Mens Marathon...

Now I see it, Thanks

Me too. Very excited to watch this race .

Is anyone irritated at how many commercials were shown during the coverage?  That sucks!  I don't remember them taking THAT MANY commercial breaks during the women's marathon!

Choke.

And the lead pace was just insane.  Both US runners came in around the pace that the olympic marathon is usually won at - and was predicted for this hot/humid race: 2:12.  If the winning time had been 2:11 or something, I bet Hall would have found another gear.  But when someone from Kenya rips 3 minutes off the decade+ old olympic record in those condition, I say Hall had no chance.

And props to the other US runner, whose name I ironically can't remember, for putting a hurting on Hall despite all the pre-race hype over Hall.

I'm confused.  Are you saying he choked, or he didn't??

He certainly didn't choke. 

I finally finished watching the race and I don't think the American's bonked the leaders just ran a crazy race.  I mean they bet the OR by 3 minutes in hot and humid conditions, that is crazy (But they were probably doping). The US ran their race but it wasn't enought today.  I mean if you look at Ryan Hall compared to what he did in the trials it looked like he ran a training run.  Just not getty up in his stride.  But I guess when you see guys blowing you away that happens.

That being said, I was aggravated the whole race.  I waited for months for this and they just hung back.  I mean you get to run in the olympics once every 4 years.  You see them get that far in front pick up the freaking pace.

Hall was right where he needed to be.  He was actually like 20 something place in the beginning and as other runners dropped back he actually picked off about 10 people to come in 10th place.  So he knew what he was doing and was right where he needed to be.  He was within his projected splits.  He ran it smart, knowing that there was no way he could even hang with the lead pack. 

The guys in the lead pack were just insanely fast.  The marathon was run a lot faster than predicted, given the conditions.

Granted he didn't bring home the gold, but having only run 4 marathons prior to Bejing... I think finishing within the top 10 in the world is still pretty darn impressive.