When an athlete wins a national title and none of the real competition shows up, do they feel like they actually earned it?

Yeah yeah ...there/their

If I win a national championship and I’m the only person in the race I’d gloat about being a national champion all day everyday.

Plus, nobody cares about running national championships to even look up the results. Maybe some envious Letsrunners would because they all swear they are the best runner to ever live and anyone better than them must be lying.

That's the nature of championships. Accept it, along with a dose of humility knowing there are others out there faster than you. It's your day; celebrate it. Carpe Diem!

I bet impostor syndrome is just as real at the top level as the 'almost-top' level. I mean, I'm sure people like Galen or Centro think about the same thing except they're comparing themselves to higher levels of athlete. Past years, or runners in different events, or runners who are inconsistent. Would I have won this if Lagat had run that year? Would I have won that if Asbel Kiprop had made better choices? If I win a national championship the year after a legend retires or moves up, did I actually earn it? There's always another level unless you're Kenenisa Bekele or Hicham El Guerroj. I bet even Kenenisa occasionally thinks about his titles in relation to what they might have been, if he had needed to face Haile in his prime.

Yeah that's an easy answer.

93-94 - Houston Rockets

94-95 - Houston Rockets

That’s what races are for.

Firstly, if you are competing with the top guys and they don’t show up, it’s certainly not a given that they would have beaten you. Bad days, injuries etc happen all the time.

Again, faster PR doesn’t mean automatic victory.

National Champion is National Champion.

Houston duh......... wrote:

Yeah that's an easy answer.

93-94 - Houston Rockets

94-95 - Houston Rockets

I know, right!? Every NBA fan I know definitely knows which team won and which player dominated the playoffs while MJ was gone. It wasn't Hakeem's fault that Mike went looking for his spirit animal in the Birmingham Fall League.

When it happens wrote:

Let's use Marathon champs as an example, Jared Ward, Rupp, Meb, ect ect ect didn't show up. Does top 3 still feel like the "best" in the country or do they know they would of got smoked had the big boys showed up?

Jared Ward? He doesn't show up in the races he's participating in.

I think Tim and Sara feel like national champions, but also know that, in marathoning, the title “National Champion” doesn’t mean as much as Olympian, WMM podium-finisher (or, obviously, champion), etc, unlike on the track where (with the exception of non-Worlds years) “National Champion” is the clear-cut major (domestic) accolade of the year in each event.

That being said, Tim and Sara both beat deep fields of domestic pros and took home $20k (plus bonuses, plus additional USARC circuit prize money based on points earned at the championship), so I bet they’re both enjoying a well-deserved feeling of accomplishment over this holiday season, despite the “second-tier” status of their titles.