Geoff Pietsch wrote:
>
> Unless I've missed (i.e,deleted) some posts on this, no one seems to
> address the obvious reason why it makes no sense for the whole field to run
> a very slow pace. Did every one of them really believe he had the fastest
> kick? Didn't some of them realize they could not win if it came down to a
> last lap kick? Why then didn't they try something, anything. Kuts like
> surges, a fast last 4-5 laps. Anything but simply trot and inevitably get
> outkicked. Sure they all finished close, but they also all know one another.
> They know which of them can run 51 off that dawdling pace and which can't.
Well, since most of them finished within a second or two, most of them
were right. There seems to be an underlying assumption here that the
winner would be the same every time, but I don't believe that. Bitok won
this one, but if they ran that race, that way, ten times, you might see
several different winners. They each gambled on being able to win with a
sprint. Another thing you have to consider is that this was at the end
of a long, tough season; probably nobody felt like putting in a major,
fast-pace effort.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
