Official 2015 U.S. Half Marathon Champs Discussion Thread

Really smooth, gives a great motivation for my long run later! That guy could run 61 or under!

calculator wrote:

Then she can't subtract.

15k (~9.5mi) split showed 2nd place 45 seconds back.

Can they make up 15 seconds per mile? Not unless it gets really ugly for Estrada.

Calm down, jerk, use your calculator to figure out she didn't have the 15k split at 9 miles. She was estimating. ...Poorly. :)

Jared Ward has now dropped the chase pack. He's on 1:01:51 pace through 15k. That would be a great run for Ward as this is also his half marathon debut.

Estrada is on 60:48 pace. Where does that rank among fastest debuts for an American?

Women's 15k splits: bersagel, conley, nelson 50:08; bawcom, hall 50:09, bottorff 50:23, jimison 50:31, alisha williams 50:40

Still 1:10:30 pace for leaders.

This guy looks unbelievable, he is flying. Good stuff.

Well no blow up for Estrada this guy still looks strong! 4:38 on that last mile

Conley starts to push again around 10 miles and pack strings out to single file. Williams, Bawcom still close but Hall and Bersagel starting to fall behind.

Conley has made the break and she has a gap of about 25 meters over Williams.

Estrada has less than a mile to go and looks like he'll get under 61:00.

This is really impressive stuff.

Conley looks very strong right now. I don't see her being caught.

60:50 unofficial for Estrada. Just a fantastic run.

Estrada crushes.

Nice projection from his ~13:15/27:30 PRs... a bit faster than an equal value performance. You are looking at a 2016 US Olympic team member for the marathon. (Meb, Estrada, Hall.)

I was a expecting they would make a kick fest for a 63min win. There must be sth in the Houston air. Pretty cool to watch that!

dag son wrote:

Estrada crushes.

Nice projection from his ~13:15/27:30 PRs... a bit faster than an equal value performance. You are looking at a 2016 US Olympic team member for the marathon. (Meb, Estrada, Hall.)

Ritz is looking more promising than Hall right now. Estrada does appear to be a step above both. We'll see how handles the marathon distance.

61:41 for Ward; a great effort for him.

Mecheso, Meb, Llano and Rono in places 3-6. They all crossed within 10 seconds starting at 62:15.

Mecheso made up A LOT of ground over the second half of that race. Third is a nice run by him, though I wonder if he could have done more if he was with the leaders throughout.

dag son wrote:

Estrada crushes.

Nice projection from his ~13:15/27:30 PRs... a bit faster than an equal value performance. You are looking at a 2016 US Olympic team member for the marathon. (Meb, Estrada, Hall.)

Let's not go crazy. This was a great run by Estrada, but until today he had never even run a half. Could he conceivably make the team? Yes. But if he is to do it, he has 13 months to become a marathoner. That's a tough ask, even if the team should be easier to make than it was in 2012.

162430 wrote:

dag son wrote:

Estrada crushes.

Nice projection from his ~13:15/27:30 PRs... a bit faster than an equal value performance. You are looking at a 2016 US Olympic team member for the marathon. (Meb, Estrada, Hall.)

Ritz is looking more promising than Hall right now. Estrada does appear to be a step above both. We'll see how handles the marathon distance.

The marathon is always a bit of a mystery and not everyone moves well to it, but as far as extension to longer distances goes you have to feel good about a guy with a 27:32 track PR who DEBUTS 60:50. (On the other hand, if he comes back down we may see that he has a faster 10,000 in him than that. The upside is ridiculous.)

True about Hall not looking great, although I wouldn't say Ritz is either. Not much promising about his 2014, was there?

Now that I think about it I would almost call Meb, Estrada, Abdi.

69:44 for Conley. Going in, I thought a solid effort for her would be 71:00. Very nice run for Conley.

LetsRun.com wrote:

dag son wrote:

Estrada crushes.

Nice projection from his ~13:15/27:30 PRs... a bit faster than an equal value performance. You are looking at a 2016 US Olympic team member for the marathon. (Meb, Estrada, Hall.)

Let's not go crazy. This was a great run by Estrada, but until today he had never even run a half. Could he conceivably make the team? Yes. But if he is to do it, he has 13 months to become a marathoner. That's a tough ask, even if the team should be easier to make than it was in 2012.

Simply because he just ran his first half doesn't mean he doesn't have the background. Isn't he highly distance-based?

Levins has never run a half but he probably has done more to 'become a marathoner' than more who have raced 13.1.

The team certainly does look easier for 2016 than 2012, that's for sure.