At each water stop Galen Rupp chucked off his old soaked hat and grabbed a new one from his coach. Rules?

Bad Wigins wrote:

Not just a hat wrote:

Maybe the hat doesn't provide any help at all. But why go through all the effort to get them to Rupp?

Why go through the effort to cover Rupp with that goofy tape?

Even if the hats had cold packs in them, they were still useless. The head is a natural radiator to cool the rest of the body, but for it to work the fluid has to flow. Ice causes vasoconstriction and reduces that flow, so that the cooling of the scalp doesn't result in lots of cooled blood going back to cool the rest of the body.

If Rupp instead shaved his head, he would be constantly cooled by evaporating sweat while maintaining the blood flow necessary to transfer that cooling to his core temperature.

If Rupp ever wants to break 2:10 he must shave his head clean, shiny BALD.

He ran 2:10:05 in some of the least ideal conditions:

1) Uncomfortably warm.

2) Raining.

3) Extremely humid because of the rain.

4) Went with Kipchoge at a pace that did some significant damage to him later in the race.

Drop the temperature by 5 F and he'd already have broken 2:10.

Now, if he was shooting for Sub 2:06-07, THEN maybe he'd want to consider shaving his head.

Seyta wrote:

2) Raining.

3) Extremely humid because of the rain.

It is always extremely humid when it rains. About 97% RH.

No wrote:

Rojo,

athletes are always looking for an edge, so the hats are Salazar/Rupp wanting an edge

but to me the real point to take away from this is a world class athlete trying to be a champion thinks a dry or cooled hat would make a difference, sure it helps in theory, imagine the fragility of the mindset of that athlete that he believes he needs hat therapy to win. There is a fine line between edge, placebo, confidence, and self-doubt.

If you told me before the race that an athlete felt it would help him to change hats 10-15 times, I would tell you that is an unfocused, fragile athlete, that will never win.

From a practical point: easy to say afterwards, I know, but he loses silver by 11 seconds right? Call a second per hat exchange.

It's not about the bike.

I think having a hat with cold gels in the heat works more than just theory. When you are the only one that gets to use it. Obviously its something Salazar has been doing for a long time at races stations if the post by the Ultra runners is any indication. He know's from those experiences if having ice will help. Apparently he thought it worked well enough to use at the biggest race of Rupps career. I stopped reading this thread at first because it seemed like people were getting mad for changing into different hats. I didn't realize he was changing out into ice hats that only he had. That is little bit over the top and should be illegal at the OLYMPICS! For all the same reasons people have been getting mad about. That is shady. I am sure at the next competition it will be illegal and they won't be able to use it. Just like Rupp using the tape was deemed illegal after the competition and rules changed to not allow it.

There are many idiots in this thread who can't read, including the brojos. Why are you guys arguing that other teams don't know of these strategies when both David Katz and Camile Herron have verified that many teams have coolers of ice and similar aids at aid stations for years at IAAF marathons and ultras? Just because someone is systematically doing something that others have also been doing less strategically doesn't make it illegal.

Some of the posts here taking about crisp cold hats each 5K that must have been pulled out of a cooler must assume that the sponges that were passed out during marathon must have been soaked in warm or hot water and not provide a similar benefit. That would be f-ing stupid. Seeing a segment where a sponge got squeezed by a runner on himself and then the same sponge passed on to another runner, and that second runner still appreciating and using the sponge, I bet the sponges were chilled too. Camile and Katz have verified the coolers are prepared by teams for the aid stations. This is not a Rupp-only thing, and has surely been known by all national teams for years.

Some have said, what about shoe changes, suggesting that is a comparable thing to a hat change that would be illegal. Well, some runners actually do change shoes in ultras, and I'm guessing that includes IAAF ultras. If you want to do it in a marathon, I'm sure your competitors won't protest, and would be glad that you are wasting time doing it.

I have read about ice-filled arm sleeves used in ultras like Western States this year. I'm sure people also do ice around the neck, and Camile has verified ice down the shorts. This is not novel stuff, and Salazar is getting way too much credit and complaints.

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk wrote:

Weren't the misters only in the men's race.

That's how it used to be. But these days who knows.

VoR wrote:

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk wrote:

Weren't the misters only in the men's race.

That's how it used to be. But these days who knows.

+1 Fantastic stuff!

17 pages on rupps hats. Classic letsrun.

The hats have syringes of adrenaline in them. When Rupp sticks them on his head the auto-plunger injects him just like an epi-pen.

Bonus is that even Jon Orange knows that adrenaline is a performance enhancer...

I never would have thought something as trivial as changing hats would garner close to 400 posts.

This thread is a testament to Salazar and Rupp and their creative and strategic genius in training and on race day. Long live the gray area.

Oblivion wrote:

I never would have thought something as trivial as changing hats would garner close to 400 posts.

This thread is a testament to Salazar and Rupp and their creative and strategic genius in training and on race day. Long live the gray area.

On the BBC when the hats switch occurred the announcers --including Paula Radcliffe-- were rather shocked. That makes it something that is not trivial.

Well if Paula Radcliffe is shocked then that definitely warrants an uproar.

Brojo's please contact Al. wrote:

Which is why I said: "I'm just curious how Al managed the logistics".

he didn't have to! He simple put his bottles in the correct box with caps that had those ice packs that get cold when you break them. It's simple. No conspiracy theory.

moanswers wrote:

Brojo's please contact Al. wrote:

Which is why I said: "I'm just curious how Al managed the logistics".

he didn't have to! He simple put his bottles in the correct box with caps that had those ice packs that get cold when you break them. It's simple. No conspiracy theory.

Rupp never broke anything. The hats went right onto his head.

Rupp did not grab hats off the table. They were handed to him. He didn't even have to put his hand over the aid table. The hat was extended out onto the course.

The person handing him the hats looks like it could have been Salazar himself. Same body size. The strange thing about that person is why they stopped working the aid station and watched Rupp as he continued running past. Ward was close the that station but was left to his own to grab his fluids bottle.

Gordo #2 wrote:

17 pages on rupps hats. Classic letsrun.

No kidding. This has to rank up there in terms of all-time Lets Run threads. And that not a good thing.

David Katz has repeatedly posted on here, yet the Lets Run yahoos won't let it go. It would be funny (and some of the posts have been actually quite hysterical), if it wasn't so pathetic.

I actually thought I'd finally see more people giving Rupp is due, yet we have a huge thread on hats. Hat exchanges that were deemed legal by the technical staff.

Did watch the marathon wrote:

moanswers wrote:

he didn't have to! He simple put his bottles in the correct box with caps that had those ice packs that get cold when you break them. It's simple. No conspiracy theory.

Rupp never broke anything. The hats went right onto his head.

Rupp did not grab hats off the table. They were handed to him. He didn't even have to put his hand over the aid table. The hat was extended out onto the course.

The person handing him the hats looks like it could have been Salazar himself. Same body size. The strange thing about that person is why they stopped working the aid station and watched Rupp as he continued running past. Ward was close the that station but was left to his own to grab his fluids bottle.

If you did watch the marathon you would have noticed there were a number of other athletes being handed their bottles. There are screenshots proving so, and the race can also be re-watched online. You also would have noticed the aid stations were on long straights. It would have been very easy for someone working the aid station, in particular the US spot, to see that as Rupp approached there was no other American in site and no need to rush to grab the bottle of Ward or Meb. I mean someone really should try and find out why that person working the Olympic Marathon would want to watch one of the runners they are assigned to at the aid station. Especially since that athlete was in medal contention. That just makes no sense at all.....

Since Salazar has such a unique body size it must have been him right?

Rules wrote:

If you did watch the marathon you would have noticed there were a number of other athletes being handed their bottles.

A hat is not a bottle. If you actually watched the marathon you would know how Rupp got his bottles. Hint, not the same way as the hats.

He got them himself without the assistance of a special person.

It's like talking about wether someone blood doped or not when blood doping wasn't banned

Oblivion wrote:

I never would have thought something as trivial as changing hats would garner close to 400 posts.

This thread is a testament to Salazar and Rupp and their creative and strategic genius in training and on race day. Long live the gray area.

Not true at all. The hat was strapped to the bottle. In every instance the bottle is handed to him with the cap strapped to it. He grabs both with one hand. Pulls the hat off the bottle, puts the hat on, then drinks from the bottle.

You saw Galen grab the bottle off the table with one hand at the same time he grabbed the hat from an aid with the other? You did not watch the race.

Classic foolery wrote:

It's like talking about wether someone blood doped or not when blood doping wasn't banned

Oblivion wrote:

I never would have thought something as trivial as changing hats would garner close to 400 posts.

This thread is a testament to Salazar and Rupp and their creative and strategic genius in training and on race day. Long live the gray area.

Did you just equate a hat with an ice pack in it to blood doping?