Is Nike protecting Galen Rupp?

We are talking about Meb because a poster correctly pointed out that you don't have to go to pancake courses with pacers to be considered a marathon great. Meb is a marathon great, especially by US standards. He's saying Rupp could do the same. Does that make sense now?

Again, Meb's 2:08 in Boston 2014 is as good as Hall's 2:06 in London and 2:04 in tailwind Boston. It also won him the race.

You have no idea why Meb didn't run London or Berlin, because you aren't Meb. It's certainly NOT because he wasn't fast enough. He was fast enough to toe the line against anyone, anywhere.

Rupp could continue to run US courses, without pacers, and still be a marathon great. Wanjiru is arguably the 2nd greatest marathoner of all-time and he never broke 2:05.

What do you think will bring Nike more publicity? Rupp winning Chicago/Boston or finishing 8th in Berlin/London? Putting aside the sponsorship issue, London/Berlin invite the fastest athletes, and Rupp's 2:09 just wasn't good enough. Now that he's a 2:06 guy, that might change, but there are many faster than him. It's a two-way street. The race has to want him as well. Farah's track medals and his status as a national hero can get him into London but elsewhere his 2:06 isn't that fast and may not be good enough.

Les wrote:

What do you think will bring Nike more publicity? Rupp winning Chicago/Boston or finishing 8th in Berlin/London?

Why do people assume that Rupp would struggle to get in the top 10 in Berlin and London? Name 10 runners that could beat Rupp in a marathon.

Also, if you guys actually look at past results, you'll find that low 2:06 almost always gets on the podium in London and Berlin.

snow blow wrote:

Why do people assume that Rupp would struggle to get in the top 10 in Berlin and London? Name 10 runners that could beat Rupp in a marathon.

Also, if you guys actually look at past results, you'll find that low 2:06 almost always gets on the podium in London and Berlin.

Thank you for bringing some common sense to this thread. That is rare in these parts.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

I support Galen, and he is the best that America has . There isn't another american male marathoner who is on his level.

He won a bronze at the Olympics in the marathon. He won Chicago, was the runner up in Boston, and he recently won Prague with a PB of 2:06. From a far, that's a quality beginning to a marathon career. However, with a closer look, is his path being dictated by the overlords at Nike to put Galen in a position to win?

Are they making sure that he will not be in a race with other runners who have serious 5k/10k speed, or pure blazing marathoners? Are they protecting him from the likes of Kipchoge, Farah, Karoki, Kamworor, Bekele , Kipsang, etc?

What are you thoughts on this?

Seems to me he is running the biggest most known marathons in the USA. I always want to watch Chicago, Boston and NYC and then the olympics. I really could care less about the other marathons. London/Berlin/Rotterdam....etc.. are like watching a diamond league 10k with 20 kenyans lined up for a time trial.

Scorpion_Runner

you, sir, consistently post some of the most ridiculous garbage on these message boards. You are a legend. Please dont stop

Les wrote:

Putting aside the sponsorship issue, London/Berlin invite the fastest athletes, and Rupp's 2:09 just wasn't good enough. Now that he's a 2:06 guy, that might change, but there are many faster than him. It's a two-way street. The race has to want him as well. Farah's track medals and his status as a national hero can get him into London but elsewhere his 2:06 isn't that fast and may not be good enough.

This might be one of the craziest, misled posts I've read on LRC - and that says a lot. Who do you think Berlin/London would rather have, Mo Farah and/or Galen Rupp, or Ethiopian X and Ethiopian Y who ran 2:04 at Dubai?

Now I do realize that Mo and Galen will command six figure appearance fees, whereas Ethiopians X and Y are lucky to have their travel and hotel room paid...

Some dude wrote:

Scorpion_Runner

you, sir, consistently post some of the most ridiculous garbage on these message boards. You are a legend. Please dont stop

I am tuning into his threads now just to read the ridiculous claims in his posts. They are hilarious.

vivalarepublica wrote:

The only way that letsrun will be happy with Rupp's career is if he runs Berlin and London, wins, sets the world record, and also does a sub-2 effort.

Um, no. That would just prove that the marathon record was softer than we realized!

Failure of imagination wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

The only way that letsrun will be happy with Rupp's career is if he runs Berlin and London, wins, sets the world record, and also does a sub-2 effort.

Um, no. That would just prove that the marathon record was softer than we realized!

You're right. My bad!

Les wrote:

What do you think will bring Nike more publicity? Rupp winning Chicago/Boston or finishing 8th in Berlin/London? Putting aside the sponsorship issue, London/Berlin invite the fastest athletes, and Rupp's 2:09 just wasn't good enough. Now that he's a 2:06 guy, that might change, but there are many faster than him. It's a two-way street. The race has to want him as well. Farah's track medals and his status as a national hero can get him into London but elsewhere his 2:06 isn't that fast and may not be good enough.

So you are a saying that Rupp is not fast enough to run Berlin or London?

Hmmm

I wouldn't go that far. I'm more on Rupp because he has yet to compete in those races, and he appears to be

Cherry Picking races where he can run away from most of the runners in the last 10k.

A guy with 10k/5k speed definitely has the ability in my book, which is why he should be doing the faster races.

Why not go for the WR? You never hear Africans say I'm going for the national record. It's always the WR that is the

focus.

If he never goes for the WR, no way can I put him n KK's level, who broke the WR twice. He is 31, and probably has 4 years of being able to race at his current ability, so ,hopefully, within that time he will do either London or Berlin.

For me, it is WR over medals. Someone will win a medal every 2 years at the WC, and every 4 years at the Olympics. Wrs are not broken every 2 years, or every 4 years, some WRs are still standing since 30 years ago. Dennis Kimetto is the only man in the world to have run 2:02 in a marathon race. No other man can claim that, and that record is still standing. And the best runner does not always win a medal. I've seen too many runners get lucky in a medal race. But no one lucks up and gets the WR.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

I've seen too many runners get lucky in a medal race.

Not in the marathon, you haven't.

While Meb never did run Berlin, he did run London twice. He DNF'd in 2007 and ran 2:09:21 in 2009. Money was far better for him to run NYC and Boston repeatedly especially since he never broke 2:09 until he won Boston.

I think from salazar's interview and other things they are said, they feel Rupp is a 2:05 guy right now. Meaning with good conditions and good pacers/pacing . His race in Prague pretty much validates this thinking. There were a couple slow 5ks and he finished with a pace decently faster than 2:06 and lost their pacer at what mile 15ish? I have no idea what kind of impact if any there is to tapering for a marathon, having a crappy day and dropping out and then running another marathon a few weeks later. Can't believe that is ideal.

I'm not sure what point there would be him jumping in a 2:02:XX marathon attempt unless he could have his own pacers. I mean unless his goal was to see how long can I run a pace before he blows up. If You don't run with that lead pack you are pretty much running on your own.

Do you think Rupp would run 2:06 going out in 13:48 as the leaders did in London? They ran over a minute slower over the first 5k in Prague. The point is, Rupp has never run a marathon where the leaders went out very fast the first half of the race. He has only run tactical or sensibly-paced races like Prague. We'll never know how he does in that kind of race until he does one.

It may come as a shock to you, but in continental Europe people are not as British/American oriented as you are. All you have to do is look at the composition of the London/Berlin fields to know that organizers go after the fastest runners. The elite fields are nearly all Kenyans/Ethiopians. Whether famous or not, it doesn't matter. As of now Galen Rupp and Mo Farah have the 14th and 16th fastest marathon times for 2018, more than 2 minutes slower than the fastest time this year.

http://www.aims-worldrunning.org/statistics.html

2:09:20, which was Rupp's PR before London this year, is not that impressive. That time would place him way, way down on this year's list.

Les wrote:

2:09:20, which was Rupp's PR before London this year, is not that impressive. That time would place him way, way down on this year's list.

If you don’t think he could’ve run London this year because of his 2:09 PR at the time, you are more foolish than I thought.

you have it completely opposite. WRs on the road are absolute junk and meaningless. It likes comparing cross country times. All that matters in marathon is place, and the higher the place the better.