Flashback April 13, 2003 - Guess what happened 12 years ago today? Where were you/what was your reaction?

Wow, look at that homepage. Has it really been 12 years...that we've been picking on Alan Webb?

I wonder what happened to that high school 200m runner.

I was in London and was the only USA journalist covering the race, so I also wrote about Deena Kastor's USA record (she finished third that day). You can read my story from that day here:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/04/flashback-12-years-ago-paula-radcliffe-set-the-womens-21545-marathon-world-record-at-the-2003-london-marathon/

David Monti, Race Results Weekly

rojo wrote:

the fall before with Wejo the fall before when it was a little windy at the end.

]

8/10

This is an attempt to bait posters into a discussion on Paula's alleged drug use and then Wejo and Rojo will chime in about why they think she's clean.

I was on an almost two decades long hiatus from running and didn't consider Paula's 2:15 anything special. Ingrid Kristiansen's record (2:21) which stood for about 15 years had been taken down just a couple of years earlier and at the time I expected the women's marathon WR to approach 2:12 in the coming years. For comparison, when the men's WR was around Kristiansen's 2:21 WR (Jim Peters 2:20:42 1952) it would be 2:08:33 17 years later (Derek Clayton). 2:15 wasn't anything special in a historical context. The lack of female talent/dedication in the marathon is what's special.

17 American men ran faster than that last year.

I like how there's no mention of the Marathon WORLD RECORD until halfway down the page. A quick skim of LRC and you'd have no idea what happened.

"Here"? Really?

Ah yes, I remember it well. I also think I'm the only who remembers the men's race that year where 6 or 7 men finished the race in a sprint finish. Abera outsprinting Baldini and Tergat and the Moroccan el Mouaziz whose brother went on to test positive for EPO. I always had my doubts about Abdulkar too and after his brothers fail, I'm almost certain he was doing the same.

Anywho, I remember Paula going out quick that day for the first few miles and thinking, what in the hell is she doing!? She had already gapped the field after a couple of miles, not unusual but the gap was big after only 2 miles. I thought a blow-up was certain at that stage and my thoughts hadn't changed at halfway which she ran in a very low 68 IIRC. I knew she had the race wrapped up and wouldn't blow-up enough off of 68 pace to lose the race but I didn't think she would be able to hold it or break the WR she set in Chicago the year before when she dropped Wejo at 24 miles.

I was amazed with her performance in the second half after a very fast half split and never expected she was going to pickup the pace like she did in the latter stages. She came under pressure in the last mile or two but held on for an incredible performance and a fast finish on the Mall.

I was shocked at the time, couldn't believe she had destroyed her old WR by so much after what I thought was an already mind-blowing run in Chicago. Never thought it would last this long at the time but it's a record that matures like a fine wine, it gets better and better as every year passes.

Dopamine wrote:

8/10

This is an attempt to bait posters into a discussion on Paula's alleged drug use and then Wejo and Rojo will chime in about why they think she's clean.

0/10

Because it's so obvious.

Even prior to the 2:15 it was obvious.

It was obvious when she first started and held up that sign; obviously her network was well in place before that.

Why don't you guy ask Deena Kastor her reaction and if she thinks Radcliffe doped/crossed the line? Deena ran 2:19 and got slaughtered by 4-minutes.

My reaction then was pretty much the same as now. It made me wonder what the men's record would be if it was possible for a guy to have cover to cover rabbits and that as impressive as it was it should not count as a record for that reason.

Lapras wrote:

I like how there's no mention of the Marathon WORLD RECORD until halfway down the page. A quick skim of LRC and you'd have no idea what happened.

The screen shot is from April 20, a week after the record was set. Presumably it had higher placement a week earlier. (The Internet Archive just takes occasional snapshots of web pages, so you can't always get the exact day you want.)

men are better wrote:

17 American men ran faster than that last year.

ZERO British men ran faster that year.

Possibly the most impressive stat of all.

(has that EVER been achieved, in any athletic endeavor? Specifically:

A sport where the country has a strong tradition of success on the men's side, and a female bests ALL the men that year in one of the events? Running, swimming, x-c skiing, bicycling, weight lifting, field events, even sports like golf or something like that, or any other sport where one could make an objective, direct comparison. I wonder, and I doubt it)

I was a freshman in high school and had been browsing letsrun for about 6 months. At the time I thought women would be running consistently under 2:20 from that point forward since Radcliffe had done it twice and I believe Ndereba and Noguchi had at that point as well.

Rick Grimes wrote:

I was a freshman in high school and had been browsing letsrun for about 6 months. At the time I thought women would be running consistently under 2:20 from that point forward since Radcliffe had done it twice and I believe Ndereba and Noguchi had at that point as well.

My bad, it was Takahashi in Berlin.

Leirbag wrote:

Why don't you guy ask Deena Kastor her reaction and if she thinks Radcliffe doped/crossed the line? Deena ran 2:19 and got slaughtered by 4-minutes.

I have been told that she has some rather interesting viewpoints on this subject. I will leave it at that.

men are better wrote:

17 American men ran faster than that last year.

But none of these people will have earned anywhere near the same amount of prize and appearance money from running. It just shows you that running performance is not the main factor that determines how much prize money you can win. I cannot think of any another profession where performance can be so easily measured, and yet there is such a disparity in pay awarded to the different sexes.

My reaction? What a blatant doper.