Ryan Hall Excuses

eraser wrote:

No, he won against the best of his era. Just like Bill Rodgers did, just like Lasse Viren did, Emil Zatopek etc.

You cannot compare eras, my guess is that the best of that era would compete against the best of this era. Things are differnet now, training, nutrition, drugs etc., the best would still be the best.

Bottom line is, Hall is not a winner, Shorter was a winner, Rodgers was a winner, they would have gotten it done.

Zatopek wouldn't have run much faster today, nor any of the others, they'd still be dirt slow, as were their inferior eras.

mammoth track club wrote:

Ryan hall is the best US marathon ever.

Uh, no.

ttc wrote:

You need everything explained to you? Hall's shown to be a 2:05, 2:06 guy on fast courses, who could hang with Mosop on a day like today. Finishing mins behind in 2:08 is good, but not typical Hall. And when racing only 2 marathons/year, you'd better believe we're going to hang onto the effort and wonder what's going on. Or do you need tutoring that 2:08 on a fast course is very unlike Hall?

How did Hall show that he "could hang with Mosop' today, exactly?

Yet again when the real racing started, he got his ass handed to him. It's not a crime - he's good, but just not as good as the east Africans and we should stop thinking he could be - and move on.

felchpiece wrote:

How did Hall show that he "could hang with Mosop' today, exactly?

Yet again when the real racing started, he got his ass handed to him. It's not a crime - he's good, but just not as good as the east Africans and we should stop thinking he could be - and move on.

This is spot on. Hall is very good- he's the best America has to offer in the marathon right now. But he is not great, and never will be.

felchpiece wrote:

How did Hall show that he "could hang with Mosop' today, exactly?

Yet again when the real racing started, he got his ass handed to him. It's not a crime - he's good, but just not as good as the east Africans and we should stop thinking he could be - and move on.

Move on to what?

Has to be asked wrote:

Move on to what?

Anything but your continued insistence that Hall can compete with the world's best.

Taking one day off per week allows him to hit the other 6 days of the week harder and allows him to absorb the stress better though.

someone had to do it wrote:

Taking one day off per week allows him to hit the other 6 days of the week harder and allows him to absorb the stress better though.

In the mean time, his competition is training 7 days per week, getting more sessions in per training block, forcing more stress and subsequent adaptation upon thier bodies, and, thusly, are beating Hall in these races.

If you can't figure out how to recover from stress adequately and still run 7 days a week, you need to learn some of the basics.

Sacrificing quantity for slightly improved quality is not the way to go about training to win major international marathons

What kind of idiot calls a guy who runs a 2:08 marathon a pretender?

Anyone who doesn't respect Ryan Hall as the greatest US marathon runner in the history of this era, doesn't deverve respect.

DaveW wrote:

Anyone who doesn't respect Ryan Hall as the greatest US marathon runner in the history of this era, doesn't deverve respect.

Since you obviously edited your post poorly, which are you trying to say: That he's the greatest US marathoner 1) in history, 2) of this era, or 3) the history of this era ( 2 and 3 being the same thing)

RE: Hall's taking training advice: "I'm am open book. You know I'm not going to necessarily open it up to all of letsrun or anything, but uh....*chuckles* "

Shocking!

You obviously don't understand that you measure runners based on their time in history. Ryan Hall is measured in his time, but I left the opportunity open for those to realize that there were some good runners in the past and there will be some very good runners in the future. Most of the runners in the past seem to have a reason to diminish the runners of the present.

But that won't take away from the fact that Ryan Hall has a special place in history in the marathon in this era. He showed you how to do it in 2000. If you did not achieve his expectations, I am sorry. What era do you live in?

I agree if the weather had of been a little cooler then Hall could have come in maybe 3rd, but I don't think anyone was beating #1 today.

DaveW wrote:

You obviously don't understand that you measure runners based on their time in history. Ryan Hall is measured in his time, but I left the opportunity open for those to realize that there were some good runners in the past and there will be some very good runners in the future. Most of the runners in the past seem to have a reason to diminish the runners of the present.

But that won't take away from the fact that Ryan Hall has a special place in history in the marathon in this era. He showed you how to do it in 2000. If you did not achieve his expectations, I am sorry. What era do you live in?

I live in the present, but your terrible use of prepositions muddles the point you're trying to make.

Saying he's the best "in the history of this era" is too much. If you think he's the best of this era, then say that and leave the extraneous prepositional phrase out. Your grammar confused me and I asked for clarification.

By the way, "special place in history in the marathon in this era" is a terribly composed thought as well. Clarity is your friend, my friend.

2:08:04 pretty impressive...Ryan Hall is amazing

He did the race for the payday! Ryan is more worried about his race coming up in 3+ months called the olympic trials!

Do they pay you below minimum wage for your efforts? Is that even legal?

I wonder if the people who say that the greats of the past would be mixing it up with the best of today's marathoners with just a little tweaking (better shoes, better tracks) are among those who also believe that George Mikan would be a dominant center and Y.A. Tittle a Pro Bowl quarterback. We;re not talking about subtle differences here, and I don't recall every big-money road race in existence boasting a solid wall of Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes until the mid- to late 1980s at the earliest.

Yes, Shorter was incredible and ran to the level of his competition, but to pretend that he would simply up his game if faced with armies of guys running six minutes faster than he did at his peak is delusional romanticism. Ask the Colorado football team if moving to the Pac-12 has made them a more competitive squad through some kind of athletic osmosis.

How is that W-2 thing going for you?