Flanagan not running at Nationals

There's no way Flanagan would lose or is ducking competition. She's always present at national championships so she must have felt a nagging injury or something of the like and would rather be safe than sorry.

I'd rather see her not run in an 'off' year than compete and then run a letdown marathon.

It has barely been three months since Boston. With a two week recovery, she would have only had 6-7 weeks of training and the first two or three would have been very cautious rust busting weeks. She is a fierce competitor and would not want to race if she is not 100% ready.

USATF championships in non-oly/WC years are not worth it for top runners who are not in shape or have better opportunities at Diamond League events. Better sit it out and let some up and coming talent get the spot light rather than sit and kick on them for a cheap win and payday.

xfangore wrote:

Sounds like she knew she would lose or have a bad test result.

come on, stop the excuses wrote:

Flanagan is ducking Hasay!

This. Hasay is reaping the benefits of her training. Everyone is afraid of her now.

T Rexxxing 2 wrote:

come on, stop the excuses wrote:

Flanagan is ducking Hasay!

This. Hasay is reaping the benefits of her training. Everyone is afraid of her now.

I'll be a believer when Hasay's 5k pr pace is faster than Flanagan's 15k pace.

Flanagan's 10K results over the past couple of years, including her Bolder Boulder 10K on Memorial Day, indicate she'd have won Thursday's race easily.

At this stage of her career, she wants a fast marathon time. Do the math. Starting her marathon build-up early means she's resisting NYC's bucks to go somewhere faster, which could be Chicago but is more likely, given the timetable and an offhanded comment she made to RW, to be Berlin.

Precious Roy wrote:

It has barely been three months since Boston. With a two week recovery, she would have only had 6-7 weeks of training and the first two or three would have been very cautious rust busting weeks. She is a fierce competitor and would not want to race if she is not 100% ready.

USATF championships in non-oly/WC years are not worth it for top runners who are not in shape or have better opportunities at Diamond League events. Better sit it out and let some up and coming talent get the spot light rather than sit and kick on them for a cheap win and payday.

I think its the other way around. She likely could have been ready for Nationals if she was committed to that race. But that would have eaten into her build up phase for a quick fall marathon (esp Chicago) since there is no way to go straight through without great risk of injury - the other option would be to take a break but that means a shorter build up where nothing can go wrong. Likely signed up not knowing when in the fall she would run - if it had been NY, running nat's, small break and then building back up would have been feasible. Too bad but to be smart you need to make sacrifices.

first of all, I agree no way she is ducking anyone.....but she will be missed!...maybe they will let her do some announcing

but now the 10k should be more interesting and exciting...I can't wait

dkny64 wrote:

!@#&%UVI wrote:

I hope history is the best guide here and this is a one time thing. Look how well full time marathoning has worked for Hall...

It's worked pretty darn well for Hall, and what was his alternative - be a 2nd-tier track 10000m guy?

It did, although I don't assume he couldn't have been a great track guy.

He's still one of the fastest collegians ever, taking 2nd place at USAs after senior year in 13:16 to make the world's team. He had some injuries after that and never really made a huge attempt to be a track star after that. He may have been one of those guys who gets injured running on the track too much.

Big Bear wrote:

dkny64 wrote:

It's worked pretty darn well for Hall, and what was his alternative - be a 2nd-tier track 10000m guy?

It did, although I don't assume he couldn't have been a great track guy.

He's still one of the fastest collegians ever, taking 2nd place at USAs after senior year in 13:16 to make the world's team. He had some injuries after that and never really made a huge attempt to be a track star after that. He may have been one of those guys who gets injured running on the track too much.

Good point - didn't realize Hall ran that fast a 5000m relatively early in his career. Still not convinced he was destined to be a sub 13 / sub 27 guy, but you're right that it's hard to know. Also means he was at a not dissimilar level to Rupp at that age.

how come the start list doesn't have her as scratched?

[quote]BigDaddyWooWoo wrote:

first of all, I agree no way she is ducking anyone.....but she will be missed!...maybe they will let her do some announcing

but now the 10k should be more interesting and exciting...I can't wait[/quote

From a fan perspective this is OK. It will be more of a race now. Anybody (well, not just anyone but a few) can win. That's cool and makes it more watchable.

What bothetrs me is signing up when it seems like you're not really planning on doing it. Was any particular excuse offered? If she said "I'm not running because of XXXX" that would be one thing, but I don't think it fits in with her plans and therefore didn't fit a month ago either.

Never was going to do it!

Big Fan wrote:

[quote]BigDaddyWooWoo wrote:

first of all, I agree no way she is ducking anyone.....but she will be missed!...maybe they will let her do some announcing

but now the 10k should be more interesting and exciting...I can't wait[/quote

From a fan perspective this is OK. It will be more of a race now. Anybody (well, not just anyone but a few) can win. That's cool and makes it more watchable.

What bothetrs me is signing up when it seems like you're not really planning on doing it. Was any particular excuse offered? If she said "I'm not running because of XXXX" that would be one thing, but I don't think it fits in with her plans and therefore didn't fit a month ago either.

Never was going to do it!

I guess it's possible she was negotiating with a few different fall marathons and things didn't get wrapped up until this week. Could have been part of her negotiating posture to point out things she was going to have to give up to run Berlin if that's where she's headed.

From what I heard from this guy, who knows this other guy, who lives in his moms basement is that Flanagan wanted to get all the redbull out of her systems before she got tested again.

But couldn't Flanagan have taken the same approach as Rupp to her 10K? Why not cruise for all but the last few miles and then push a bit at the end to grab the win? Heck, Rupp is doing a quick recovery post-USAs with the intention of racing in Paris 9 days later. Surely there is ample time for Flanagan to recover post-USAs in time for a fall marathon?

SHALANE IS NOT RUNNING CHICAGO.

"Here is $25k, go take a vacation"

plus sized wrote:

dkny64 wrote:

Close - it's AlSal and Jerry conspiring to get Hasay a national title.

...and Phil.

Flanagan will do the Berlin Marathon, and it's time to get cracking.

Big Fan wrote:

[quote]BigDaddyWooWoo wrote:

first of all, I agree no way she is ducking anyone.....but she will be missed!...maybe they will let her do some announcing

but now the 10k should be more interesting and exciting...I can't wait[/quote

From a fan perspective this is OK. It will be more of a race now. Anybody (well, not just anyone but a few) can win. That's cool and makes it more watchable.

What bothetrs me is signing up when it seems like you're not really planning on doing it. Was any particular excuse offered? If she said "I'm not running because of XXXX" that would be one thing, but I don't think it fits in with her plans and therefore didn't fit a month ago either.

Never was going to do it!

Maybe she was never going to do it but the smart thing is to sign up just to keep that option open.