Ryan Vail and Rob Watson set to pace Shalane Flanagan in Berlin on September 28

What a joke...I hope she doesn't get it now. What's next, does Ryan Hall get cyclists to pace him for his next marathon?

seeing the title, huh male pacing?

I agree any results will not be acceptable.

Exactly my thought when wrote:

seeing the title, huh male pacing?

I agree any results will not be acceptable.

Why does it matter to you the gender of the pacer?

Paula Radcliffe had EIGHT male pacers in her world record marathon run.

Also Deena Kastor (current american marathon record holder) had male pacers.

It doesn't seem that uncommon in female marathon records.

This is not a good idea for Ryan Vail....

Why doesn't wejo do this - he did it for Radcliffe (or was that rojo?). He can pace a foreigner but not an American? His American citizenship should be revoked!! Surely he is still able to run a sub-2h20 quite easily - if Lagat and Geb can run as fast as they do at their age, then it shouldn't be too much to ask for wejo, isn't he still in 28.05 10k shape?.

Doesn't Jerry have a whole boatload of people in his entourage who could help her out. What about Bumbi? that would be a step up from the race he ran at the Continental cup. Why engage a foreigner (Watson) when so many Americans in her training group must be availalbe - maybe Simon Bairu as he isn't doing any else with his running these days, or Teg or Nelson or Solinsky (all these great JS marathoners).

asdfasdfddd wrote:

What a joke...I hope she doesn't get it now. What's next, does Ryan Hall get cyclists to pace him for his next marathon?

Is this pacing as in running in front and blocking the wind, or "pacing" as in escorting where the male runs to the side of the more famous female runners as wejo did for paula?

"Heading into the race, there was a bit of uncertainty on my part as to what actual pace I would be running. But I think that will always be the case in Chicago with the men serving as "escorts" for the women, not as rabbits. The main difference is that as an escort, one is off to the side of the lead women, while as a rabbit you are right in front of them, trying to hit a designated pace. An escort no doubt helps the runner with the pace by helping set a rhythm, but is in more of a supplementary role as in some ways you are just reacting to the pace set by the women. As Glenn Lattimer had emailed me some preliminary instruction about 6 weeks before the marathon, "We want you to run at the side (off camera) more as an escort to set a rhythm, and to warn men runners that the convoy is coming through. We want to stress the ESCORT nature rather than the pacing. Don't hand the lead women water or start running alongside, coaching and encouraging." Glenn indicated he expected the race could be around maybe 2:17:30 (he was only 12 seconds off) or faster."

3rd picture. scroll down.

I'll never understand why a ton of guys pacing a guy is ok, but a few guys helping a gal is cheating.

There aren't that many gals that can run sub 2:20, and those that can aren't taking pacer-pay for it.

here. here's an even better one. thanks LRC archives!

http://www.letsrun.com/2011/email-0929.php

Don Underhill wrote:

This is not a good idea for Ryan Vail....

He says on his blog he had a long, hard effort scheduled for that day anyway, and he wants to experience the Berlin course as he plans to run it in the future:

aaslkjgsegk wrote:

Paula Radcliffe had EIGHT male pacers in her world record marathon run.

Also Deena Kastor (current american marathon record holder) had male pacers.

It doesn't seem that uncommon in female marathon records.

Deena's pacer did everything for her that day (was someone from her training group I believe); set the pace, point the location of the drink tables out, I think he even held a drink for her at some point.

I remember being annoyed at the bbc reporters for always commenting about the pacer pointing somewhere and then being completely oblivious about the drinks table appearing in the direction the guy just pointed at.

So in terms of the AR, that's just leveling the playing field.

PS: The only time I saw less observant commentating of an elite woman´s marathon was Kara Goucher's NY debut when they kept wondering all through the race why she surged to the front at every drinks table. That was because you weren't looking at the first drinks table when she dropped her bottle, you blind bats...

Flanagan should focus on trying to win or place in races, not run some time most of the world doesn't give two hoots about. I actually admired her Boston run this spring because she went after it and tried to break a great field.

Paula had to run time trials in most of her marathons because she was so far in front of every other woman on Earth, she had no competition except the clock! Shalane has plenty of competition, she just doesn't want to have to worry about them??? How is that COMPETING?

[quote]what were you watching? wrote:

so many Americans in her training group must be availalbe - maybe Simon Bairu

Yeah! USA! Oh, wait...

1/10

Fail.

Didn't the IAAF put out a rule a few years back that women's WR would not count if they were run with men in the race? There was a uproar about the initial attempt to have it be retroactive but isn't the rule still in place? Does the same rule not apply to national records?