• Winners and Losers

  • De: The XC
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Winners and Losers

De: The XC
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  • The XC's John Lofranco and Michael Doyle break down the winners and losers of marathon running events, including all the Marathon Majors, World Championships and big cross-country and track meets from around the world. Warning: the takes may get hot.
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  • Who Won and Who Lost in 2020?

    Who Won and Who Lost in 2020?
    Dec 31 2020
    Who Somehow Won in 2020?John Lofranco's picks:Canadian and U.S. Marathon Trials WinnersThe long break is to the advantage of each athlete who has a spot locked up for Tokyo 2021, for various reasons:The Americans:Aliphine Tuliamuk: It allowed her time to have a child, and what she showed is she can win a competitive race in difficult conditions which is what will be needed in Tokyo.Galen Rupp: He can do what he’s always done which is prepare as if he were a medal contender. The more time for him, the better.Molly Seidel: She qualified in her first-ever marathon, and the big break has given her time to learn the distance, including running a 2:25 in London in October.Jacob Riley: He has had a couple big results in the shorter distances bewteen 2012-15, but really his breakthrough was Chicago 2019. But asking him to run three 2:10 or better marathons in a year would have been tough. So the break helps him recharge and  prep for another big effort in 2021.Sally Kipyego: She's experienced runner who can now focus on preparing for the big race. Also she’s older and has had a long career on the track, so a little more recovery time can’t hurt.Abdi Abdirahman: Same as Kipyego. He’s been in the game for 20+ years at a world-class level, so the extra year gives him time to recover and ramp up for one last shot at glory.The  Canadians:Dayna Pidhoresky: It gives her time to focus without doing a bunch of extra races.Trevor Hofbauer: He's showed he's progressing consistently and linearly, so it’s an opportunity for a jump to an even better level than he'd have been if the race had taken place in 2020.The mentally strongIt’s fair to say there have been some difficult circumstances this year, but it hasn’t been that bad for many people. Runners who saw the positive side and used their training as a way to bring structure to their day could have been advantaged.The pandemic was, for many, an excuse to train a ton. But what was required to take advantage of this is the ability to train without a specific event-based goal. That’s hard. One was really faced with the “why” of running. Seeing some running groups (in the U.S. mostly) ignoring social gathering restrictions showed how some people aren’t mentally strong enough (or maybe don’t actually like running enough) to just go it alone. But those who are, thrived.Sadly, DopersTesting paused with everything else, and that created a big opportunity. For someone who was going to dope, conditions were good. And the pandemic produced lots of big performances. Maybe that happened because people adjusted their training for lockdown but... isn’t lockdown training for distance running kind of what elite runners are doing anyway? It’s not like the top elites are distracted by work to begin with.It's not just the elites that are tempted by doping. We don’t see it much in running but there’s a ton of age-group level doping in tri and cycling. Could this be happened in running, too? With “lockdown training” as an excuse for mid-range runners taking a leap?Michael’s WinnersShoe companies, especially those not named Nike — Adidas, Saucony, New Balance, Asics, Brooks, On and HokaAll these brands finally gained traction with their carbon-plated super shoe in 2020. The running footwear industry desperately needed something in an otherwise disastrous year, and each brand that produced a legit "Vaporfly killer" seemed to get a bit of an uptick in sales and attention.At the beginning of the year, Nike and other shoe brands got a big win when World Athletics didn’t shut down the carbon plated shoes, and instead imposed some restrictions — but those that felt tailor-made to allow for the Alphafly, thus preserving all the fast times run in Nike's shoes in the past few years.Meanwhile, Nike didn't  have a great year financially, but are crushing the competition in e-comm (and butchering the indie running store in the process).Nike and Adidas have since cleaned up, and it’s been a big year for very fast times — imagine how many more fast times would have come if there had been a full slate of races.Most importantly for all these shoe brands, it feels like the super shoes are now normalized — we aren’t really putting an asterisk next to those who won in Vaporflys any longer, so in a sense other brands following suit helped Nike legitimize their big technological gamble.Joshua Cheptegei and those who thrived in the chaosKeira  D’Amato, Sara Hall, Shelby Houlihan, Mo Ahmed, Donavan Brazier, Jacob Kiplimo, Peres Jepchirchir, Ruth Cheptengetich, Kibiwatt Kandie, Martin Hehir — all these athletes did something special amid very restrictive training and racing circumstances. Creativity thrives under constraints.StravaNo one profited off the massive shift in behaviour during the pandemic more greatly than Strava — with 2 million new users per month during 2020.The dominant endurance sports social media app now has 70 million users in over 190...
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    1 h y 18 m
  • The Marathon Project

    The Marathon Project
    Dec 22 2020
    Hosts John Lofranco and Michael Doyle unpack who came and won big at The Marathon Project, one of the most intriguing elite marathons, well, maybe ever. And of course, they each also select three big losers on the day — those who had something at stake and failed in some capacity. They discuss, sponsored athletes vs. working-class stiffs, (future) Olympians, Hoka (yes, the shoe company), and Cam Levins. Follow us on social @theXCorg And subscribe to our newsletter at thexc.org
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    1 h y 17 m
  • 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships

    2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships
    Oct 19 2020
    Hosts John Lofranco and Michael Doyle discuss who each feels "won" and "lost" at the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, which took place over the weekend in Gdynia, Poland. John's winners: Women's champ (and world-record holder) Peres Jepchirchir, the concept of watching a race, and "the running media." Michael's winners: Jepchirchir, World Athletics, the country of Uganda John's losers: the very idea of safety, high stack height shoes, sport bureaucracy Michael's losers: Poland, pre-race favourite Joshua Cheptegei, 2018 champ Netsanet Gudeta Be sure to check out our new home thexc.org, and follow us on social @theXCorg
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    53 m
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