yeah
of course 27'34 was the best possible he couda run that day...
yeah
of course 27'34 was the best possible he couda run that day...
No, sporadic does not imply rare. In fact, your "12 brilliant accomplishments...across several years" suits the definitiion of sporadic perfectly.
If you'd like to continue arguing with people, at least determine what the point is that you're arguing, because at the moment you don't even appear to realize that you are, in fact, arguing that Webb's brilliance is sporadic. It's actually one of your most effective points.
[quote]Hardloper wrote:
to the people who are saying his career is "sporadic," here is how I'd respond:
1. "Sporadic" implies rare. Webb's brilliance wasn't rare at all, that's why I posted at least 12 brilliant accomplishments of his spread across several years and there are probably more. I've never heard someone say "he's just a 12-hit wonder..."
Hardloper wrote:
I had a bunch more posted after the "Webb's race was the only time I thought..." but for some reason it got deleted. I meant to say with 150 meters to go it looked like he might, maybe actually win. That cannot be said about Rupp or Manzano. They hung back and ran for a medal only.
No, it didn't look like he'd win.
Hardloper wrote:
with 150 meters to go it looked like he might, maybe actually win. That cannot be said about Rupp or Manzano. They hung back and ran for a medal only.
webbzcko wrote:
No, it didn't look like he'd win.
I'm with Hardloper on this one. When I was watching the race live, I thought Webb was well positioned coming into the stretch run, and if he had closed the way he did in Paris, I think he would have had a good chance of winning.
LetsRun.com note: The post below is in response to the quote of the day which can be found here:
http://www.letsrun.com/2013/homepage0918.php
Alan Webb
2001:
-3:53 mile HS record
2004:
-3:32 1500
-incredible win at US Championships 1500
-3:50 mile
2005:
-8:11 2-mile NR
-repeat US champion at 1500
-3:48 mile
-made finals at World Championships
-13:10 5,000m
2006
-27:34 10,000m win over Ritzenhein
2007
-incredible victory at US Championships 1500 again, over eventual world champ Lagat
-3:30 1500m, Paris Golden Leage victory over Lagat, Baala
-3:46 mile NR
-made finals at World Championships again
-1:43 800m, giving him a 10,000 / 800 combo that is still unmatched in world history
Is that "sporadic"? To even compare it to Wheating's so far is a great disrespect to the astonishing career of Webb, who may be more responsible than anyone for the resurgance of American-born athletes on the world stage.
To be fair, if that's really what Len Johnson meant, he is only reflecting the poor armchair quarterbacking of the LetsRun forums.
Ok as to the person who said that Webb's 10k was a glorified time trial and he cold have obviously run faster in a race I am not so sure about that. His American Record mile was a glorified time trial and he never beat that. Webb crumbled when the competition started to come out and he started trying to win instead of time trialing.
dkny64 wrote:
Hardloper wrote:with 150 meters to go it looked like he might, maybe actually win. That cannot be said about Rupp or Manzano. They hung back and ran for a medal only.
webbzcko wrote:
No, it didn't look like he'd win.
I'm with Hardloper on this one. When I was watching the race live, I thought Webb was well positioned coming into the stretch run, and if he had closed the way he did in Paris, I think he would have had a good chance of winning.
He didn't look anywhere NEAR as smooth as he did at Paris. Are you blind!?!? It was evident in the semifinal that he had no prayer of winning.
I'd like to know if there are any other American Record holders that NEVER finished higher than 8th in a global championship.
I agree that he looked bad in his semi, but he'd had such a great season that I was hoping the semi was one bad race. Then he was right there in the final and it looked like he had a shot.
I also agree that Webb never managed to bring his A game to the biggest stages - oh well. He still had an interesting enough career that we're talking about him now and will probably continue to talk about him for quite a while.
Letsrun Gunner wrote:
Ok as to the person who said that Webb's 10k was a glorified time trial and he cold have obviously run faster in a race I am not so sure about that. His American Record mile was a glorified time trial and he never beat that. Webb crumbled when the competition started to come out and he started trying to win instead of time trialing.
The fact that he had a sprint finish means that he could have OBVIOUSLY run faster. That's what a sprint finish is. Energy that you could have applied for a faster overall race. There is no opinion. This is fact. There was no massive sprint finish in his mile record.
He ran what he ran wrote:
No, in a more serious race setting the mental aspect of Webb would have been far more likely to have come into play and destroyed him. If he had tried to go harder then he very well might have just broke into a all out sprint half way through the race and then DNF or DFL.
Okay, pay attention, you are the EXACT type of idiot that I targeted this thread towards.
I know you were only five years old in 2005 and probably didn't follow track, but if you look at the WC field he was pretty fortunate just to make the final. He was not a contender, he probably got carried away with his move in the middle of the race, but I say more power to him, he wasn't going to win anyways.
In 2007, after winning his 3rd US title, he made the final again. Which, no matter how good you are, making the final takes an excellent ability to perform under pressure, and is much harder than anything you've ever done in your lifetime. He lost to better, more credentialed competition that day, but your species of idiot still thinks of this as "choking."
BTW, do you know who the #1-ranked miler that year was? (No, of course you don't.) Daniel Kipchirchir Komen. He missed the final.
Er... wrote:
No, sporadic does not imply rare.
1. You can read and write English.
2. You probably live in a first-world country with education.
3. You have an Internet connection, or had one at the time of this writing.
Are you really telling me you failed look up the word "sporadic" in a dictionary???? That's embarrassing even in front of a LetsRun audience...
You probably think Pre was closer to winning than Rupp and Centro and Leo too...*smh*
brandon thomas wrote:
You probably think Pre was closer to winning than Rupp and Centro and Leo too...*smh*
I think he could have been 2nd or 3rd but was certainly no match for Viren, so not really. However, I did not follow running in that era, just like many LetsRunner punks today didn't follow running in 2005-07, so I wouldn't make any silly judgments about it.
jsj wrote:
The fact that he had a sprint finish means that he could have OBVIOUSLY run faster. That's what a sprint finish is. Energy that you could have applied for a faster overall race. There is no opinion. This is fact. There was no massive sprint finish in his mile record.
Wrong, people often PR with sprint finishes, and it felt easy, and they totally think they should have started kicking earlier and could run faster. But, then they never do (and look at say Solinsky, odds are he never does either). He could have spent changed his foucs to the 10k right after that race and never PRed again in the 10k for all we know.
VIPAM wrote:
Probably because in Aouita debut over 26 years ago and only 10000m he ran 27:20 which was around 10 seconds off the world record, is over 15 seconds faster then Alan Webb's 10000m pb.
I don't know why we can't support/praise both of the runners for their incredible versatility from 800m to 10000m! It probably will be another 26-30 years til another runner of Said Aouita and Alan Webb versatility comes along!
Seriously? How bout Mo?
horhay wrote:
VIPAM wrote:Probably because in Aouita debut over 26 years ago and only 10000m he ran 27:20 which was around 10 seconds off the world record, is over 15 seconds faster then Alan Webb's 10000m pb.
I don't know why we can't support/praise both of the runners for their incredible versatility from 800m to 10000m! It probably will be another 26-30 years til another runner of Said Aouita and Alan Webb versatility comes along!
Seriously? How bout Mo?
Actually, Lagat might have even run high 1:43 and 27:20 in his career if he'd really wanted to. He could probably run 27:20 this year if he tried. ElG could have run 1:43 and 27:20 too.
oihdssklsklmd wrote:
jsj wrote:The fact that he had a sprint finish means that he could have OBVIOUSLY run faster. That's what a sprint finish is. Energy that you could have applied for a faster overall race. There is no opinion. This is fact. There was no massive sprint finish in his mile record.
Wrong, people often PR with sprint finishes, and it felt easy, and they totally think they should have started kicking earlier and could run faster. But, then they never do (and look at say Solinsky, odds are he never does either). He could have spent changed his foucs to the 10k right after that race and never PRed again in the 10k for all we know.
No, I am not wrong. I am completely correct. Where do you think a finishing kick comes from? It's energy that was not used during the race. If you are truly running your fastest, you will not have a kick at the end.
Whether or not they ever run faster is a completely separate issue. Especially for someone like Solinsky. His issue isn't that that was his fastest possible time. His issue is that he keeps having injuries and setbacks.
Lagat always peaks at the right time. No way did anyone actually following the sport think Alan Headcase was going to take him again in the big one, regardless of Paris or US. Just like Rupp in the 5k against Lagat last year.
same thread about webb
we suck
jsj wrote:
No, I am not wrong. I am completely correct. Where do you think a finishing kick comes from? It's energy that was not used during the race. If you are truly running your fastest, you will not have a kick at the end.
Whether or not they ever run faster is a completely separate issue.
Webb, I know you were a great time trial and you think everyone's best time comes from time trialing, but that's not how most runners get their lifetime best PRs.