It was a New Balance sponsored meet and a lot of NB athletes were brought in to shine or promote the brand. Additionally, the meet director's key top athletes were to be featured as well (to the extent they were available to run). In the end, a lot of these featured athletes bombed or failed to excite. Almost as though they were there because they had to be, or just aren't in good shape right now.
With the exception of only 2-3 races, the meet was lackluster. A bunch of personal bests, maybe a couple of records, but contrast that with what we used to see before NB sponsored this meet - world records, american records, meet records. We used to walk out of that track blown away by what we had witnessed. The men's mile and 800 were each fun to watch as was the women's pole vault.
The women's 5000m was terrible. They went through 2 miles in 10:06 or something like that. The pacer took them out at the American Record pace and had at least 100m on the field by the time she dropped out. The women's mile at least had the exciting finish.
The fact that they have a 300, 500, 600 for women? Reminds me of the year they had a 3000m and a 3200m - all because Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba didn't want to run against each other. It felt like that here too. Like they threw in a 500m just to feature Sydney McLaughlin at the end. She won in a mediocre time. I understand she's just turned pro, running a distance she doesn't normally run, etc... But, wow did it lack any excitement. Again, I go back to when the meets used to finish with Craig Mottram blazing a 3000 or Tirunesh Dibaba setting an indoor 5000m world record. The ending used to have a pop and this one was like letting the air out of a half-full balloon