love hobbyjoggers wrote:
Alanson wrote:Let's try to understand this. Rupp was running in 90 degree heat (ok, 79 degrees with high humidity). So what were the temperature humidity conditions for the four guys who beat him (pretty solidly, as I recall)?
Everyone who isn't a moron like you can understand it just fine. He meant that he ran a very good race, one of the best of his career, but was beaten by better competition. Had he run 27:08 in great weather and gotten 5th he would be disappointed knowing he can do better.
If you recall, all of the first five basically lapped the rest of the field. It was a dogged struggle between Mo, Rupp, and three Kenyans, and Rupp was in the thick of it until the final lap when he couldn't match the closing speed of the others. Still, I was astounded how well and courageously he ran. Two or three weeks prior, I had seen him finish a well-beaten fourth in a mile race on a cool night in Portland behind runners whose names were unfamiliar to me, and he failed to break four minutes. In that muggy evening in Bejing, don't forget, he trounced all of the Ethiopians.