Deena made me cry when she WON bronze!!!

My running club had just finished a Predictor Race yesterday. There were about 50 of us drinking Bloody Marys, standing in front of the TV watching the marathon. The room kept getting louder and louder as they reached the finish. In the end, people were screaming for Deena. Several tears when she crossed the line. That's the way to watch history in the making. What fun!

Thank you Deena. What a class act!

Fantastic finish, fantastic race!

i sent Deena the first picture i took of her at the trials.

she has a smile just as big as her heart.

So she made alot of people cry,including this 53 year old collector of running memorabilia from Illinois.

Great job Deena.

LOUIE

I watched it with two non-runners...by the end they were screaming for a woman they never heard of in arace they had never seen! Way to go Deena!

Congratulations, Deena!!! Just checked NYTimes.com and got choked up looking at Deena's picture as she entered the stadium. What an awesome performance, argurably one of the greatest marathon performances EVER by an American woman, considering the conditions and course. Incredible. Awesome. I'm typeless.

I know a lot of people had thought Deena Kastor had a good shot at medaling, me among them, but as for me, talk is cheap...if you thought YOU were a staunch ally in DK's corner, listen to this:

Saturday morning, I was warming down from a 5mi race in Central Park, NYC...I came across someone to remain anonymous here, but I'll refer to as "FOD" (Friend of Deena)-- which is an accurate label. After we made some casual chatter, this exchange...

FOD: I'll relay your message to (other person)...I'll be seeing him tomorrow in Athens.

Me: Wow, you're going?

FOD: Yeah, wasn't plannign to until two weeks ago...I realized "Deena's going to medal!" and I just couldn't miss it.

FOD effectively bet thousands of hard-earned $$ on Deena's chances. A true FOD and a pretty good handicapper besides.

DEENA DEENA!!! But wtf? more links on letsrun about Paula dropping? That's crap!! Where are the photos of Deena's triumph? That was one hella good race run by a tough mofo american woman.

Tru dat. My in-laws, definitely older folks who have started walking/jogging for health bennies, sat and watched the whole race with my wife and I...lots of questions. Great time to educate the masses on what is and what ain't running.

At first I was disappointed about Paula dropping, then freaked out watching Deena come in for the bronze. Attagirl, Deena. I'm soooo proud of you. Now my wife is going to kick my butt.

Wipe the tears and get ready for the men's race. AC has a great chance to be top-five or at least top-ten as well, provided he goes out and executes on a similar strategy as Kastor.

Vipam, I know we've had this discussion previously and you feel AC is "weak" if he doesn't go out with the leaders...I say he's stupid to do so. I think Kastor would agree with me...as would Radcliffe...as would most of the women's field. But, I guess in a few more days, we'll see who is correct.

Anyway, if things go well, look for AC to be making up some serious ground over the last 7 miles...and, who knows, crazy things can happen. You start picking people off, you start remembering what Deena did, you keep picking up the pace, it's downhill, who knows??? Another bronze...it's very possible.

Hoovis

she was very inspirational

good point Hoovis 2.

i think a lot of men saw how deena ran and will probably alter their race strategy. i hope meb and browne and culpepper all run as deena did.

i was totally amazed by all those women and felt for all of them, from the medal winners to Paula and having to witness that distress. all of them just amazing - they gave me goose bumps and i have to admit tears wanted to come for Paula and the three medal winners. you just feel for them -

great marathon running and i hope that the mens race is just as exciting and inspiring. as i know i will want to shed some tears just for a couple of guys not being there. hope they will be in 2008!

You can add me to the list of those who cried. Hard to explain, but if you are a distance runner and long-time fan of the sport in the U.S. then you know how rare a moment like this is. Deena ran brilliantly in a race where little was expected of U.S. athletes and on a course that humbled the best in the world. She showed that anything is possible - for men or women runners. For that reason alone it was one of the great moments in the recent history of the sport.

sorry but it was one of the great moments in recent history of the sport if you are AMERICAN. otherwise, there were two greater moments right ahead of her.

djm298 wrote:

For that reason alone it was one of the great moments in the recent history of the sport.

Raise your hand if you cried when Old Yeller got shot. C'mon who cried when Ol' Yeller got shot? Nobody CRIED when Old Yeller got shot!?

C'mon... I cried my eyes out.

We all cried when Old Yeller got shot.

Sorry, but I am not sure I agree with your statement. It WAS a great moment in Olympic sport regardless of what country you were from. It is the classic story of somebody who has put in years and years of training to build up to ONE race on ONE tough course against the greatest women's field ever to run an Olympic marathon...and, that person executed her strategy perfectly on that race day to get an Olympic medal. I don't care what country you are from...that is a great Olympic moment.

Now, if you are an American, it is an even greater moment!!!

Hoovis

[quote]nigerian email scammer wrote:

sorry but it was one of the great moments in recent history of the sport if you are AMERICAN. otherwise, there were two greater moments right ahead of her.

deep thought wrote:

the Washington Post has a nice graphic this morning showing how far back she was...

Is this on line anywhere? I looked but couldn't find it.

TIA

So, not to spoil any parade, and I was truly overjoyed for deena, but didn't she go out a little bit too slow? Wouldn't you say a 4 minute negative split ( when the 2nd half is hills from hell) could be optimized a little better by speeding up the first half? The first mile was something like 5:46 and the next couple i think were around 5:30s, i think. Why should she back off of that pace? The 10k split was about 34:30, a 2:25:30 pace. That is basically even-splitting as far as effort goes, considering the hills that will come up later. She probably would have wanted to be a little slower than that, but a minute and a half? She had a huge amount left at the end, and I just thought that say, if radcliffe hadn't dropped, and she had to catch someone she might have expended her energy better in the first half than having so much left.

That said, poor radcliffe did drop and deena profited by it, the course was ridiculously tough and hot, so in this circumstance too slow is probably better than too fast, so obviously, what she did worked.

This being discussed on the "could Deena have won gold" thread.

[quote]cdtrackman wrote:

Wouldn't you say a 4 minute negative split ( when the 2nd half is hills from hell) could be optimized a little better by speeding up the first half?

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Dude, I am pretty sure it was the middle of the course that had the rigorous uphill climbs...not necessarily the second half. In fact, all of the top three ran negative splits.

So as to not duplicate threads, pleaes check out the "Could Deena have won the gold thread." This has been beat to death...

Hoovis