London Marathon: a vent

[Deleted]

Man oh man the British public are mean. 

So, Mo Farah (gold medal olympian over 10K distance) made his marathon debut at the London Marathon. He came eighth. About four minutes off the winner who set a new course record. You'd think this would be cause for celebration. But noooooo, not here in Britain. Poor Mo was apologising after the race for disappointing everyone. Disappointed?? Dude, you came 8th!! On your first go! 

I went out for another run today, I ran 8:45 a mile for 3 miles. He was running 4:30 on average. For 26.2 miles. Then I got my bike out. Sure, I can get it up to 4:30 a mile, on a flat surface with a decent wind for a few minutes. He's running at that speed for 2 hours. 

It bugs me that the lazy British public who wouldn't get out of their armchair to take part in any sport will openly criticise someone who has achieved something pretty darned special. Seriously, 8th. On his first go. Amazing shit.

[katinthehat]

Totally derailing your post except for it related to Britain - are you planning on/able to go to any stages of The Women's Tour - have you heard of it? www.womenstour.co.uk/home.php#.U02iBFecR30


I'm ridiculously excited about it and wish I could come over to see it!

[Deleted]

Never heard of it - am going to check that link out now...!

[Deleted]

It's a long way from me - so I probably won't, plus I have people staying that weekend. But it looks fabulous! The Tour de France has their Grand Depart nearish to me - I'm going to watch that.

[katinthehat]

so jealous!!

[runaways]

I think the British public were spoiled by Paula Radcliffe.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2014 8:24:37 GMT -5 runaways said:

I think the British public were spoiled by Paula Radcliffe.

Oh they gave her hell as well when she had a few bad races, believe me. Brutal.

[foundmylazybum]

Ehhh...Mo Farah is a two time gold medalist...and a lot of people don't know that much about exactly how hard it is to jump from the 10K to the marathon. They just think thoughts like "Hey! If you can run fast at one event you "should" be fast at ALL the events!"

Which isn't necessarily even true. It's easy to look at fans and say they are being too harsh, but in reality...they just don't know any better.