Maybe this group was looking at the 2:14 barrier because that was the first time
bonus. A sub-2:14
was worth $1,000 (second time bonus: sub 2:12 - $3,000.) And, since these guys had
elite bid
numbers, 2:14 had to be by the clock time - not the chip. A 2:13:59 group "training
run" and a
$1,000 is better than blowing up and coming home in 2:20-something. I think it was a
great day for
Ryan Shay, 23, a recent grad of Notre Dame. Too bad he was just outside the money, but
he is going
to have even better days ahead.
Some of these guys are from the Hanson team. I saw this group at 2M, 12M/20K, and at
15M. They had
their Hanson supporters on the course cheering them on, but the crowd got up for these
guys the
whole way. They did remind me of a bunch of college guys working together and
hammering a Sunday
morning 20 miler.
Americans in the top 25 with their ages and clock/chip times:
6.) Alan Culpepper - 2:09:41
12.) Kyle Baker, 26 -2:14:13/2:13:52
13.) Clint Verran, 27 - 2:14:17/2:13:56
14.) Keith Dowling, 33 - 2:14:22/2:14:01
15.) Ryan Shay, 23 - 2:14:30/2:14:09
17.) Peter De La Cerda, 31 - 2:14:41/2:14:20
18.) Josh Cox, 27 - 2:15:01/2:14:40
23.) Weldon Johnson, 29 - 2:18:10/2:17:50
Richard McCann wrote:
> My point is that these runners (running 2:12 pace not 2:11 BTW), were
> running a conservative time oriented race without regard to the competition
> around them instead of running a "balls to the walls" risk taking race
> against the best in the world. Until US runners start taking those risks,
> which they did in late 70s and early 80s, they won't be competitive with
> the rest of the world.
>
> As to Malmo's comment: I did take these types of risks when I could 20
> years ago, and I both paid dearly for them and had some shocking
> improvements. I not asking them to do any differently than I tried to
> do. And by implying that only current elite athletes can criticize current
> elite athletes, you are saying that no fan of the sport has any standing in
> talking about athletes' performances. That's not a valid defense.
>
> RMc
>
> At 07:57 PM 10/14/2002 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >In a message dated 10/14/2002 7:51:15 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> >
> >
> >>But what's this pack of US runners? Looks like they
> >> > > were on a training run rather than racing rest of the world....
> >
> >
> >Since when is going out in sub 1:06 a training run? Of course this is
> >going to go back to the old tired thread of "why isn't the US as good as
> >the rest of the world?", but going out at 2:11 marathon pace for the first
> >half is not training. If your goal is sub 2:12 then they were right where
> >they needed to be, they just did not get it done in the second half.
> >
> >Brian Fullem
