HRE wrote:
Other athletes using drugs would not explain why the Japanese ran so far from their own best times.
If you're getting lapped by doped athletes, then it's demoralizing and more difficult to push yourself all out to anything near a PR.
HRE wrote:
Other athletes using drugs would not explain why the Japanese ran so far from their own best times.
If you're getting lapped by doped athletes, then it's demoralizing and more difficult to push yourself all out to anything near a PR.
This is no different from white Americans who in their lilly white enclaves
run every distance from 100 to marathon;but as soon as they have to leave
their white cocoon and compete nationwide against blacks,they desert the
sprints en masse.
If you can run 10,000 meters and have the A standard you're not likely to be lapped by anyone and if you are it's not going to happen until very late in the race. It's not going to happen at all in the marathon. Yes, it is always demoralizing to be doing much worse than you expected especially in an event you've been pointing to and if that was the case it sort of bears out the comments of some of the Japanese runners about not being prepared for that sort of racing.
HRE, my friend, I hear you on that but we've all been in the no-mans-land of a long race on the track having fallen off the pace. Remember: the pathetic sympathy claps of the few not keeping their eyes on the leaders and the distant cheer of a leader's move you're little more than half a lap behind. Absolutely demoralizing.Maybe, in a road race you can "get it back together" and start the "this is about me" dialogue as the leaders fade in the distance.A long race on a track is significantly less forgiving about the realities of the situation, yes? And, like in life and society, we are just only concerned about the reality, yes?
HRE wrote:
If you can run 10,000 meters and have the A standard you're not likely to be lapped by anyone and if you are it's not going to happen until very late in the race. It's not going to happen at all in the marathon. Yes, it is always demoralizing to be doing much worse than you expected especially in an event you've been pointing to and if that was the case it sort of bears out the comments of some of the Japanese runners about not being prepared for that sort of racing.
I don't know what lilly white enclaves you are talking about but comparing a multi-cultural US to a 99.9% homogeneous Japan is quite funny.
I don't know if you have a point or not. I absolutely agree that there can come a point in a race where you know you're not going to get anything resembling the result you hoped for and thought was possible and you'er just marking time to the finish. I suspect that's what the Japanese were doing at Worlds this time. I do not think you can explain that as being caused solely by other people in the race taking PEDs, which was my point.
disagreer wrote:
Disagree.
Someone forgot to tell the Japanese men in the 50K racewalk.
Those race walkers don't have to compete in Ekidens. So they don't have to peak in winter.
They are also in the Self Defense Forces. So their "employer" is the government, not corporate sponsors.