Holy crap. Yuki Kawauchi had 1 plan for Boston - To break Galen Rupp. That's why he went out in 4:37!!

I think they focused on Rupp, aside from being an American running at home and an obvious contender, because his race plan is so consistent and unchanging. In other words, they COULD plan for Rupp. He never changes his approach. Certainly the weather was a big factor. Would Kawauchi's plan have worked if it was warm? We'll never know.

werygjlggc xcgh, wrote:

rojo wrote:

virtually all of the elite women - who have higher body fat on average and thus might be warmer - also completely were overcome by the weather in a race where they were barely running from the first step. They were going so so slow and the result was still carnage - the same carnage we saw in the men's race.

Wait, what? Women seem to always be COLD

Idiot.

Kawauchi does seem to keep Rupp on top of mind. At the press conference when asked about his response to Kirui's last surge, he said he didn't know where Rupp was but that he thought Kirui was going that hard that early as a reaction to Rupp.

Rupp is quite a lousy runner. He keeps sitting on kirui's and others back and will never help.

Check here a representatvie minute between 49:20-50:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erswpH4s0Sk

I'm not a salazar fan at all (understatement) but at least he was a front runner. too ad he educates his buddies differently

Yuki should go to London and run sub 2:20 just because he's Yuki MF Kawauchi.

And why did he not get an MF thread btw?

Big fan of Kawauchi. Truly happy for him and Des.

Yuki was seen as a real danger in given weather by Wilson Chebet and me - cold, can run downhill, has ability to suffer. We anticipated he will go fast, but were not sure how fast. We knew he will try to break the group as early as possible and we knew that Geoffrey will throw big and steady pace-changer in final 10km or so - once he was "sure" that it was time to move.

Hypothermia, uncontrolled shivering and subsequent higher rate of burn of glycogen for more than several athletes played the role. Physiology usually wins, especially in extreme weather.

Yuki survived better than most and ability of his body to cope better and avoid major issues was awarded with the victory that is well-deserved. There was no domination, just survival while racing on the thin edge of risk taken and that was beautiful enough for the most.

D. from Ikaika Sports -- Wilson Chebet's management

mudman said: How is it revisionist history when clearly he did what he said.

he said what he did. then attributed a purpose to the doing. that is the definition of revisionist history.

cheers.

10k SPEED wrote:

I love how you can tell slow guys because they consider 67 second quarter pace to be “speed”. Lol.

Incredible endurance and aerobic strength? Yes. Speed? No.

I love how you can tell track guys who who cannot figure out the marathon because they talk think in 400 m splits even on the roads.

Skeptical gfghjj wrote:

Sounds like revisionist history to me. Write the story now that the ending is here...

Well, maybe the conclusion.

But it is a fact he run Marshfield, he run a hilly marathon negative splitting, and another one pushing hard from start, and that hard downhill stage at hakone, and run the second half of Boston three days in a row while tapering, and totally dictated the pace of the race early on, which might have been much slower if not.

So yes, obviously, if he doesn't win, all of the previous loses its relevance, but the fact is he did it, he won, and it sounds like it didn't happen by chance, but as a result of a well executed plan.

And of course, gritty determination, endurance and strength. No one would have won with his plan but him .

Cottonshirt wrote:

he said what he did. then attributed a purpose to the doing. that is the definition of revisionist history.

cheers.

I watched the race a few times before this thread started and I came to the conclusion that he executed a well planned strategy.

He clearly was very well prepared and experienced. He grabbed his water bottles effortlessly. I saw Rupp fumble around a couple of times. He wore goggles to keep the cold rain out of his eyes. Have you seen another picture of him racing with clear glasses or goggles on? He obviously had the right ones on because he never messed with them or wipe them off. He had no wardrobe issues like virtually all of the other runners had. He purposefully made sure the pace was hard from the start. He didn't want to be out there leading, but if the pace slowed, he got out there. If it was fast enough, he tucked back in. He was ready for the conditions and knew how to leverage it against the "faster" competition. The man was meticulous and his execution was flawless. It's laughable that most here think he showed up and got "lucky" and is rewriting the script after the fact. He didn't just "show up" and put a bib on.

Kawauchi was prepared for this kind of difficult weather. Remember he won a solo marathon in USA at very cold conditions

some months ago. This kind of single sessions training with around 23 hours rest between sessions gives an extra strong aerobic- anaerobic power to the runner. It`s good to see it`s possible to win a Major on just single sessions per day. But of course I knew that in beforehand.. ;) COACH J.S

Your gleeful posting of anything that bashes Rupp is frankly pathetic

You come across as a butthurt 8 year old, with writing skills to match.

Correctamundo wrote:

Skeptical gfghjj wrote:

Sounds like revisionist history to me. Write the story now that the ending is here...

I was thinking the same thing. 100% agree with this post.

Yes. Revisionist history. Yuki won because he was able to deal with the conditions better than anyone. Tyler Pennell, Bumbalough and Scott Smith came in the top-10 for the same reason.

No mention of Yuki dropping back near 10K and falling back to the second pack. He caught back up (with others in the 2nd pack like Sambu and Abdi) when the pace slowed considerably. Has anyone asked Yuki anout this stretch?

Scorpion_runner wrote:

No dis, but you guys are being arse holes with this.

You put it up as a SUPER HOT TOPIC on the front page. come on, man

That just ridiculous. I believe in taking LEGITIMATE shots at rupp, due to his slow times and

cherry picking races.

but this? People could have died out there, and that is no joke.

Yuki won. cool. But let it be just that.

No, man, you're being the a-hole. You don't get to choose what happened or how it happened.

Some of you guys seem to think that picking up the pace early to try to neutralize someone's kick is unheard of.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

No dis, but you guys are being arse holes with this.

You put it up as a SUPER HOT TOPIC on the front page. come on, man

That just ridiculous. I believe in taking LEGITIMATE shots at rupp, due to his slow times and

cherry picking races.

but this? People could have died out there, and that is no joke.

Yuki won. cool. But let it be just that.

We do not put up 'super hot'. The is auto generated. Don't you see the tag 'autogenerated' underneath it?

It amazes us people get mad at us about what people find popular.

It’s simple... Yuki knew the conditions were beneficial to him in that he’s run sub 2:20 in worse. So he kept the pace honest unlike the women. At the end he didn’t hit the wall. I don’t think he was thinking “how do I beat Rupp” He was most likely thinking just keep running and beat whoever is ahead of me. Anyways Kirui was the defending champ and the one to beat at the end. Us thinking he was cueing off Rupp is American egocentrism at its best.

I don't care if this piece is laced with retrospective fiction. It simply adds to the legend of Yuki Kawauchi that is now fully secured after his Boston marathon victory. There is nothing else he has to do. Yuki is definitely a legend, now and forever.

I also really want to know more about what happened between the time Kirui took off and Yuki catching him. I am guessing there is no footage of that, but it is something I would like to know more about and see. See Yuki off in the distance slowly stalking down Kirui with a seemingly insurmountable lead while Kirui keeps looking behind him is one of the images burned in my memory from this race.

Kawauchi runs the same way in every race - basically as fast as he can as evenly as possible. He looks like he's surging, but he's not. When splits are fast, the course is downhill. When he goes to the front, it's because everyone has slowed down. Rupp's tactics would've been completely unaffected by any fluctuations in pace. The only part of Larner's quote was Rupp's plan - sit in the pack at whatever the pace may be and use his track prowess with 10 km to go.

I love Kawauchi, but the myth behind the legend is ridiculous. Survival of the fattest. Fat Bekele would've blown his doors off.

Rupp would not be shaken by a few fast opening miles or random surges. To drop Rupp, you’d have to run 2:03 pace from the gun and wage a war of attrition.