Comments on: Hamstring Problem–For Real?

By: JW

JW — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:55:24 +0000

The 800 always makes me think of "Kingpin," y'know, the scene in the bowling alley where Ishmael says he bowls extra frames, in every game, because Amish intentionally do everything with more difficultly. The 800, then, is the Ishmael 400. "We 800 runners simply forget that the race is over, and we do another lap!"

By: YourStupid

YourStupid — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:37:52 +0000

You are so stupid to take time out of your day to HATE on someone. She is a very accomplished athelete with more endorsements than any of the competition! I can't stand when people want to stir stuff up. Maybe if you were more motivated you would be able to win gold medals vs trying to pinpoint if someone had a pinch in their hamstring. She works SO hard to be where she is and this was a huge and devastating loss for her so stop being so negative.

By: Reid

Reid — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:21:21 +0000

As an ex-800 runner, I would argue that that is the toughest distance, because you still end up sprinting for about 150-200 yards, but you've got to go twice as far. I know I always recovered a lot faster after a 400 than I did after my 800s. But then again, I sucked at the 400.

By: Pop Cesspool

Pop Cesspool — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:32:15 +0000

Dunno about you people, but I stopped caring about this race as soon as NBC started playing up the Jeremy Warriner/LaShawn Merritt rivalry in the men's 400. That final on Thursday is gonna be madcap.

By: Tizzle

Tizzle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:53:52 +0000

As a novice Olympian watcher myself it did look like she slowed down considerably towards the end- maybe the last 50m. Perhaps the others sped up too- but it was clear she lost her steam. I was amazed that if she had that bad of a cramp she could even move! I know once it happened to me and my leg locked up and I fell over- there were no more strides left. Who knows, but it would have been nice to see her take the gold.

By: RJ

RJ — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:08:48 +0000

She went out way too fast, and tied up at the end. She made up the stagger on the runner outside her lane in the first 25 meters. Even if you're trying to start fast, you need to be fast at 150-200 meters, not in the first 25.

The quarter mile is generally considered the hardest race because it's the limit of sprinting range, but requires near top speed. In the 400 meters, there's nothing worse than rigor mortis with 60 meters to go.