Dixie Gnormose wrote:
Collin, I agree on both of your posts.
First of all, these guys get enough to live just from their shoe deals. Those in some sort of sponsored group that offers even more benefits may have a house, van for daily use back and forth from training venues, access to decent track, a dude standing there handing out drinks and calling out times.
What more could they get that would turn 2:14 into 2:05? I can't think of anything other than drugs that would help, and there aren't any that would help that much. Compared to the average resident of Iten, these guys have an excellent setup!
Anyway, I think Curtis and Hastings have nothing to be embarrassed about. Congrats to those two for keeping USA one of the top-five marathoning countries in the world!
Not to be crass , missing here is not the money , or support dudes , its talent and coaching. Our average marathoner is just that on a global standard , the not so fast athlete jumps up to the marathon and becomes a not so fast marathoner , but be comes "top american" We do not have the coaching knowledge to build work class marathoners. The faster athletes wait until track careers are over then move up to be become average.
We need a shift in attitude , coaches wanting to learn vs experiment and lets see whats happens approach. For the available resources and opportunities we have we really are below average as whole. I would have hoped Meb would inspire but that does not seem the case.