RT: Any post-race revelations?
BG: I guess one of the things I want people to realize is that you’re not going to run 2:10 if you go out in 67 minutes. You’ve got to go for it. And hopefully other guys that see me doing that are going to start doing it and we’re going to start seeing a lot more Americans running 2:10s and under. The half marathon in Houston was a good example of that. There were a lot of guys in that race who had never run half marathons before and they were PR’ing by minutes, and it’s because they were going for it. They have confidence and they say, ‘if this guy is doing it, I’m going to go for it, too.’ And then they do it and that’s all it takes. It just takes one person to kind of change the way you think, and all of a sudden everyone is going to start doing it. I think we’re going to start seeing some very fast marathons and hopefully more Americans going to Houston to run, because it’s a very fast course.
100% agree and believe the tide is really turning with American distance running. The expectation of mediocrity is giving way. AND the credit starts with Hall running sub 60 and 2:06, Sell getting an Olympic spot("if that guy can do it, so can I"), then goes to Ritz running 12:56 and taking bronze in World Half, which led to Teg's 12:58, then Meb winning NYC in of the best marathon fields EVER assembled.
So now you see some top all-time US half times out of some young and inexperienced guys this past weekend, and Gotcher runs 2:10 in his first marathon.
Without Olympics or World's this year, we should expect to see a lot of guys going for broke with their training and racing and hopefully getting some really fast times. By American standards, of course...
And I should not forget the girls, just because they run so much slower than us, because the girls are getting there too, picking up Olympic and World bronze(cough)medals. Although they are still seriously lacking in depth beyond Kara, Shalane, and Deena at 5k and up.
C'mon girls, it's 2010, you can take off the aprons and get out of the kitchen now. Your boyfriend can make his own tuna helper. It's not that hard. Go for a run.
No comments:
Post a Comment