Chicken or egg? Wetmore says Goucher was crucial to Colorado's success. Goucher says Wetmore was key to his success.

The statements "Wetmore says Goucher was crucial to Colorado's success" and "Goucher says Wetmore was key to his success" are not contradictory in any way. Without Wetmore, Goucher wouldn't have been as good, and CU in turn would not have been as good with a lesser version of Goucher.

So, this is not a "chicken or egg" question. That might look something like, "Wetmore's inherently superior coaching turned Goucher a great runner, which made Wetmore look like a genius of a coach."

pollos y heuvos wrote:

The statements "Wetmore says Goucher was crucial to Colorado's success" and "Goucher says Wetmore was key to his success" are not contradictory in any way. Without Wetmore, Goucher wouldn't have been as good, and CU in turn would not have been as good with a lesser version of Goucher.

So, this is not a "chicken or egg" question. That might look something like, "Wetmore's inherently superior coaching turned Goucher a great runner, which made Wetmore look like a genius of a coach."

That and they are two class-act, humble men.

Seriously? Wetmore has jumped the shark with comments like this. Starting to believe his own press. Great coach but once you start comparing yourself to celebrities I can no longer take you completely seriously.

From my perspective, Adam Goucher made that program, but it was not without Wetmore's guidance. Think about it: Goucher was Foot Locker Champion and then started dominating immediately with a pretty bad@ss persona and charisma of hard work, "I am tougher than you".. his racing was sexy, guys. He was going head to head with some great Africans at the time of Bernard Lagat, Abdi, Mwangai, and a slew of awesome Americans and just demoralizing the competition with his relentless attacking style.

That attracted Ritz. That a Foot Locker Champion (Ritz was 2 x FL Champ) could be successful right away. Remember, a FL Champ hadn't done much since Bob Kennedy, so Goucher succeeding was very good for Wetmore's program. And then when you get the only 4-time FL Finalist in Jorge Torres coming with his brother, the momentum continued.

Let's not overlook the mystique of Boulder itself as a mecca for training distance runners that has NOTHING to do with Univ. of Colorado. Frank Shorter would do stints of training there, Rob DeCastella ,the Japanese women, the Kenyan men... it was and is the place to train for strength.

Shorter didn't do stints there, he lives there and has for many years.

Omg brojos you guys are even stupider than I thought.

pollos y heuvos wrote:

The statements "Wetmore says Goucher was crucial to Colorado's success" and "Goucher says Wetmore was key to his success" are not contradictory in any way.

Yep. "Chicken and egg" refers to to a situation in which two occurrences seem to necessarily precede each other. The two occurrences under discussion are mutually beneficial, not contradictory.

"oh, Adam" (gazes into his eyes)

"oh, Mark. I never wanted to take the risk of sharing my feelings with you - you know, what with you being my coach and all"

"Adam - think of the time we've wasted. I always thought you were straight - with your nearly-hot wife and everything"

"My marriage to Kara is a sham - she's more into her silly running camps for empowering women than anything else. We've been in separate beds for years"

"Could we make it work between us? Could we?"

"If you cut that lame ponytail off, yes"

chris lear made the program by writing the book about it. Nobody would care nearly as much about Wetmore/Goucher without it.

It was Goucher - Torres - Ritz, in that order. All FLMW and FLN champions.