Weak Sauce: Mary Cain May Duck The Competition At Pre

She's learned quick. That's what all the best in the world do, no?

I am far from an NOP fan, but this is not exclusive to them. It is track & field in a nutshell. Avoid competition whenever possible! How many times have we seen a mile and 1500 in the same meet? 800/1000. And of course my favorite, 3K/2 mile. This is one of many reasons that lay fans look down upon the sport. It seems that rather than "let's find out who's best," it is more, "let's see how we can manipulate things to make people think I am best."

Track and field is fairly black and white when it comes to running well or poorly in a race. Throwing Cain into a race that is of WC final caliber as a rust buster isn't wise if she's not race fit. She has plenty of time to run fast this summer.

Mary is a one in a century athlete but for goodness sake, she is in High School, let's lay off the criticism. She did not duck the competition when she made it to the World Championship 1500 finals. She is just now finishing her HS exams and has not had a serious race in her schedule, give her a little grace. She is going to delight us track fans for many tears to come.

Sledge wrote:

Track and field is fairly black and white when it comes to running well or poorly in a race. Throwing Cain into a race that is of WC final caliber as a rust buster isn't wise if she's not race fit. She has plenty of time to run fast this summer.

What is unwise about it?

Pastor Steve wrote:

Mary is a one in a century athlete but for goodness sake, she is in High School, let's lay off the criticism. She did not duck the competition when she made it to the World Championship 1500 finals. She is just now finishing her HS exams and has not had a serious race in her schedule, give her a little grace. She is going to delight us track fans for many tears to come.

good post. For anyone else, I would say this is ducking the competition. But for a high schooler who had a very, very important and emotional month...to rustbust at Pre in an aces 1500? hey, maybe, but it doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

Pastor Steve wrote:

Mary is a one in a century athlete but for goodness sake, she is in High School, let's lay off the criticism. She did not duck the competition when she made it to the World Championship 1500 finals. She is just now finishing her HS exams and has not had a serious race in her schedule, give her a little grace. She is going to delight us track fans for many tears to come.

once in a century remains to be seen.

i will be very happy if she goes under 1:58 for 800, under 4:00 for 1500, under 8:35 for 3000, and under 14:50 for 5000 as a junior, she has until december 31st 2015 to be a junior.

who is once in a century? jesse owens, carl lewis, edwin moses, haile gebreselassie, heike drechler, meseret defar, tirunesh dibaba, paula radcliffe, marita koch,thats 9 off the top of my head all with in the last century, cain has a long way to go.

opinionated guy wrote:

I am far from an NOP fan, but this is not exclusive to them. It is track & field in a nutshell. Avoid competition whenever possible! How many times have we seen a mile and 1500 in the same meet? 800/1000. And of course my favorite, 3K/2 mile. This is one of many reasons that lay fans look down upon the sport. It seems that rather than "let's find out who's best," it is more, "let's see how we can manipulate things to make people think I am best."

There are certainly times when the best in the world duck each other, but in this case, Aregawi, Simpson, Obiri and Kipyegon are going head-to-head. The only big name that seems to be missing to me is G Dibaba. Then you've got a bunch of other very good runners, people like B Mart, Hannah England... So this is a case of the best directly competing.

Cain is a very good runner, but if she isn't in PR shape, she's going to be off the back of this field, so what's the point of being in the race? That's not ducking competition, it's being realistic about whether you're actually going to be competitive.

I also wonder about the wisdom of throwing Cranny into this race, but it would be very cool if the back of the pack pulls her to something like 4:06, and she does seem to be running very well.

agip wrote:

good post. For anyone else, I would say this is ducking the competition. But for a high schooler who had a very, very important and emotional month...to rustbust at Pre in an aces 1500? hey, maybe, but it doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't another High School Senior running the 1500? A girl who hasn't raced these women in the World Championship finals and with slower PRs. She also had an "emotional month" whatever that means. LOTS of high school athletes have run at Pre in stacked races (Alan Webb anyone?). She has already been beaten by some of these women, she clearly knows its bad for her image if she is beaten by a peer while they are still both in high school.

Oh Brother... wrote:

agip wrote:

good post. For anyone else, I would say this is ducking the competition. But for a high schooler who had a very, very important and emotional month...to rustbust at Pre in an aces 1500? hey, maybe, but it doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't another High School Senior running the 1500? A girl who hasn't raced these women in the World Championship finals and with slower PRs. She also had an "emotional month" whatever that means. LOTS of high school athletes have run at Pre in stacked races (Alan Webb anyone?). She has already been beaten by some of these women, she clearly knows its bad for her image if she is beaten by a peer while they are still both in high school.

the main difference is that Cranny has had a full season so she knows she is ready to go - to my knowledge, Cain hasn't raced since March. hard to rustbust on a very big stage.

maybe equally importnat is that Mary Cain is Mary MF Cain - everything she does is under the brightest spotlight. Cranny...not so much.

Is it true that lots of HSers have run at pre? I can't think it is too many people. it is a diamond league meet for pete's sake.

Agip, change out of your NOPe pajamas, it is already 10am on the east coast.

Given that this is an "off" year, the Pre Classic is possibly the biggest meet of this year taking place on US soil. Further, it is often a good showcase for nike sponsored athletes (particularly the distance crew) given its history, location, and the name of the darn meet. I think it is totally fair to question why a popular athlete isn't running their signature event in an important meet that happens to be associated with that (professional, mind you) athlete's main sponsor!

So, MC was entered and they pulled her because the field is too good? What kind of field was Saladbar expecting at Pre? Why enter her in the first place? I agree, find some low key race first, then start hitting the biggies. Also, is the 800 at Pre thin?

I LIKE my NOP pjs = the winged skull thing is awesome. So SHUT UP.

anyway, did I say it wasn't fair to question anything?

The W 800 is not a diamond league event at pre - it's called a 'usatf hp' race. startlist is not up yet.

http://www.diamondleague-eugene.com/Live-StartlistsResults/Overview/

but even if it were a diamond league race...losing by 2 seconds in an 800 is much less of a problem than losing by 10 seconds in a 1500

Forget meets with both a 1500 and mile.

Remember in 2006 when Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin both ran the 100 at Pre but in different heats?

They were the two best in the world at the time and were gunning for a big pay day to go head-to-head that year or even the next.

Then shorty after, Gatlin got popped for drugs. Powell broke the WR again.

But the next year, Tyson Gay won the World Championship and the year after that Bolt hit the scene.

They avoided each other that day and never again got a chance to be the top two in the world going against each other.

Anyway ... I know Cain had high school stuff going on this spring but she couldn't get in one or two races to prepare to run her main event for the biggest meet of the year for the company that is paying her?

Or was she hurt?

Why is losing a problem? Should an up and coming professional track athlete only enter races she can win? MC already picked up some nice Ws indoors.

If she isn't ready to race a 15, she isn't ready. That is fine, especially if part of the reason is simply being a high school senior. However, unless there are any injury risks, as a T&F fan, I'd like to see her in the in the 15 with the top runners.

Pastor Steve wrote:

She is going to delight us track fans for many tears to come.

Exactly, tears of why-is-she-ducking--again?

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

Why is losing a problem? Should an up and coming professional track athlete only enter races she can win? MC already picked up some nice Ws indoors.

If she isn't ready to race a 15, she isn't ready. That is fine, especially if part of the reason is simply being a high school senior. However, unless there are any injury risks, as a T&F fan, I'd like to see her in the in the 15 with the top runners.

well you have to go athlete by athlete. Some athletes actually want to do a few smaller races before a big one. Some don't.

To be honest, if MC runs I see a likely scenario being that MC runs 4:07 while aragawi and simpson and others try to run 3:58. Does that sound interesting to you? I'm struggling to see the appeal.

agip wrote:

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

Why is losing a problem? Should an up and coming professional track athlete only enter races she can win? MC already picked up some nice Ws indoors.

If she isn't ready to race a 15, she isn't ready. That is fine, especially if part of the reason is simply being a high school senior. However, unless there are any injury risks, as a T&F fan, I'd like to see her in the in the 15 with the top runners.

well you have to go athlete by athlete. Some athletes actually want to do a few smaller races before a big one. Some don't.

To be honest, if MC runs I see a likely scenario being that MC runs 4:07 while aragawi and simpson and others try to run 3:58. Does that sound interesting to you? I'm struggling to see the appeal.

The appeal is getting to see her race against the best in the world.

Not Cool Bro wrote:

Alberto Salazar might pull her out of the 1500 and put her in the 8000 instead because "he is reassessing the advisability of putting Cain in a race along side" Abeba Aregawi and Jenny Simpson.

Has she ever run an 8000?

That's a little outside her normal range.