Yes or no: Did you enjoy it when you saw Birmingham blow by Rupp??

Yes, my roommate and i were going nuts. We couldn't believe it.

Didn't see it, but when Rupp ran away from Bekele in the last 100 m of the olympic 10k I jumped off the couch shouting for him. Upsets can be quite thrilling to watch.

I am always rooting for Aussies!!! I have nothing against Rupp. I hope both will go sub-13 this year.

state the truth wrote:

Gotta give rupp a little credit. He didn't act like a poor sport like maybe 5 years ago. He went out of his way to congratulate Birmingham after it was over.

Not long ago Rupp even shook hands with Lagat. It looks like Sleazy has instructed him to try to be 'one of the boys'. I seriously doubt Rupp's change come from the inside.

Yes, Collis is a beast

I must admit I enjoyed it.

lets see what Rupp has at Pre in a few weeks. he didn't look so great. Nothing like 13:02 indoors. What's the excuse???

OF COURSE I WAS> DOWN GOES RUPP!! MWAHAHAHA!

Very un-Oregon like weather.

No. I like to see Rupp run well and it was sad to him struggle to change gears after his 59 second penultimate lap.

On the other hand, seeing Rupp looking around to make sure he would hold onto second in a low-stakes early season race reminded me of why he can be hard to like.

Collis is a hell of a nice guy and he works his ass off in training. Nothing against Galen, but I was glad to hear that Collis won.

dkny64 wrote:

On the other hand, seeing Rupp looking around to make sure he would hold onto second in a low-stakes early season race reminded me of why he can be hard to like.

This. Super annoying....he had like 40 meters left, would it really have killed him to just sprint through the line like a normal competitor? Makes him seem kind of sad, like he just gives up if things don't go his way.

But yes, I enjoyed seeing him lose. It's all relative though -- I do root for him when it comes to beating Africans at major races/championships, e.g. the Olympics.

Hmm looks like that didn't work so well? Then again he probably has had a monster week training/forgot the mask/ or thought it was Lagat or Ben True blowing by him. I wonder what would have happened if any of those or a Gebremeskel was there. Im not Kenyan or Ethiopian but the NOP strategy is not hidden anywhere.

*indoor 13:01 disclaimer They have said it many times they can control the pace and weather indoor which is why he usually runs faster*

BTW thank u Jerry's group for making it interesting in the big ones by pushing it.

It was amazing. Collis toyed with Rupp they way Lagat has in the past, covering the attempted moves with ease. You could tell with 500m to go it was his.

I was pulling for Rupp to have it in the stretch. He lacked the blazing final 300 in Europe last year, I'd love to see him have it this year.

Heck, think back to 2011 when Rupp outkicked Merga in a 5000 in England (albeit to finish 2nd to Mo)--this in a year when Merga was the Diamond 5000 overall winner.

That being said, it's a great breakthrough for Birmingham, who has been lurking in the wings for awhile on the edge of true world class.

No,

was pulling for Rupp, though I too wonder what the whole looking around crap at the end was about. I assume he was training through this meet as he always does and hope he is sharp for Pre.

That said I think it was good for him to lose this type of raise. I would like to see him do a 5k with a brutal last mile. Just put it on the line and see if anyone can go with him.

Course with the Lets run haters, There really wasn't any outcome where Rupp would have swayed them. He loses, he sucks. He kicks and win he sucks. he wins, clearly he is doping... I suppose the consistency of this board is comforting in a way...

Most people look around to see how much effort they have to put into preserving their final position.

Even at the Olympics you'll see the Silver and Bronze position looking around.

good grief. yeah, he might've PRed or something if he tried all-out through the tape.

not from here anymore wrote:

good grief. yeah, he might've PRed or something if he tried all-out through the tape.

Rupp has no heart, and has poor racing technique. looking around like he did at the end of the race is something a smart runner like Lagat would immediately take advantage of, accelerate and shoot right past Rupp.

SMJO wrote:

Most people look around to see how much effort they have to put into preserving their final position.

Even at the Olympics you'll see the Silver and Bronze position looking around.

I'd more say especially at the Olympics, people want to be aware of where they stand for 2nd and 3rd. But in a low-stakes race Rupp is running as part of a buildup, I'd expect him to simply run through the line. I guess he was especially concerned about getting overtaken by Willis, but the best way to avoid that is to keep running hard instead of wasting time looking back. Anyway, just my 2 cents. In general, he just doesn't give off that impression of enjoying the competition the way, say, Lagat and Centro do. Win or lose those guys seem to enjoy mixing it up.