NERunner03533 wrote:
Meb ran his marathon PB at, what, 37? & then made the Olympic team at 39. Competed in Rio at 40.
I'm not a big Rupp guy but he was always our best bet at the 10k on the track and on the roads when he made the jump. He's 36 now. I don't know how healthy he currently is. He's done Boston a bunch -- maybe he wants a crack at a faster course. Still waiting on Tokyo/Rotterdam/London fields. He ran 2:09 at Worlds, before dropping out at NYC. He's maybe done in that it'll take a lot for a PR the next few years. It's possible tho. & it's very possible that he goes for & makes one more Olympic team. Very few US guys can run 2:09. Rupp knows how to race. You're not time trialing at the Trials. If he's just trying to get in the top-3, I still like his odds.
Meb ran his best time during his win in Boston in 2014 - just a few weeks shy of his 39th birthday.
Galen obviously still has the talent, the question is whether his back will cooperate. He has a disc issue in the lumbar spine. Doctors could operate but any surgeon will tell you that once you trim away disc material (which is irreplaceable), the odds that another surgery will be necessary in the future increases substantially. The alternative is to allow natural healing to take its course and recover/train through it - which is what Galen apparently has elected to do. Bottom line though, Galen at 80% is still better than our top American marathoners. We will find out in Orlando one year from now.