Ben True Ran No Slower Than 13:12 for SEVEN Years Consecutively

But to address your question about performance. You are comparing True to Bekele, who was the best runner who ever lived. True is not as good as Bekele. You got me. I cannot believe he could deserve a thread when I didn’t realize that he was not as good as Bekele. My bad. You got me.

Regonald wrote:

thats not gonna happen wrote:

Please tell me what else is more important to being a professional athlete other than performance?

Performance is important but apparently you are a Lance Armstrong type sociopath. You have just told us this.

What?!

If you’re a professional runner with a contract, getting money from a shoe or apparel company, and your performances begin to suffer to the point where non- professional runners are now performing better than you, you ‘run’ the risk of losing that financial support unless you can regain the level of performance required by your sponsor to continue to be supported financially. Otherwise, the other guy might replace you. This is the basis of professional sports. If this isn’t the premise of the sport as a professional (Ben True, K. Bekele, etc), then why aren’t all of us hobby joggers receiving money from the show companies for our passion to run and mediocre road race times?!

Of course there is more to the sport like you mentioned, but that’s not what keeps athletes on the payroll. Results or a lucrative marketability do.

Not sure what you’re talking about.

What I am referring to is that you said performance is the only thing that matters for a professional athlete. So PEDs are going to help. Performance Enhancing Drugs. So you are sociopathic since that is all that matters to you. Plus you appear to be implying that True is not worthy. Worthy of what? Your praise? True could not care less about your praise. But your infantile insults? Obviously these stem from jealousy.

Regonald wrote:

What I am referring to is that you said performance is the only thing that matters for a professional athlete. So PEDs are going to help. Performance Enhancing Drugs. So you are sociopathic since that is all that matters to you. Plus you appear to be implying that True is not worthy. Worthy of what? Your praise? True could not care less about your praise. But your infantile insults? Obviously these stem from jealousy.

You sound kind of kooky. I never wrote anything about PEDs. Why am I a sociopath?

Would all coaches or sponsors be sociopaths as well since they only bring on runners/athletes they think can do well (aka performance)

(It’s not a good attitude and big heart that gets you a starting quarterback position in the NFL, it’s throwing touchdown passes and winning games)

Ben True, a professional athlete, lost his sponsorship because he didn’t perform well enough (winning races, qualifying for championships, etc)

This is literally a performance-based outcome where he did not achieve high enough to stay sponsored. Same goes for other professional sports. You must perform or you’re gone.

Of course I’m jealous of True! Dude ran like a 13:02 5,000m! I barely broke 15 after 4 years of hard-@ss college training and racing as an 800/1500m runner. I could never dream of being as fast as Ben True. Just like he could never dream of being as fast and Kenny B.

You still haven’t answered my question about what else is so important for someone to be a professional runner other than their ability to perform.

We all await your reply…

HRE wrote:

Do you really believe True doesn't care how well he does and that you know more than he does about how he can get to his best performances? Yeah, you probably do. There's a lot of that kind of arrogant stupidity going around these days. If Rafa and Djoko didn't have a good time playing tennis why would they keep doing it? Neither needs to earn anymore money.

Huh? I didn't write they were not having a good time. I wrote that was not the only reason they were playing. Obviously they care about other things. Each wants to achieve more than the other, and more than Federer did.

How many years did Kipchoge put up sub 13 min 5000s?

Very big difference between having a competitive spirit and being hungry for a win, and treating training as a brain-sucking job. That was kind of my entire point when I originally posted about Ben following his own path - some of his decisions are off from other pros, but I believe that's what let him maintain the level of commitment he's needed to excel over the past decade. I don't know if I'd call it "playing" like HRE did, but rather controlling training in such a way that it doesn't become stale and boring. You can certainly keep training more or less enjoyable and still be highly competitive on race day.

thats not gonna happen wrote:

You still haven’t answered my question about what else is so important for someone to be a professional runner other than their ability to perform.

We all await your reply…

Are you serious? In this day and age a lot of sponsorship is funneled towards those with a higher influencer/social media impact. As much as I'd love to believe that it is solely their ability to perform that comes into play, that is just not the world we live in these days, boomer.

13:12 was in the top ten of the U.S. all-time men's 5000m rankings until some time in the 2000s, so this does say something. It would be more like low to mid 44 in the 400m, considering our relative strengths in the two distances.

Ben True was incredibly consistent but never quite got that major improvement. He ran 13:02 but with a very strong group like Bowerman or Salazar's he surely would have run sub-13.

Regonald wrote:

Jeff Albertson wrote:

This headline is incorrect.

Ben True broke 13:13 8 years in a row.

He ran slower than that a bunch of times.

You are incorrect. He broke 13:13 SEVEN years in a row, not 8. Any moron knows I was referring to his fastest effort of the year.

The only reason I clicked on this thread is because you said he ran no slower than 13:13 for 7 years.

Why would I interpret that to mean he has in fact ran slower than 13:13 numerous times in seven years.

The jogging explanation is silly, if this stat was a real stat it would obviously be referring to finish times in 5k races (whether dnfs would be counted isn’t clear)

xzcvzxcv wrote:

Ben True was incredibly consistent but never quite got that major improvement. He ran 13:02 but with a very doped group like Bowerman or Salazar's he surely would have run sub-13.

Fixed that for you

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

HRE wrote:

Do you really believe True doesn't care how well he does and that you know more than he does about how he can get to his best performances? Yeah, you probably do. There's a lot of that kind of arrogant stupidity going around these days. If Rafa and Djoko didn't have a good time playing tennis why would they keep doing it? Neither needs to earn anymore money.

Huh? I didn't write they were not having a good time. I wrote that was not the only reason they were playing. Obviously they care about other things. Each wants to achieve more than the other, and more than Federer did.

When DeCastella and Moneghetti were the best marathoners in Australia there was kind of a debate about what you needed to do to be as good as you could. One side thought that you needed to do like Deek and move to a "running Mecca," i.e., Boulder, in Deek's case where you could hook up with world class training partners, have sports medicine types available, be at altitude, etc. The other group thought that Moneghetti got it right by staying home where he was comfortable, near family and friends, could train in familiar surroundings, etc. Neither had a career noticeably better than the other's. For what it's worth, Moneghetti has run some very good times as a master and Deek let the sport go.

What worked for DeCastella would not necessarily have worked for Moneghetti. It's possible Moneghetti would have been even faster had he too gone to Boulder but given his performances that seems unlikely and it's also possible he'd have been slower. Similarly, what works for Centrowitz or Rupp is not necessarily going to work for True and vice versa and deciding that True isn't serious about being as fast as he can because he lives in a place he likes is just silly.

People are different. Mark Nenow lived in Lexington, Ky. in his best daysbecause he liked it there and said he couldn't have stood living in Eugene or Boulder or some other running hotbed and we had no faster 10,000 guy for ages. Moving to Beaverton worked well for Jordan Hasay and destroyed Mary Cain. Do you think Moneghetti didn't want to win as badly as DeCastella did because Deek kind of upended his life and Mona kept his pretty much the same?

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Regonald wrote:

You are incorrect. He broke 13:13 SEVEN years in a row, not 8. Any moron knows I was referring to his fastest effort of the year.

The only reason I clicked on this thread is because you said he ran no slower than 13:13 for 7 years.

Why would I interpret that to mean he has in fact ran slower than 13:13 numerous times in seven years.

The jogging explanation is silly, if this stat was a real stat it would obviously be referring to finish times in 5k races (whether dnfs would be counted isn’t clear)

You’re wasting your keystrokes - he’s proud of writing a laughably dumb title.

Bob Kennedy did the same thing....25 years ago.

1993: 13:14

1994: 13:02

1995: 13:03

1996: 12:58

1997: 13:06

1998: 13:03

1999: 13:05

And in 1994 the WR dropped from 12:58 to 12:56. When he ran 12:58 the WR dropped to 12:44 the same year. BK was sniffing the heals of the WR...had he come up a couple years prior.....

Alan

Did grant fisher make a run to the podium? Yes. Is Ben true as good as grant? Yes

Runningart2004 wrote:

Bob Kennedy did the same thing....25 years ago.

1993: 13:14

1994: 13:02

1995: 13:03

1996: 12:58

1997: 13:06

1998: 13:03

1999: 13:05

And in 1994 the WR dropped from 12:58 to 12:56. When he ran 12:58 the WR dropped to 12:44 the same year. BK was sniffing the heals of the WR...had he come up a couple years prior.....

Alan

Well you see Bob didn’t quite do it. But Bob came close.

HRE wrote:

Similarly, what works for Centrowitz or Rupp is not necessarily going to work for True and vice versa and deciding that True isn't serious about being as fast as he can because he lives in a place he likes is just silly.

I didn't write True wasn't serious because he lives in a place he likes. He brags about not doing this or that (ancillary works other runners do) and doing "just mileage" while running LESS mileage than his competitors. Maybe that's all he could handle without mentally draining himself. But that's nothing to brag about.

If he was trying to market himself as an anti-NOP, anti-BTC guy that the average runner can relate to, he is setting an awful example. When a coach tells his runners to do some work, one of the guy thinks "why do I need to do this silly stuff? Ben True didn't do that. He just ran mileage." Yeah, but he never made an Olympic team.

On topic wrote:

Very big difference between having a competitive spirit and being hungry for a win, and treating training as a brain-sucking job. That was kind of my entire point when I originally posted about Ben following his own path - some of his decisions are off from other pros, but I believe that's what let him maintain the level of commitment he's needed to excel over the past decade. I don't know if I'd call it "playing" like HRE did, but rather controlling training in such a way that it doesn't become stale and boring. You can certainly keep training more or less enjoyable and still be highly competitive on race day.

Yeah, he was so competitive he made two World Championship teams in his career. He made the second one because one of the runners in front of him had to withdraw due to injury. And he got eliminated in the heat.

So he has one 6th place finish in the World Championship to show for his "decade of excellence."