ebethbrgthyh wrote:
Straight Outta Beaverton wrote:
I How does NAZ stack up against Hanson's? Roots? Tinman? McKirdy? Are there threads mocking all of those?
You must be new here.
Yeah, good point. All of you consider these C-list groups to be a joke. I'll admit they get laughed at here. My point was that NAZ is quite a bit better than any of them. Remember a group out in the Carolinas somewhere with a heavy internet presence? Can't remember the name. All over YouTube, etc. Their goal was a single Trials qualifier. They couldn't pull it off. NAZ had more Trials entrants than any group, and I include those that are NOT generally ridiculed here. BTC, Julian's, any very heavily funded group all of you consider to get A-list recruits.
I'm certainly not Hoka-obsessed (I'll admit I have 1 pair, obtained fairly recently and not worn much yet) but these guys are far ahead of those bush league groups, of course. Not as many want to point out how far ahead of Uncle Phil's pet groups they are. Derrick (BTC) and Hasay (maybe Julian now?) choked spectacularly last weekend. Is it really the shoes? If so, all those Nike groups would do well to wear blacked-out Rocket X.
I'm not terribly serious about the shoe thing, obviously. I just don't think that's the primary reason these guys aren't winning big major races with deep fields of 2:04-2:06 guys. I don't know that they are expected or supposed to beat all of Ethiopia and Kenya's finest. They certainly beat a lot of runners, including the Alphafly-wearing unsponsored masses at the Trials. They are not THAT bad!