Some vids from the Pikes Peak road ascent. Apparently Bigfoot was sighted.
Justin’s weekly MUT love.
If there was any doubt about how this guy has ascended to some other planet, check out this interview with the KJB. He essentially plays off the UTMB as a training run.
I am sort of disgusted at some of the post UTMB bashing that is going on out there against “American” runners. Nick’s blog has a comment thread that shows some of this.
Frankly, I don’t get it. I wore the US colors as a serviceman in the USAF so I get what it means to represent your country. And while it is perhaps well beyond my reach, I’d be incredibly honored to represent our country as an athlete. But that said, I don’t – and I don’t think most of the runners I have met – do this running thing to put some mark on some score sheet that Americans kick ass and Euros don’t. Maybe I am wrong on this but I don’t see them lacing up the shoes for a training run and saying, “okay, how can this run help me kick some Italian tail?” I do see them putting in training to be the best they can be, and with that win – beating all comers, regardless of nationality. I just don’tyu see the country chest thumping in ultras being the same thing as other sports.
Okay yeah, we get together in the mountain championships and do the country vs. country thing. I realize I might be on a bit of an island here but that seems almost just a structured way to promote competition amongst the teams that further brings out the best of the individual. I know that I have been in that circumstance – where I have found some motivation in a race to dig deeper for the team.
Nick and others DNFing is one thing. I guess since more of the top US contingent DNF’d across the board than less it is fair to even call it an American failure. I’d feel a lot more comfortable about that if that came from the contingent (not a team mind you) had gone over there – and they stated that was there goal (maybe they did?) – to kick Euro butt as a US team. Hearing it come from the interweb jockeys here in the US seems … well, stupid. If you are going belly up and say that, you better be ready to toe the line and put your money where your keyboard is.
AM – 6 miles. Threw in a dozen 20 second hard strides, really striving for a burst. Tried visualizing pushing hard to nab a disc back in UConn ultimate days. Definitely a different discomfort.
Some of those comments are certainly garbage.
ReplyDeleteI just think the sport is growing and with that comes a few dedicated fanatics (hey, I'm one of those). Same guys (OK probably not the SAME guys) are the ones who paint themselves at football games or run along with the cyclists in funny costumes at the Tour.
"If you are going belly up and say that, you better be ready to toe the line and put your money where your keyboard is." - I disagree with that. That's like saying anyone who is a fan of any sport has no right to talk shit unless they are also good at that sport. People in sports unfortunately pick and are loyal to teams when it gets competitive. Part of that is saying the other guy sucks. You can't have competition without a little shit talking methinks.
I give it a year or two before the doping allegations come out too.
Kilian sums it up at the end of his video. "Running is this much [hands held 2 feet apart]. Racing is this much [right hand holding an invisible dime-sized object]."
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs to chill out. Sheesh.
Rob, the doping allegations started back in December 2010 with Heras' win at TNF 50 in SF.
ReplyDeleteSmack talk is fine. But do it the way it is supposed to be done: above the board, not hiding behind the anonymous account of a keyboard.
ReplyDeleteIn our sport, we all line up and share the playing field. If someone says "you suck" then a noble rule of our sport, is we get to see where they stack up.
Nick is European, no wonder he sucked. We only claim him when he kicks ass!
ReplyDeleteI just wish all that smack was more entertaining. Our sport has a long way to go before we become as funny as the crap on letsrun.
And since you mentioned it, Pitt ultimate would crush UConn.
Good job at Pikes. And thanks for the brew!
Brownie sucks.
ReplyDeleteIf Pitt ultimate runs like you, I am not concerned.
ReplyDeleteBrandon - way to man up and stop leaving anonymous comments. I knew you could do it.
GZ - I'm an extreme case since I'm usually suspicious of all things that hinge merely on the perceptions of, or relations to, others (i.e. we're better than you, you let us down, waaah waaah). So, I don't care a whit what other runners are doing which is also probably why I don't care about racing (that and being slow).
ReplyDeleteBut even for runners who do, most still focus on racing as a test of one's self, and the either the glory or the disaster is theirs and theirs alone. I really don't get the focus on telling others how bad they are or what value judgments they should make on race day. It's their race. End of story.
In the spirit of competition, yes, but there's a respect that goes along with that, that I'm not seeing in the trash talk from (I assume) the other side of the pond.
Seems like Hardrock simply brought the Euro-ultratrolls out of the woodwork to focus their negativity on athletes living here. Pretty bizarre for a community that is pretty low-key in the US.