Canaday announces retirement. Good for him

no he has not actually he has only done it twice in about 10 marathons last time 6 years ago but this is an obvious april fools he might qualify but he needs a good weather day

THIS^ Well put sir (or ma'am)

And hey, Sage stole you "pretty cool" line. Ask for an autograph for your kid!!!

Just kidding Sage, good luck with your race.

Sage is in a weird spot..

I would say he should focus on 50K/50M/100K distance rather than road racing.

He would get dusted in any sort of road race by even an average Ex-D1 track athlete. I see no reason why he focuses on the road marathon. You gotta focus on what you are good at and he's average at best when it comes to the marathon.

However - the guy is an absolute beast at 50K/50M/100K distances. Definitely world-class level.

It's weird how he doesn't play to his strengths. It's sorta like if Apple decided to enter the market for refrigerators or cars even though they are the best at making consumer electronics devices.

I can't say I understand it, but more power to him. You gotta do you at the end of the day.

AdviceForSage wrote:

Sage is in a weird spot..

I would say he should focus on 50K/50M/100K distance rather than road racing.

He would get dusted in any sort of road race by even an average Ex-D1 track athlete. I see no reason why he focuses on the road marathon. You gotta focus on what you are good at and he's average at best when it comes to the marathon.

However - the guy is an absolute beast at 50K/50M/100K distances. Definitely world-class level.

It's weird how he doesn't play to his strengths. It's sorta like if Apple decided to enter the market for refrigerators or cars even though they are the best at making consumer electronics devices.

I can't say I understand it, but more power to him. You gotta do you at the end of the day.

2:16 is average guys, heard it here!

You're missing my point broski...

Sage ran a 2:19:59 at Houston .... where does that rank? Compared to 2017 times, that would be the 53rd fastest time by an american runner. Hence, average at best.

However, Sage is world class at the 50K/50M/100K distance and his perfomances in that race are among the top tier (top 1-2%).

AdviceForSage wrote:

Sage is in a weird spot..

I would say he should focus on 50K/50M/100K distance rather than road racing.

He would get dusted in any sort of road race by even an average Ex-D1 track athlete. I see no reason why he focuses on the road marathon. You gotta focus on what you are good at and he's average at best when it comes to the marathon.

However - the guy is an absolute beast at 50K/50M/100K distances. Definitely world-class level.

It's weird how he doesn't play to his strengths. It's sorta like if Apple decided to enter the market for refrigerators or cars even though they are the best at making consumer electronics devices.

I can't say I understand it, but more power to him. You gotta do you at the end of the day.

Thanks for repeating (copying) and agreeing with what 3 other posters have said.

Well I don't know if it improves my "ranking" but for the record I ran 2:19:50 at Houston (not 2:19:59 like you falsely stated). Gotta give me those 9 seconds! Someone earlier mentioned I'm not a "top 150-200 marathon runner in the US." Well, that may be true at times, but consider that only 86 guys ran under 2:19:00 for the marathon in the whole time period of 2014-2016 leading into the 2016 Olympic Trials. In any case like I mentioned earlier I'm not sponsored to be a road marathon runner obviously. HOKA already has some great 2:12-2:13 guys going to the trials. This is just a fun personal goal of mine (which I do take very seriously though), and it is a huge honor to be at the Olympic Trials marathon. I also don't like "ducking competition" so I will show my cards on the roads. The only other guy that I can thing of that will mix it up at these "shorter distances" and has actually moved down from 100-milers to go sub 2:18 before is Max King (who is much more speedy than me). It's a pretty tough transition to make and I respect him greatly for it. I'm very very fortunate to have the support and flexibility from sponsors to be able to do events that interest me. Doing marathons like Boston and the Olympic Trials interest me. So I'd like to keep trying to do them (at least at the sub 2:19:00 level). However, I also love mountain and ultra-trail running training and racing. I really like net uphill events like Mt. WA and Pikes Peak and even 50km mountain races like Speedgoat. The summer season is all about mountain running for me. The 100-milers that I have done, I have done horrible in...but my goal is eventually to build back up to those and try to finish strong on the biggest stages (UTMB). I also figure that doing the 100-mile ultras well in my mid to late 30s is very possible and you can say I am "pacing myself" for that. I'm all about longevity and having fun in the sport. I believe that road marathon training is a good background for ultras and that the switch to "shorter ultras" like mountain 42-50km races as well as still racing marathons is a good mix. Racing 100-milers is super hard and does not feel healthy (and you can't race as often!). I've seen way too many guys focus the super long ultras for several years and then essentially "burn out" or get chronically injured/overtrained. I respect #AnySurfaceAnyDistance though so I will keep trying at anything that takes me out of my comfort zone. This sport is honestly just too much fun! Thanks for your support and hope your running is going well, Sage

PrettySure1 wrote:

RejectRunner wrote:

2:16 is average guys, heard it here!

You're missing my point broski...

Sage ran a 2:19:59 at Houston .... where does that rank? Compared to 2017 times, that would be the 53rd fastest time by an american runner. Hence, average at best.

https://www.iaaf.org/records/toplists/road-running/marathon/outdoor/men/senior/2017?regionType=countries&region=usa&drop=regular&fiftyPercentRule=regular&page=1&bestResultsOnly=false

However, Sage is world class at the 50K/50M/100K distance and his perfomances in that race are among the top tier (top 1-2%).

I hear you Sage - I think that logic makes sense.. as the end of the day, you gotta focus on what interests you and it sounds like the road marathons have more appeal for you right now vs. mountainous ultras. I admire you for taking a run at events out of your comfort zone.

As a fan of the sport, I'd love to see you take a run at something like JFK 50 Miler (15 miles trail, 35 miles flat-ish). Seems like you could really demolish a course like. that.

Thanks - I appreciate your comment and positive words!

Obviously it's a lot easier to be in the "elite top 1-3%" of ultra-trail running because there are way less numbers in this niche of distance running compared to road marathons.

The other thing was timing: I wanted to start trying to hit the 2020 OT Marathon standard early on in the qualifying window. In the northern hemisphere it is hard to find a lot of great mountain races in the winter because of the snow up high...so road running is better periodization at this time of year I think.

Finally I'm not going to let you get away with this comment though [assuming you are the same person who posted above]:

"He would get dusted in any sort of road race by even an average Ex-D1 track athlete."

This may be true in a mile-5km. But I suck at the 5km and below. However, I will inform you that the "average Ex-D1 track athlete " does not run sub 2:20 marathons.

To make a comment like that either you are:

1. not from the US

2. Not of college age yet and/or

3. Didn't run NCAA

Thanks for your support though.