Why didnt Henes, Enfield, And Kurgat run last weekend?

Good thought. Or why wouldn't Henes and Infeld work together to pace each other? Less than ideal, but rather than wasting the travel time and mini-taper, have a handshake deal to trade off taking the lead every 4 laps until 8k, then every woman for herself. Maybe Henes is currently the stronger of the two (and has a better ranking) and didn't want to help Infeld.

I mentioned that in an earlier post. off the track I'm sure they're friends but once the race starts all bets are off. why would Henes or Infeld want to help each other hit the standard then have to deal with them again at trials. and what if they DID agree to share pacing duties and one of them blew up, they'd feel like an idiot for not only failing to get the standard but helping a competitor get it.

Army restricted Kurgat.... military obligations for a soldier

Seems similar to some of the drama at last year's TEN where Klecker did basically all of the work after pacers only for Kincaid to swoop in at the end for the win. Neither got the Olympic standard.

If they had communicated before the race on what they were going to do and had Kincaid help a bit mid race, both of them probably could have gotten the Olympic standard last year which would have eased up their racing schedule this year. But neither wanted to willingly help a direct competitor get the standard.

at least with The Ten they actually HAD pacers.

Sound Running had no one and they've had all year to find a pacer. They know it's an Olympic year and the pros are going for the standard. anything less so close to trials is irrelevent, especially in a 10K which takes so much out of you. The fact that SR was sending out feelers on Instagram literally a few weeks ago looking for a pacer shows how behind they were.

You of little memory…. SR had their date and track locked, loaded and WA labeled. Again, our overpaid USATF CEO max, for the benefit of $$, kicked SR off of its long held date forcing Jesse to find a new date and facility. It is utter INCOMPETANCE by USATF to schedule two WA label meets back to back. Especially for middle & long distance events. What shatty NGB governance.

Along those lines, can you qualify for the Olympics in a mixed- gender 10k on the roads? I assume so. That seems like the best thing to do. I'd get 5 men and get in the sub-2 formation if I was Keira.

Infeld has been unusually silent on IG this week.

My guess is either injured and realised she has to sit out the trials or mental block with running so likely upset and taking some time to breathe

D'Amato is running night of 10k pbs in London on Saturday.

This was 8 years ago so the rules may have changed/my memory is probably a bit rusty but...

In 2016 one of Canada's top women in the 5km hit the OLY standard in a mixed race with a personal female pacer (allowed) but a couple local collegiate guys also "just happened" to be running exactly standard pace. Not sure if this is explicitly not allowed but if memory serves it was a gray area. In the end she did not get selected and we only sent 2 women in the 5.

I'm still waiting for athletes to realize they wouldn't have to go through the crapshoot that is running a 10k qualifying time if they just ran 3 XC races. I thought coaches would start to adapt last year, particularly given how hard the Olympic standard is, but there's still basically no one that did it. There was so much complaining about how it's unfair that so many spots go to XC qualifiers, but I think it's one of the the best decisions to come out of WA recently. The entire point of the decision was to incentivize athletes to race XC. Obviously, if an athlete doesn't race XC, it's gonna be worse for them.

I think the idea is that, at this level, runners need every chance they can give themselves. The odds are already stacked against them. Not sure if a pacer’s worth more than super shoes, but probably. Makes me wonder if a runner who forgot their super shoes would scratch…

Or, here's an idea:

Professional, elite runners, learn how to run a specific time. . .without a pacer.

And yes, they will have to learn to account for the % energy loss due to not drafting most of the way.

I think you should keep in mind that there are no pacers in swimming, so you have an even playing field for chasing times. In running, you can have pacers, and the standards are set with that in mind, so if you're running without pacers, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.

I don't follow swimming, but to try an analogy, it'd be kinda like if a swimmer forgot to bring the stuff they swim in, and a runner saying "Why can't a swimmer just swim in regular shorts? I mean I see how wearing a speedo would for sure help, but is it so critical that it makes or breaks whether someone swims the race they showed up for?".

I'm sure some swimmers could hit the standard no issue while swimming in regular shorts. There are plenty of runners that can get the standard without pacers. Notably, in 2021 Yared Nuguse broke the NCAA 1500m record in the ACC prelims (completely solo), and ran the Olympic standard in the process. Parker Valby ran less than a second off the 5k standard at NCAAs this year, also completely solo (a pacer definitely would've made the difference there). The difference with the 10k in particular is that the standard is really fast. Before this year, only 3 Americans had ever run faster than the 10k standard, and only 1 in the last 10 years. It's a huge ask to want runners to run massive PBs completely solo. Leading for 7k of a 10k takes more of a toll than leading 1500 of a 1500, not just in the sense that the wind is slowing you down for way longer, but it also takes a mental toll.

Also keep in mind that in swimming, swimmers can't draft off of you, but in track, once the pacer steps off, everyone is drafting off the lead runner. If the pacer drops at 3k, you don't want to be the one to take the pace for 7000m because if you do, people will draft off of you, and you may just miss the standard while towing all of your strongest competitors to get the standard. There's a spectacular Letsrun article from the 10th anniversary of Chris Solinsky's 26:59 race at 2010 Payton Jordan that I highly recommend. That race was billed as an American Record attempt for Galen Rupp, who took the pace once the pacer dropped out, did all of the work, and then had Chris Solinsky (in his 10k debut) blow past him in the last 800m to get the AR and become the first white guy under 27. Galen Rupp still went under the old AR, so it's not a perfect comparison, but I think it gets the point across. He ran 26:48 the next year when he was paced basically the whole way fwiw.

And lastly, you have to keep in mind that if an athlete decided to run the 10k all out, and they barely miss the standard, it takes about a week to recover (rule of thumb is a day for every mile raced), and they still have to race again.

Nice! However, I feel like nobody ever hits world or olympic standards at that meet. Always dudes that are like 'im definitely going for the standard' that end up running like 27:50 or blow up instead. I hope they find pacers that can actually run the first half on pace; too often do we see athletes get lazy and go for the win instead.

Totally agree.

I differentiate between pacers as help in an announced attempt to break/set a record, vs pacers used to hit a qualifying standard for a specific race.

A standard is a *minimum* purposely set to ensure a desired quality of competition. A standard exists to exclude people, actually.

I'm not saying pacers should be outlawed, but it seems somewhat problematic to me if a runner must absolutely rely on pacers to achieve a minimum standard, just so they can be allowed on the starting line. The "no pacer, not gonna try" seems oddly counter productive ...or maybe that's exactly what race directors are going for when they set tough standards (as is the case with the Oly 10k and 5k)?

I'm not exactly sure why it bothers me, and I wish only the best for those trying to get to Paris.

And that Solinsky AR race was amazing!!