Another year of tactical races by Mo?

13:08 isn't exactly slow. I would call that a decently fast race.

I have to say, though, these winning kicks by Mo do look "set up." I have trouble believing that every race he's in spontaneously turns into a sit-and-kick and that he outkicks the Kenyans 9 times out of 10.

No chance Mo could break a serious WR.

If he runs like that at the World Champs later in the year he will lose.

That is Mo near full speed.

If Ethiopia picks it's team right and/or Kenya has better tactics they can beat him but it has to be a fast race.

We're in a lousy period of men's track athletics. Waste of good spikes. The men are cowerds. Except maybe Rudisha. Always tactical- the top of this shame was the men's 1500m in Rio- disgrace!

The Women's track is way way more interesting with G Dibaba and Ayana.

And the Marathons are great both men and women.

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

No chance Mo could break a serious WR.

If he runs like that at the World Champs later in the year he will lose.

That is Mo near full speed.

If Ethiopia picks it's team right and/or Kenya has better tactics they can beat him but it has to be a fast race.

Never read a post like this in Feb about Mo leading into a global champs. Well done mate.

C'mon man, that was a very good race. Are you still expecting someone to break Kenenisa Bekele's records during your lifetime? Very unlikely (maybe I'll eat my own words someday but odds are that I'm not gonna be able to chew by that time if the day ever comes)

I'm not a Farah fan but I quite enjoyed the race. Only thing missing was a Andrew Butchart in very good shape, now that's something worth questioning.

Bekele, Kipchoge and company got us bad accostumed with their regular sub 13, but it's a time which in normal conditions would win any race around the globe today. 2:36 five times in a row!

Good Workout wrote:

C'mon man, that was a very good race. Are you still expecting someone to break Kenenisa Bekele's records during your lifetime? Very unlikely (maybe I'll eat my own words someday but odds are that I'm not gonna be able to chew by that time if the day ever comes)

I'm not a Farah fan but I quite enjoyed the race. Only thing missing was a Andrew Butchart in very good shape, now that's something worth questioning.

Bekele, Kipchoge and company got us bad accostumed with their regular sub 13, but it's a time which in normal conditions would win any race around the globe today. 2:36 five times in a row!

Thing is that Mo doesn't even try, he always goes for the usual slow Mo and kick in the end. At least try man! Push yourself to another level. He feels comfortable in those tactical races strategy. If he wants to be remembered he has to push foe records. Other wise he's just another politician.

Good race.. please. Looks like Mo chose the other runners, including two kids that stopped after 3k to cheer for him

It wasn't a great race - did anyone watching really have any doubts about the result? Farah is clearly in reasonable shape at the moment; you wouldn't want to be in peak condition in February if your aim is the World Champs in August.

Butchart would have provided interesting competition; he is clearly in good track form and has a reasonable kick. but a lot of fuss was made about this being Mo's last indoor race in the UK and he clearly wanted to go out with a win ....!!! British athletics can't afford their one remaining superstar to be defeated too often! (Trying to build up Laura Muir but she hasn't won anything yet and isn't really a name to your average sports fan at the moment, 'though this might change this summer.)

Farah will win two golds in August unless the African nations select their team for the the 5K & 10K early and somehow get them to focus exclusively on the championships.

We're not interested of seeing another tactical championship. We want attempts for records. Can anyone imagine a tactical Berlin Marathon with no pacers and elite runners finishing with times of 2:08-2:10. It's not interesting!!

For me Mo not even trying to go for records is nothing but an overrated gold digger loser.

Noone has informed Mo that it's not about who won this or that anymore, it's about who broke the record. Take Bekele for instance- that's a man. He goes for records and he won't rest until he breaks it. In Berlin he didn't care for the fact that he won. He was disappointed that he missed the record for a few seconds, and he tried in Dubai, and going to try again in London. So as all the elite marathon runners- they go for the record. This attitude should be on the track aswell. It's there with the women. But like I said the men are a disgrace

Even me as an average shmo runner that nobody but his wife knows, I try to improve my times all the time. I try to push forward. Isn't it boring for Mo every time to run tactical and kick in the last lap ending with a non- sub 13 min or non sub 27 min?

"Can anyone imagine a tactical Berlin Marathon with no pacers and elite runners finishing with times of 2:08-2:10. It's not interesting!!"

I think it would be fascinating! I much prefer watching the big championship marathons to the big city affairs.

Championship track races don't have to be slow. But put yourself in Farah's position; he has the best closing speed of any athlete in the race. His tactic is to sit and use that speed. It's up to his competitors, if they have ambitions of winning the race, to do something to blunt that closing speed before the last 600 or so. If they don't, Farah will win - and deservedly so!

I agree that the Olympic 1500 final was a joke - but that's because the majority of the field were willing to run a race that did not suit their strengths/abilities/ talents. If you know that you can't win a race if the pace is a crawl for the first couple of laps (and you should be well aware of your capabilities) then you have to do something about the pace if it turns out to be slow.

That's why there's big marathons without pacers and ones with, most people like to see people get after a time and lush themselves though as do most of the top athletes

Womack wrote:

We're not interested of seeing another tactical championship. We want attempts for records. Can anyone imagine a tactical Berlin Marathon with no pacers and elite runners finishing with times of 2:08-2:10. It's not interesting!!

For me Mo not even trying to go for records is nothing but an overrated gold digger loser.

You speak for yourself when you say "we" as I could not disagree more. Rabbits and pacemakers have made races boring to the extreme, and making every race a world record attempt has only encouraged PED use in the sport. It is much better to see a race where someone has to use their head to win rather than to rely on the race being set up with pacemakers which should be outright banned by the IAAF. As for world records, they were much more worthy meant when they were set by guys like Ron Clarke or even Henry Rono and David Rushida as they just went out and did it themselves.

You can bash Mo all you want but he has won the championships over the last 4 or 5 years and he is the man to beat which no one is able to do at the moment.

Womack wrote:

Noone has informed Mo that it's not about who won this or that anymore, it's about who broke the record. Take Bekele for instance- that's a man. He goes for records and he won't rest until he breaks it. In Berlin he didn't care for the fact that he won. He was disappointed that he missed the record for a few seconds, and he tried in Dubai, and going to try again in London. So as all the elite marathon runners- they go for the record. This attitude should be on the track aswell. It's there with the women. But like I said the men are a disgrace

Having a race set up with pace makers is not really a race and even of you break the record the shine is taken off as you were dependent on having pacemekers there. Warinju was an exciting marathon runner because he went out there and did it himself.

Why not be upset that there isn't anyone else that can push Mo in a fast race. Each championship we here someone is going to do it, but they don't. If you think Mo ought to be challenging Bekele's records, then there's gotta be someone else that should be close to Mo.

Or you could just appreciate Bekele as a once in a long while talent, and Mo as a slightly different once in a long while talent.

Womack wrote:

Even me as an average shmo runner that nobody but his wife knows, I try to improve my times all the time. I try to push forward. Isn't it boring for Mo every time to run tactical and kick in the last lap ending with a non- sub 13 min or non sub 27 min?

It is a diffrerent situation for average shmo runners such as you or me, as there are always people finishing ahead of us in any decent race so we have no choice but to try push forward to be as competitive as we can in the classification. Someone like Mo is at the top of the pile and it has been extremely tough for him and anyone else up there; he will be having to calculate how to stay at the top and this does not always involve pushing yourself to run faster in every race you run.

This thread is the result of a bunch of dorks viewing the sport through the lenses of a movie (Without Limits). That was Hollywood, folks.

Exactly. Mo isn't a hobby jogger. He has a different set of objectives than we do.

You know the fat guy at your office who just can't relate to your running because he has no frame of reference? To elites like Mo, you're that guy. You can't relate to him.