Finally finished watching the full race fast forwarding through the commercials).
The positives. A brilliant (in the full British sense) move by the winner at mile 23 who caught 'em, passed 'em, and broke 'em all in a 4:42 24th mile. After that, it was basically over as he stretched the lead over Kiprui and the third place runner ended up almost a full minute behind. Liked Kiprovitch finding a Ugandan flag and carrying it the last 100 meters showing pride, but not arrogance, that he had the space to do it. Great back story for a dedicated runner emerging out of poverty and hardship. Great sportsmanship between all the top 50 finishers who came in within 2:20 on a hot and muggy day. Another thumbs up to Meb Keflezighi of the US who ran a great tactical race to finish fourth at age 37 and was happy about his performance in the interviews afterwards.
The negatives. A crappy course designed for aerial tv shots and not the runners. Too many tight turns, too many 180s. and cobblestones? Crappy coverage. They missed the surge at mile 23, missed all of Meb's moves from back of the pack to 4th. Decent British announcer, wish I could say the same about the American. I also believe it was pool coverage so it may not be NBC's fault but the aerial shots were incomprehensible, there were too many random shots from the cycles of the pavement where the only sound was the cycle engines, and too many misses of key events. I guess Ryan Hall could have used a coach after all.
Biggest negative of all, no entrance to the Olympic stadium and final lap. Its too cool to pass up for a few pretty post card shots that had already been overdone for the past two weeks.
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