Sunday, April 20, 2008

Deena Master


Quality performance from Deena today, although to be fair it would have been like Paula Radcliffe running in a trial against her fellow countrywomen such is the difference in class between her and everyone else. Which made it all the more baffling to me why noone else had a similar game plan to Lewy Boulet. You know you are not going to beat Deena so go out and aim for sub 2.30 and see where that gets you. There must have been more girls in that race capable of that time on that course and in those conditions. Chance of a lifetime to qualify for the Olympics and I bet there are a few women saying "If only" tonight.

GREAT performance by Charlotte resident Megan Hepp in coming 12th in 2.37 (previous pr 2.45). Looking at the results it seems she was the 4th non sponsored athlete home and beat a bunch of girls who do get funding, etc.

My own run today was 8 miles at lunch time. Perfect weather, 70s, sunny with a cool breeze, first run of the year where I headed out shirtless. Felt great considering the race yesterday and I clicked along at 6.20 pace without really noticing it. Going to take it easy this week so I can hopefully feel good going into next Saturday's 5k.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bouet's game plan required *a lot* of boldness. I think the main pack was betting that Bouet was going to blow up at some point and so why go out with her? Also, if you're practically conceding 1st place to Deena, then you want to plan your surges accordingly--which leads to a conservative game plan.

Now, the question is how will Deena hold up against Radcliffe and the Russians this go around? My POV: Deena held back some on this trial. I think she could've dropped another couple minutes on her Trials time...should be a good race this Summer, except it being summer and Beijing--I expect the times are going to be slow.

mainers said...

it required a lot of boldness and it paid off. you don't get too many opportunities to qualify for the Olympics. I'm amazed noone else was willing to take the risk. still the three who qualified were certainly the three who deserved to

as for Beijing I don't think you can predict much with what the conditions are going to be like, although I think it is safe to say Paula won't be as aggressive as she was in Athens! The Chinese/Japanese have got to be favourites though as they are more used to the conditions