crosscounts wrote:
Why can so many elites not handle the weather? Shameful.
It only looks that way because a greater percentage of the elites are going for the win and trying to run whatever the other leaders are running rather than sticking to a steady pre-planned effort. It's not uncommon for them to slow down a ton or drop out once they fall off, even in ideal conditions. If there's a monster headwind in cold and wet conditions, once they blow up, the hitting-the-wall effect will be that much more pronounced. Hence, it should be expected that the elites who don't hang will perform even worse than usual in weather like today's.
A scant few out of the hordes of lesser names nailed it by ideally meting out their effort, unaffected by having to actually try to match someone else's pace and presumably benefiting from having more people to draft for a longer time. And most of the ones who knocked it out of the park probably were, to be honest, a little lucky to find the right pace early on for the conditions that were to come. No one really knows at mile 5, 10 or 15 whether or not the pace/effort will be sustainable past mile 20 or so (see: Kirui) - and that's true even in good weather! Some people got it right today, with a little smarts and with a little luck, and finished strong. Bolstered by passing so many others and sensing an incredibly high Boston finish, they ground it out with that little extra energy they had saved, while the shattered elites - having hit the wall extra hard in the wind after going for broke to win - had little left to run for and nothing left to run with.
To summarize, it's all or nothing for the contenders. If they die off in this kind of headwind, it really is nothing! They'll look and feel like they're dragging a backhoe behind them. It's easier to avoid a complete blowup for those who can run by feel and not have to match moves.