The art of racing

[liuxuan]

the best racer I have seen on the womens side certainly is Svetlana Masterkova! particularly on the 1500m she controlled races how she wanted to suit her strengths! just look at her olympic wins in atlanta, or her world championship win in seville.

after being beaten in a fast paced race by Sazbo in monaco in 1998, her next race in zurich she just ignored the fast pacer, make everyone bunch, then exploded in the last 200m to win in just under 4 minutes - she handedly turned another time trial into a race and benefitted ffrom it.

[jeremyp]

pre beat liquiori in the mile,at the LA TIMES meet in 3:59.

Pre and Marty never met when both were at the top of their game. Had they met at 5,000 I would have picked Marty. Smart racer, nifty kicker.

[kuha]

pre beat liquiori in the mile,at the LA TIMES meet in 3:59.

You can't compare Pre to Liquori. Marty was world ranked #1 in the 5000, also #2 and #3. Pe was never ranked higher than 4th.

Marty also had 2 nr 1 rankings in the 1500. Ran the Mile in 3.52.2. He knew a thing or two about racing.

Surprised how rarely he is discussed considering how great he was in high school

And, of course, Liquori (and Jumbo Elliott) ALWAYS stressed "racing" skills. To my (feeble) knowledge, Liquori never once made a "record" attempt at any distance--the point was winning, period.

[Mighty Favog]

Too soon to tell. But a good sign is that, even before he got hurt, he decided to skip a very-possible NCAA indoor title in favor of pursuing a highly-unlikely World JR XC title. He isn't afraid to get in over his head and learn something from it.

[EPelle]

... German does have good racing skills or did you not see the Big 12 race where he ran 3:55 and second place was 4:05 or the USA XC trials.

... Our top junior runners waste alot of time blowing away mediocre runners.German ran a 3:55 at the Big12,and second place was 4:05...

So, does German Fernandez have good racing skills, or not? German ran 8.34 and 4.00 at the CA state meet. Did he have good racing skills then, too, or a good sense of pace?

[Per Andersen]

pre beat liquiori in the mile,at the LA TIMES meet in 3:59.

You can't compare Pre to Liquori. Marty was world ranked #1 in the 5000, also #2 and #3. Pe was never ranked higher than 4th.

Marty also had 2 nr 1 rankings in the 1500. Ran the Mile in 3.52.2. He knew a thing or two about racing.

Surprised how rarely he is discussed considering how great he was in high school

[The Atheist]

I hate how Alan Webb's initials are AW. Cuz it's like "Awwww..." like "Awwww... I lost again...

If I were him I would change my name and then I would run super fast and beat everyone and then when people asked me about "art" of racing I would be like "shut up hippies, with all this art crap. I'm going to disneyworld biaaaaa!!!"

[williamwindhamjr]

pre beat liquiori in the mile,at the LA TIMES meet in 3:59.

[jhc68]

williamwindhamjr wrote:

Someone said that Prefontaine wasnt that good against people outside the US.We have to remember that some of the best runners in the world were in the usa during that time.

Yeah, what jeremyp said. Not so much. In the years when Pre was listed in the top 10 World Rankings at 5k (1971 thru 1975) the only other Americans to appear on the list were Liquori, Shorter, Buerkle and Geis and each for only one year.

[jeremyp]

Someone said that Prefontaine wasnt that good against people outside the US.We have to remember that some of the best runners in the world were in the usa during that time.

Off the top of my head only Shorter, Young, come to mind. Shorter was a great 10k, Marathon guy, and only tested Pre in his last race at 3m. Young ran infrequently and I don't remember him meeting Pre except in OT's. Anyway we have to remember he ruled in the US but had losses in Europe, even though he ran balls out in Europe.

[williamwindhamjr]

Someone said that Prefontaine wasnt that good against people outside the US.We have to remember that some of the best runners in the world were in the usa during that time.

[ed gee]

I suspect Lincoln would have been second to someone else.

[catson52]

Re: The art of racing

Prefontaine had it, Mary Decker Slaney had it,Said Aouita,being able to race.It didnt make a difference if the pace wa fast or slow.I believe you can be taught great racing tatics,but it helps if you are taught at a young age about competition and competing.The africans are masters at this.They each take turns until the best man wins.German seems to have good racing chops also.

As noted in another posting, the final idea is to win, i.e. run faster than your opponents. Though the duration of his career was short, nobody exemplified this better than Herb Elliott. Run whichever way you will, he will beat you to the tape.
Perhaps most illustrative is the 1959 race in Brisbane against Merv Lincoln. Elliott smoked on the bus out to stadium, was seemingly not fit, but yet again destroyed Lincoln in the final stages. It would appear this defeat was the final psychological blow to Lincoln. Question: How great would Lincoln have been, if Elliott had not been around at the same time?

[jeremyp]

To me the "art" of racing has to do with your skills. Herb Elliot had no "art." He simply went out fast and dared anyone to cach him. Similarly ElG took off with 6-700 m to go and dared anyone to keep up. No "art" there: simply raw power.

Then you have someone like Borzakovsky who has little "art" but a lot of wasted talent. If he would learn to stay in 3d or fourth until 100 out he would win more races. Kipketer, on the other hand, had the power to lead early and was too strong to be caught.

The 800/1500 races are the races in which tactics are most important. Knowing when to kick, knowing how to stay out of being blocked, running your strength. But it's when runners are evenly skilled that "art" comes in. When Lagat ran 2d. to ElG forever, he was simply not quite as strong, and no amount of "art" would have helped him. Until 2004! When he was finally equal to him and -according to him - started his kick in the OG jst a little too early.

Pre had no "art." Against US runners he was simply too strong, and against the best of the rest, he wasn't strong enough.

[STL_Runner]

This is called the track and field forum,not the idiot forum BC.German does have good racing skills or did you not see the Big 12 race where he ran 3:55 and second place was 4:05 or the USA XC trials.

Winning a race by 10 seconds against clearly inferior competition means you've learned the art of racing? If you're a troll, you're not doing a very good job. If you're not, I apologize, and feel sorry for you and all of your English teachers.