Flagpole wrote:
fhfgh wrote:While everyone's talkin bout Ritz and Hall, people tend to forget that Meb has a 10k PR of 27:13 and finished 2nd at the Olympics and the NY Marathon, if this guy gets in top shape (after years of injury troubles) he has the potential to beat not just Hall but everyone in NY.
We don't forget. He ran that 10,000 in 2001 and is not the same runner now. At the Olympics, he ran a not-very-impressive time in a race that saw some of the favorites run horrible races. He still gets props for getting a medal at the Olympics, but it means nothing in terms of how fast he can run the New York marathon. Ryan Hall is a better marathoner, and all things being equal should beat Meb with no problem. The 1:01 half for Meb bodes well for him, but he's a 2:09 marathoner who is on the downside of his career and really should not challenge Ryan Hall at all (though Hall does have a tendency to throw in a bad race here and there).
So, if Meb beats Hall, it will be due to DNF or injury or illness on Hall's part, not because Meb is suddenly fit enough to run with a 2:06 marathoner. Good luck to them both though.
FP I'm not saying meb is going to beat Hall at NYC but you have to be kidding with this BS. You've already got ripped for your stupid statement about Athens. A lot of top guys ran bad because it was 90 something degrees out. But lets be realistic, Meb has run 2:09 at New York, twice! He has finished 2nd and 3rd a grand total of 51 seconds out of the win between both races. Hall has run crazy fast at London, but Meb has run 2 half PR's and a marathon PR- admittedly weaker performance then his 2 New York runs, his 2:09 at Boston and his 2:11 at the olympics, this year already. Hall ran 2:09:40 at Boston this year, Meb ran 2;09:56 in his one Boston.
Look Hall is great, Ritz is great, Abdi is great, to say that anyone of these guys is going to definitely crush the others is just plain dumb. But to call out Meb in the middle of a great revival year when he is peak marathon age, with his credentials, on a course that favors a certain few who learn to run it well, where PR's on fast course means little just shows a complete lack of any sort of knowledge about the marathon.