Ryan Hall-- Nice Job Helping Meb Win; Rojo - Nice Reporting

Another annoying thing about the way the BroJos try to defend their made-up story is the way they try to please everybody: they say all credit goes to Meb for the win, not taking anything away from him, blah blah blah, but the other Americans also deserve credit for Meb's win.

A few posts back, Wejo wrote "For a breakaway like that to work, EVERYTHING had to go perfectly. Meb is the one who did the breakaway, kept up the pace, etc. He is the one who won the race."

Now that we can agree on! Meb won the race! 100% of the credit goes to Meb. That leaves 0% of the credit to divide up amongst everyone else.

These guys should have been running in the interests of their sponsors, not out of patriotism. If chasing down Meb bettered the chances of an Asics win, then Hall owed it to Asics to chase him down. Likewise Nike or Adidas athletes.

Pro athletes wrote:

These guys should have been running in the interests of their sponsors, not out of patriotism. If chasing down Meb bettered the chances of an Asics win, then Hall owed it to Asics to chase him down. Likewise Nike or Adidas athletes.

Speaking of sponsors didn't Meb say NIKE dumped his azz years ago because they thought he was too old? Oooops!

Now THAT would have been a good story for you know who.

But then Hall and his diciples wouldn't have gotten any attention.

Dosser wrote:

Another annoying thing about the way the BroJos try to defend their made-up story is the way they try to please everybody: they say all credit goes to Meb for the win, not taking anything away from him, blah blah blah, but the other Americans also deserve credit for Meb's win.

A few posts back, Wejo wrote "For a breakaway like that to work, EVERYTHING had to go perfectly. Meb is the one who did the breakaway, kept up the pace, etc. He is the one who won the race."

Now that we can agree on! Meb won the race! 100% of the credit goes to Meb. That leaves 0% of the credit to divide up amongst everyone else.

Idiots, the Brojos didn't make up the story. Do you know what a quote means? It means someone actually said it. Nick Arciniaga and Jeffrey Eggelston were the ones who said that Ryan Hall had told them not to lead the Kenyans ans Ethiopians. Are you calling them the fabricators of this story? Get off the computer and go back to reading comic books.

I have a race later on. I am in terrible shape. But I'll see if I can convince some runners into having a less than great day with me. I'll ask them to do for us Librans! Even if they are not Librans themselves, they should do to stop the Virgos from winning. Then if I succeed in making the race less competitive and a Libran wins, we'll all be winners. Well the winning Libran will be the main winner. And I'll be the kind of the second main winner. That won't be a bad result considering I started as one of the worst in the field on the day.

Haha. Screw you Virgos...with your need to over analyse everything! And your funny ears!

Let's get into a little more detail on this great team effort orchestrated by the great messiah Ryan Hall. I haven't read the entire Letsrun article and maybe these questions have already been answered but if I may...

1) Was this great team strategy planned before the race? You know like cycling and Kenyans do?

2) Do any Americans in on this great sandbagging plan have a coach? Were the coaches aware and did they agree to let their runners sandbag?

3) Was the plan to have Meb win all along or was Hall suppose to lead/win (makes more sense) and have the others sandbag for him but the plan changed along the way when Hall clearly didn't have it?

4) Is Ryan Hall the God of American marathon running? Does Hall dictate all the terms of marathon strategy by runners considered elite?

I think it's funny how many people have responded to the article (and literally given their two cents) without having read the article or watched the videos of the interviews.

The facts or the most probable facts:

Ryan Hall held back a couple of Americans who were inclined to run a steady pace or slightly increase the pace;

This probably would have closed the early gap;

This occurred somewhere after 15K when Meb and Boit made their initial break (probably earlier than many recalled);

The Africans thought Meb would come back;

The gap grew to over a minute -- increasing substantially even after the other Americans dropped back;

Chebet made a late charge to catch Meb, but ran out of a combination of gas and real estate;

Neither Ryan Hall or LR made up the story -- Nick Arciniaga told it to LR.

I bet Walter Cronkite used to go on the air all the time just to tell viewers how many people watched his latest story. And then continually updated viewers on how many people around the country had talked about it around the water cooler. Cause you know, that's what real journalists do. They let everyone know how popular their story is every chance they get.

Of course if this was a website designed in the 21st century the number of "likes" wouldn't have to be updated manually by the authors of the story.

When are you ever going change your ways. Just report what is factual instead of what you want to see and believe. To somehow suggest Americans who were already running PR pace, who are 6+ minutes slower than the African field had to slow down so Meb can get a big enough lead. This isn't journalism its make believe.

By the way, Ryan didn't even stick around to celebrate this historic American victory he supposedly helped orchestrate. He was gone before the day ended. Ryan finished long after Meb and yet he didn't congratulate Meb.

If you were open minded and objective you would know by now Meb is never to be counted out of any race.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

2014 Boston Marathon Champion

ING New York City Marathon Champion 2009

Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist 2004

4th at 2012 Olympic Marathon

ING New York City Marathon- 2nd 2004, 3rd 2005

Boston Marathon- 2006, 3rd Place

2012 Olympic Marathon Trials Champion

2009 USATF 7 Mile, Cross Country, Half Marathon and Marathon Champion

2-time Olympic Trials 10,000m Champion

3-time US 10,000m Champion

6-time US 15k Champion

3-time US 12k Cross Country Champion

4-time NCAA Champion

2-time US Half Marathon Champion

PERSONAL RECORDS

5,000m - 13:11:77

10,000m - 27:13:98 (American Record until 2009)

Half-Marathon- 1:01:00

Marathon - 2:08:37

The great thing about this post: If the US teamwork angle had been widely reported by general media on Monday, Letsrun would have done this sort of analysis and said how we've all been misled, only on LRC will you get the facts.

Yes, Meb ran on his own merit and tactics. If anyone had it in them, they would have beat Meb, or com in right behind him. Winners don't slow down the pack if they have the ability to win or run their best. Everyone was there to win, and it wasn't some "cycling" strategy that showed the courage and guts that Meb had to take it--Meb won it all on his own

RE: "The facts are that the Africans knew the gap was growing, and didn't see Meb as a threat(major mistake). When they decided he was a threat, they didn't have the legs to do anything about it. Meb did not win because of Ryan Hall or the other Americans, Meb won because he was gutsy and had the tools to win."

How often did the pack actually see Meb along the last 50% of the course to permit them to judge how far ahead he was?

Runner Karen wrote:

Yes, Meb ran on his own merit and tactics. If anyone had it in them, they would have beat Meb, or com in right behind him. Winners don't slow down the pack if they have the ability to win or run their best. Everyone was there to win, and it wasn't some "cycling" strategy that showed the courage and guts that Meb had to take it--Meb won it all on his own

RE: "The facts are that the Africans knew the gap was growing, and didn't see Meb as a threat(major mistake). When they decided he was a threat, they didn't have the legs to do anything about it. Meb did not win because of Ryan Hall or the other Americans, Meb won because he was gutsy and had the tools to win."

Winners absolutely DO slow down the pack. It is called tactical racing and it happens all the time. The deeper the field the more it seems to happen. You sound as if you haven't watched very much professional running.

I've been watching Meb WIN for over 25 years. And I have completed 15 Marathons including Athens, NYC, and Boston so I know how difficult these courses are (Athens being the most difficult).

Look at the quote from Press/Remoratti: How often did the pack actually see Meb along the last 50% of the course to permit them to judge how far ahead he was?

I guess Ryan Hall then must have had satellite vision and a really good view from his 2:17 finishing time. So tactical racing MUST have taken place for Meb in Athens, NYC, the Olympic Trials in Houston, London 2012 (Oh yea, Hall was DNF going when he knew he was injured and not dropping out before the Olympics so another American could actually have a chance at winning), and now Boston.

Oh, and Hall not congratulating Meb and posting the article on twitter AND Facebook? Now that is a real display of heroic actions. Hubris.