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Well run, fatty!
November 07, 2004
Didn't she do well? But more importantly, didn't she look well? I couldn't believe it was the same gaunt looking athlete that looked so unhappy in Athens.
Paula, you were an inspiration in New York, as always. And to everyone who called her "Quitter" after Athens - EAT YOUR WORDS! Eating has always been the key! Must dash - it's time for tea!
Posted by Mick at November 7, 2004 06:59 PM
From the title, I thought you had Dave Lloys's time of 5:14 in the Avila Trail 45K in mind.
You were wrong about Gary, remember.
You're right, Dave! I get loads of things wrong!
I thought Susan Chepkemei would win the sprint finish, for one!
Here, here. Well run Paula, and a sprint finish! I thought she looked 'healthy' compared with Athens and she appeared much more settled throughout the race. The time didn't matter, it was the win that counted, Mr Coles, I believe we've heard those very words uttered before my another athlete ;-)
So she can run and finnish for herself, but not for Britain
For Finland then, Alan?
"Eat your words" ? More like eat your humble pie (eg The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph etc...).
And what a superb, gutsy, performance. Well worth my getting told-off by the family for shouting at the TV and gnawing half way through the sofa. This kind of behaviour fine for a brief 4x100 metre finish it seems, but not tolerated for 140+ mins. Compounded possibly by my swearing at Brendon Foster (whenever he said things like "its a slow race") and the BBC (whenever they said "the men's finish will be shown at 12:35am")...
I agree, Tim. Interesting thing about the BBC coverage. Going off air when 24 miles into the men's race showed that they were only interested in one thing. I just wonder what they'd have done had Paula's now-famous reheated spaghetti bolognese given her more of a problem and she'd been unable to run. At least Eurosport covered the Race, and not just the athlete.
You don't know how lucky you are. There was no live TV coverage in the US (Georgia) at all, unless you pay the extra for additional cable channels. I had to be content with updating my BBC web site link every three minutes to find out what was happening. It was still exciting doing that though. For Paula to win in such a close fashion speaks volumes against her detractors. Great stuff.
5 marathons,4 wins and one withdrawl.Her record speaks for itself.Because she gets paid is that a problem ?.How much does Kelly Holmes get paid ?.Who cares really,pride has been restored.Stop knocking,start applauding.
Alan Mann 10 marathons, 2 Barry 40@s 2x50k 1`x100k no withdrawall payed £00
5 Marathons,1 Yomp,more halfs and 10Ks than you can shake a stick at.Thanks from a grateful nation ?.Ha !.
Sour grapes Alan,enjoy them....
Alan. if you run a marathon in 2.15 I will pay you!
Alan,
I noted your comments with interest. If you're hinting at getting appearance money for entering next year's Barry 40, you can whistle!
Brendan - great to hear from you as ever. Sorry your TV coverage wasn't so good. However, wait for it, here's the contentious bit - if you choose to live in a country where 51% of the electorate vote for George Bush, don't look to us for sympathy!
Hi Mick. Georgia was 66% (I think) of electorate for Bush. This is the deep south, Confederate country, one hour from Deliverence, and peoples teeth worse than Britain etc. Not like 'em damn liberal yankees up North. I can't vote on a green card anyway, but they do allow me to pay taxes here, which is nice! When I left the UK however, it appeared as though the Socialist party were in power, now it looks less clear. But we have digressed, back to the Paula vs. Alan show, more entertaining.
More entertaining certainly, but with Paula v Alan there's only one winner! At least Bush v Kerry was a race. By the way, have they counted the postal votes yet, and if not, don't people feel pissed off if the result's been declared and they know their vote's not been counted?
But I digress........
There's one redeeming feature of not having live TV coverage. You didn't have to put up with Mr Repetition himself "Paula's going faster, she's going quicker, and she's also accelerating" Brendan zzzzzzzzzzz Foster!
I got better socks than her, 1-0
But do you look as good in a basque ?
We seem to be going off the original point of this article here. Paula is certainly no 'quitter' as her career to date, and performance in New York, shows. However, it cannot be denied that she 'quit' the marathon when going out of bronze medal position. Only Paula can know the pain she felt at 23 miles but I'm sure she would have still been running at 25 miles if in a medal postion. I,like all runners, and nearly all the media/general public had total sympathy for her when she came out. Where the (unfairly) 'quitter' label came from was for the most odd decision to run the 10,000m ; or rather 'race for a medal' in the 10,000 m. If she was so knackered in the marathon how on earth did she expect to win a medal five days later? How would we react to a fellow Les Croup. pulling out of London Marathon at 23 miles totally done in, requiring medical treatment - and then turning up for a 10K race six days later,announcing they were going to 'race', not just run, and then DN-ing. Would we have any sympathy if it was Dave Williams or Flash or Zip or the Goat ? No. Yes running is personal, but we are all judged by our performances. Fortunately, one or two races don't define a career; and I'm sure we all agree that a Gold in Helsinki next year will make Athens a mere blip.
I'll agree with that.
(Can we go back to straying off the subject again)
Since Mr Bullen mentioned Croups members, I'll remind readers that former member Angharad Mair ran a better time in the Athens Marathon (same course I believe) in the 1997 World Championships than a certain *ahem!* quitter.
Paul Tergat's still the greatest runner in the world and he finished 6th in his race. Tergat: not a quitter.
Right.To Richie - I agree with everything you said except one thing. Paula did not simply turn up for a 10K race five days after the marathon. She turned up for an Olympic 10000 metres final (not just any old 10K)That's probably because 2008 seemed an eternity away, and she feared this chance might be her last (A drowning man will clutch at a straw mentality)Understandable?
To Dave. You're right about Angharad. She ran 2:42 - an excellent performance. But to compare her perfomance with Paula's is unreasonable.For the same reason the comparison with Liz Yelling and Tracey Morris is unreasonable. Why? Personal expectation. Paula ran to win, and if not, to medal. Angharad, Liz and Tracey ran to survive - no mean feat in the conditions.
Let me add a personal perspective to elaborate.
Mick McGeoch: 64 marathon starts in 25 years. But he DNF'd in 3 of his first 13 marathons - chasing wins or fast times. Why? Higher Expectations.
However, I haven't DNF'd in the last 13 years, because actually winning a race has been physically beyond me. i.e. Lower / more realistic expectations. It's a personal thing - does anyone have the right to tell Paula what to personally expect from her races - of course not!!
Bottom line,pure and simple,Paula is back.
Many great athletes never won Olympic gold,Colin Jackson would be first to "admit" that !.
Let's just stop knocking our sportsmen and women.
Well, if any of you are that keen on a certain hyped British runner (John Brown made a brilliant effort in the Olympics. though), I saw her book on sale in ASDA just now for less than 10 quid (rrp is 17 or 18). Why can't they offer similar reductions on stuff one actually buys to read -- like the New Scientist, the Economist, and the Torygraph?
Dave - maybe its on sale ("less than 10 quid") because its already out of date, not covering NY'04 etc ?! New Scientist and The Economist are, in contrast, always in touch with the latest news and developments. Which just leaves the Telegraph...
.......good point, Tim! But you'd don't have to read the main bit (unless you are 80+ and think Boris Johnson's the greatest thing since sliced bread). The Sport Section alone is worth the cost of the paper, and is easily the most diverse and informative of any of the national dailies.
Hey! I DO think Boris Johnson is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Having seen in the above comments that Paula's book was on offer I went and bought a copy, I noticed that it wasn't reduced due to a fall in her popularity but in fact ASDA have got ALL their books on offer. On my return home I saw her interview on Sunday Grandstand and felt that she came across as well as ever and was very open. Personally I think that Paula is the greatest athlete to have come out of Great Britain - Male or Female. She has shown that she is World Class on all three surfaces and not only broke the World Record but rewrote the Record books. I was slightly emabrassed but also honoured in 2002 to have had my times compared to Paula's in the run up to London, I wish I could compare them now. May we see many more performances and records from Paula in the future.
Well said Phil - but a shame it does'nt include NY. (PS : Confession time - I popped into Asda's at Culverhouse Cross last night to try and buy a bargain copy for me and my siss-in law but was told they were 'out of stock' ! Grateful for details of a branch that does have one..)
Asda at Cardiff Bay have got a few copies.
As Phil says, the Asda I was in was the Cardiff Bay one. (I'm sure Frank Skinner said her book was out next week. Looks like he was wrong.) I may be showing my age here, but Seb Coe and Daley Thompson are the greatest athletes ever to come out of this country. (IMO, of course.)
Dave, I agree that both Seb Coe and Daley Thompson were great athletes, and I'm a massive Seb Coe fan - and been lucky enough to have met him on 3 occassions, and he is the reason I started wearing Nike. But I think that what Paula has achieved over the 3 surfaces and the way she has rewritten the Marathon just about takes her past Coe and Thompson, but then at the end of the day they are 3 totally different athletes and perhaps we should recognise them all as being great at what they did.
I have to say that I am a huge Paula fan too! The press may well judge people on gold medals, but I think the athletic fraternity are a little more sophisticated than that. I think issues like taking a stand on drugs are a factor. No other British athlete has ever been prepared to declare themselves so openly. Her openness in interviews is so impressive. She's so honest - and intelligent. Her consistency is amazing - let's not forget she won the World Junior Cross Country in Boston all of TWELVE years ago! And, after all the traumas of Athens, which would have destroyed many, she's talking of not only the 2008 Olympics, but also 2012. My only fear is whether her body can match her spirit.
Oh, come on. Mick. Coe was outspoken about drugs in his time. El Gerrouj was my hero of the Olympics. I'm sad that he's retiring. He could win the 10,000m in 2008 and the marathon in 2012. Kelly Holmes scored when it mattered.
The marathon is very hard. Brown finished. Tergat finished. I know who I like.
It is difficult to claim someone as the best ever without Olympic medals, let alone gold. However, if anyone could claim this title without medals, for my money it would be Paula. The 2-15, coming off the 2-17, has to be the most dominating distance running over the second best in the world, possibly ever. Perhaps we are also biased though due to the fact She's a road and country runner too, and a front runner with little kick. Wanting Paula to win is just like wanting Ron Clarke, or Bedford, or other "kickless" runners trying to crack the field. She is the true distance aficionados favorite. My fear for her though is that we may have seen her peak about a year ago. I'm not sure anyone was going to beat Noguchi in Athens, regardless of whether they were on form or not. In NYC, even though it was great to see her win, this was not the Paula tearing everyone apart by half way, was it? If She does win big ones in the marathon, as She may well, I think they will be more like NY than London.
Dave, seeing as this facility is all about informed comment and debate, the only sensible conclusion is to agree to disagree.
However, I reckon for a tenner it makes a cracking Christmas present for any of your running friends (other than Dave Weeden, who, despite, his opinions, is still a running friend!)
Or the readers digest version with only 23 chapters
