duncnasty wrote:
I remember Jason Lunn and Mike Stember dominating the 1500 in 3:40's, sit and kick races back in 2003. It was super boring. I prefer seeing guys putting it all out there and running great times.
I also remember reading an interview with Lunn shortly after the 2003 world championships, where he was bragging about closing his last lap in 52-seconds. Well, that's great man, but where were you in the final? I'm glad that mentality is not embraced these days by our top guys.
This is just a terrible post.
It's not Jason Lunn's fault that other Americans weren't better than him.
Maybe instead of saying he was bragging that he closed in 52, you could say he was happy he closed in 52. I would be happy.
Lunn's mentality was to get better, run as fast as he could and be the best in the country. He was successful at that.
I don't know how that is a bad mentality.
Today there is more competition, so you just have be really good to be on top in the US.
I do give credit to Webb for setting the bar higher.
When he took over at the Trials in 2004 and won with authority it gave everyone a mark to shoot for.
And his bold move in the 2005 WC finals may have been crazy, but it also sent a message.
Lagat running for the US greatly changed things as well.
The 2008 Trials really changed the landscape.
Lagat, Lomong and Manzano made the team and they haven't left the scene since. Leer was 4th, representing the second pack closing in and being good. Webb finishing 5th showed how hard it was going to be to make any US team from then on.