Fair our Foul: Two-time Olympic medallist Nick Willis just won a $20 shoe voucher at an all-comers 800 race

Rojo was at a spelling bee. He was a Princeton senior and his competition were all in the second grade. The word was "cat." Rojo looks over at little Sanjeep and says, "You better tell me how to spell "cat" or I'll beat your head."

UkrainianHunk wrote:

I think it's fair. If I ran at an all-comers meet, I would be doing it for fun and watching/racing an Olympic medalist run would just add to it. I would try and get a photo taken with him if anything.

As for him running it, I would say running just to run is refreshing. He's been in some tough races with high expectations so to be able to have a race that he can run without pressure was probably a lot of fun. Like he said, "You'd be surprised how rejuvenating a win like this can be!" Occasionally during my senior year of track I would run at a JV meet instead of a varsity meet and without the pressure of higher competition and time expectations, it's easier to run fast without getting tense.

Hate to break it to you but if you were a SR in HS and occasionally running a JV meet instead of Varsity, you were a massive headcase if that was helping you somehow run faster. You could have continued your quest to break a 5:00 mile at a Varsity meet, just like you were at a JV meet.

Maybe fair wrote:

It’s not unfair but kinda sad and pathetic. You have to get your kicks by beating up on non-elites?

Lost respect for nick.

You're accusing him of running against weak competition in a race that he won by .05 seconds?

There's no wrong answer for him, either keep it or give it away, just don't give him crap about it. Giving it away seems like a nice gesture but a lot of people don't like accepting a gift for losing.

another perspective wrote:

Hate to break it to you but if you were a SR in HS and occasionally running a JV meet instead of Varsity, you were a massive headcase if that was helping you somehow run faster. You could have continued your quest to break a 5:00 mile at a Varsity meet, just like you were at a JV meet.

Jokes on you, I'm 6'2" 200 lbs, so a sub 5:00 mile wouldn't be that bad for me. I acknowledge that I was a bit of a headcase runner but even with that I still have a 21 second 200 pr so I'm not complaining. I mainly ran JV meets as training since those were in the middle of the week. Everyone has their own set of circumstances as I'm sure you do since you're out here trying to roast people you know nothing about.

foo wrote:

Which would you rather have: $20 or bragging rights saying you ran against Nick Willis and finished 2nd.

Exactly.

Who is going to care about £20 dollars

I once finished 2nd to an international over 5000m He'd finished his shower by the time I got in but was one of my favourite races.

It was a last minute one off race. I didn't know I'd running and just had 4 pints of Guinness in the pub.

I did 200m with him and he was off, at 800m I looked round and the rest were all miles behind. I managed to hold them off despite starting too fast.

I couldn't have cared less if he got a prize. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen!

One of my first races and it really gave me a love for track running.

Bob Schul Country wrote:

Screw the voucher......just take a pic with a few of the guys you raced against. I am sure they would love to have the memory of racing against him.

Like someone said earlier, more guys need to show up at run with the hobbyjoggers. Makes the sport more popular

Willis, Avila, & Herrera all took a picture with the SD MESA boys after the race. The race was hosted at a local JC so it was a lowkey meet to prepare for the rounds at the WC. I was surprised to hear Willis making an appearance so it was nice of him to show up. I believe he was 53-54 through 400m sitting behind Avila & Herrera.

I think it would be awesome. Kind of like if Chris Rock showed up at open mic night at a local bar. If you're also practicing some stand up that night, you're going to be stoked to meet him and see him perform.

Typical of LR to accuse and have a controversial thread title without doing any research. Three guys ran 1:49 as a workout, and Nick gave the prize to a kid. Kind of fun to do it in a race setting, and I’d bet every person signed up was in awe/loved it. Imagine that kid who just got a prize from an Olympic medalist. You think him watching some testosterone patch wearing 40 year old running 2:15 in vaporflys would inspire him more than that? Should anybody who can run sub 17 avoid 99% of road races since its unfair to the people who can’t? Come on. Also, Nick has pretty much always done an 800m TT in the summer of championship years, there’s vids on YouTube/flotrack of pervious solo efforts. Go blue

I ran a masters 200m and two of the competitors were former Olympians! Heck, I ran a race with former Olympians!!! (Ok, so they were already in their sweats by the time I finished, but still I competed against them, and I would have given them $20).

It’s not unfair but kinda sad and pathetic. You have to get your kicks by beating up on non-elites?

Lost respect for nick.[/quote]

You're accusing him of running against weak competition in a race that he won by .05 seconds?[/quote]

How can we be 3 pages in and 99% of you still believe he beat up on a bunch of kids? Nick was in 3rd place coming off the turn for crying out loud, behind two other elites in Herrera and Avila (both 3:55 milers). How awesome would it be to have a running site where only fans of T & F frequented it?!

$20 off sounds more like a coupon. I wonder if it said, "Not To Be Combined With Other Discounts"?

vonschnapps wrote:

I ran a masters 200m and two of the competitors were former Olympians! Heck, I ran a race with former Olympians!!! (Ok, so they were already in their sweats by the time I finished, but still I competed against them, and I would have given them $20).

There's no such thing as a "former Olympian"

Fowl.

You have no idea what you are talking about. He went to a meet and all 3 of them ran 1:49. As he said on his twitter page good to run a race the day after his 1500m where he was 4th in 3:37. He referenced good for the rounds in Doha. He has been through championship racing a time or two he knows what he is doing. He was not their to beat up on non elites. Get your facts straight before you write something on here

Michiganrunner50 wrote:

You have no idea what you are talking about. He went to a meet and all 3 of them ran 1:49. As he said on his twitter page good to run a race the day after his 1500m where he was 4th in 3:37. He referenced good for the rounds in Doha. He has been through championship racing a time or two he knows what he is doing. He was not their to beat up on non elites. Get your facts straight before you write something on here

1. I couldn’t find results anywhere. 2. Nick couldn’t just meet the kids and talk. 3. He couldn’t TT?

Nick has issues

Give him credit for not blowing it on a YouPorn subscription.

The critics who think there is something wrong with elites showing up at all comers meets must be wanna be's who never understandd competition. These summer all comers meets have been going on for decades and always have had elites who were training in San Diego participate in them. The local shoe company who originally sponsored them had a policy that Olympic gold medal winners got a free entry and everyone else had to pay the $5 per event. I remember watching a guy named Joaquim Cruz (who had a gold medal) pacing a just-graduated high schooler named Meb Keflezighi in an attempt at a sub-4 mile. My son, who was a high school sophomore, was in that heat, and I was a masters athlete in the next slower heat. It was great running against guys like that and just getting to hang out on the infield with them and talk about running.

Letsrun: "Elites never interact with the public! That's why our sport is dying!"

Also Lestrun: "Some elite ran a race with the public! WTF is wrong with this guy!?"