Nick Willis 13:56 DFL?

I was watching his splits. He was clearly doing his best to hang back, but even that wasn't enough. You can't really lose contact with the field 2 laps in. I don't have his exact splits, but I'm guessing he was on 13:10 pace with a couple of laps to go. Ultimately that pace toasted him.

Something happened the last 800m. He was sub 13:20 pace at that point.

The pace for the entire field was too fast early. He was 2:05 at 800m at the end of the line. 2:05 is sub 13:00 pace. Tough race to be in for a miler.

He's on the Manzano retirement tour. He's earned it.

Nick is from an english speaking country, so he was the only not doped athlete in the field. Congrats Nick!

Willis is not on the Manzano retirement tour if he's running 5000m races.

He ran a 3:54 mile indoor. A guy like Willis could be running 1500m / mile domestic races like the St. Louis Festival of Miles, Music City, Portland Track Classic, Penn Relays, etc. if he just wanted to be winning in 3:37 / 3:55. He can still run sub 4:00 miles anytime.

From what I understand with the World Champs being four months away he's been doing more long-distance work and pushing back racing the 1500m race for awhile. I have no idea what happened in this race, probably the early pace alluded too above had something to do it since it was a bit steep for a miler.

What will Nick run when he is 53?

53 wrote:

What will Nick run when he is 53?

Obviously the 10k

He just posted on twitter

The 5k experiment seems to be over. I'm a miler! 4.10 at the mile, even though I was at the back, is just too quick for me it seems. I faded badly to 13.54 in a distant last?. 12 weeks of distance work won't go to waste--Milers need strength too! Time to loosen the reigns.

https://twitter.com/nickwillis/status/1136761907896029185

You want to see today's modern clean runners?

Look at the 800m and the 5000m for men. Totally wiped out, panting like dogs.

Willis just doesn't know how to push himself. Quite a baby at distances like Seb Coe was. At least he now has a faster 5000m PB than Lord Coe. These guys just don't know how to hurt. It's so different than the 1500m. I have a 13:54.28 PB and am nowhere near as fast as Nick. Nowhere. I only made NCAA Regionals, but maybe I didn't know how to hurt with a 3:48 1500m PB!! HA.

“Time to loosen the reigns.”

Time to learn to spell.

Rains.

Reins.

Reigns.

Dayton Rains? Ah, yes, Nick!

His testosterone is so sky high from not beating it to pr0n that he isn't allowed to run the 1500 anymore.

Pretty sure his 5k PR is from years ago at that Adidas hosted diamond league in the states. Ben true won I think but Willis ran 13:2X or 13:30 I think. Too lazy to look it up.

Ran 13:20 PR. 7:37 for 3k.

He was 6:32 at 2500m. Do the math. He was going for it and blew up.

He has run 13:20 in the past.

At least he had the balls to finish. 90% of guys would have quit to save face. Real men such as Nick dont care what the haters have to say.

kjclean wrote:

You want to see today's modern clean runners?

Look at the 800m and the 5000m for men. Totally wiped out, panting like dogs.

Willis just doesn't know how to push himself. Quite a baby at distances like Seb Coe was. At least he now has a faster 5000m PB than Lord Coe. These guys just don't know how to hurt. It's so different than the 1500m. I have a 13:54.28 PB and am nowhere near as fast as Nick. Nowhere. I only made NCAA Regionals, but maybe I didn't know how to hurt with a 3:48 1500m PB!! HA.

Yeah that is entirely untrue. You are not factoring in things like ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch. Not to mention some of the workouts that Nick and Seb have completed are extremely painful and just as bad as what the best 5k guys can throw down. Not being able to hurt is the least of their problems.

walter j wrote:

He's on the Manzano retirement tour. He's earned it.

How dare you! Manzano will medal again in 2020, mark my word!

Good. If he makes the 1500 final in Tokyo, his fourth successive final, he should be in the discussion for clean GOAT.

Kiwi__ wrote:

WTF happened?

He was in last place from the start!

EPO is a hell of a drug.