (and her immediate team) would have far more idea what time is realistic for her than any of us ?

No. The thing is, we all make the mistakes that Paula does. We think that in our late 30's we can train like we're 20 and booom - we're injured. We line up at the races and run like 10 years ago only to realize it isn't that easy anymore.

Again, Paula hasn't run super fast in 7 years, had 2 kids in the meantime and is a lot older.

She will not come back. Even winning a medal is a far stretch.

I just hope she doesn't DNF in her last race.

It's very easy to sit around and pick who won't win something, particularly something as unpredictable as the marathon.

Oh, and then sit around smugly like they've just predicted a one in a million event when said person doesn't win.

Also, I hate it when these smug naysayers, also say things like 'I actually hope she does win' or even 'I just hope she doesn't DNF in her last race' like they actually mean it.

Nutella1 wrote:

I read that article. training with Mo. Well, at least starting the runs together and then letting go because he is too fast. Not sure why she would train with him in the first place. This is a recipe for disaster. His pace should be around 20s faster per mile than hers.

I saw Paula training back in 2002. On her easy days she was training a lot faster than most men. I wouldn't be surprised if she ran with Mo a lot of days.

This was when Paula was a World XC champ but regarded as Britain's happy loser in everything else.

I've never been more impressed with an athlete in my life.

How do these UK training trips work? Who gets invited to them. No families allowed? It's not like Mo and Paula couldn't pay for their own trip. Kenya is practically free once you get there for them. I'm just curious as to why/how Britain gets its stars to go to them. In the US if you had a training trip to Kenya for different training groups my bet is a lot of them wouldn't go.