Are you inspired by Alex Vero's ambitions, or slightly insulted?

Well personally i think Vero can be considered a bit of a hero; not only to all of us averagely talented runners out there, but to anyone who has ever had an ambition or wanted to be better at something. He's been open and honest about his targets and he's going for them. As someone who makes only the odd reasonably achievable target, I admire him. It's good to dream and I'm sure (genetics and talent aside) by striving towards such a great target Vero has achieved much more than he otherwise might have.

The publicity that he has managed to attract can only be good for running in general. Any Joe Bloggs can dream of being an elite runner and if enough do then we're bound to strengthen British running and even inspire the odd couch potato to get a bit fitter along the way.

And who would deny that a bit of confident ambition and sporting determination isn't an attractive quality?

Nicely put Elaine, as someone who strived and never quite got there you have to admire what he has achieved - alright he did not make the Olympics but he has gone from a 16 stone porker to a decent club class runner - and maybe genetically he has some talent - what he has acheived can be achieved on a lot of hard work.

genetically he has some talent - maybe indeed but not in running for sure. If 100 UK Males (as per his own website) can run sub220 in just one race in 1983(-ish) wearing Dunlop greenflash and drinking water without dedicating EVERYTHING towards it (I bet they all had jobs)  then I can't see where a (not yet run) 2:30 shows a great deal of genetic talent at all given the effort.  Sub220 maybe but 230 no way that can be achieved by hardwork over a number of years.

As you were.

Agree with you both -

I do think though that you need some form of genetic talent to run 2:30 I never managed it depsite many years of 70-100 miles per week.

Graeme, I'm not inspired by his achievements.

The level he has reached is only that of a reasonable club athlete, the same as myself, the same as many of the people I compete against. In the whole scheme of things what he's achieved is pretty unremarkable and its light years away from his originally stated intentions

Depends so much on where you are coming from.

If you have had a go to discover how good you could be, and perhaps discovered only how hard it is, it is difficult to respond in any way more positive than "good luck chum", and very easy to chuckle sourly and think "he'll learn, some cheek to imply the rest of us haven't tried".

If your own experience of running is a matter of personal fitness and satisfaction, the concept of taking up the challenge to join the elite is a thrilling one - there is nothing apparently stopping him, you or me.   You need feet.  You need roads.  You need time.  You need determination.  The game is open to anyone.  That is really exciting...

if you haven't bruised your heart chasing the elusive goal before that is.

I spend most of my lurking time on the daily training thread.  For a lot of folk there, running is infinitely more driven than any logical development of the fitness and satisfaction theme.  Miles may make champions, but its the long term focus that makes the miles. 

I get heaps and heaps of inspiration from my mates on dt thread.  I am hugely touched that they pay attention to my efforts.  Their generosity of spirit endows me with the courage to keep going.  Again and again their encouragement has lifted me off the ropes and back into the ring as it were.  That's inspiration.   Not the story of one man whose efforts imply that others haven't really tried.

Having said all that, I side with the view that if he inspires some - well and good.  There's room for him in the world, and I am happy for him to run in the limelight.  It doesn't hurt me, and it shouldn't hurt anyone.  Let him try. 

Stickless, thankyou for that beautiful post.

The remarkable, and the inspiration that arises from it, usually come frm quiet corners, not from people making a song and dance about what they do. I admire the circumspect and abhor the arrogant

"I think it's great what he's done regardless whether he makes the cut for the olympics or not. As has been stated, this guy was a 16 stone obese male. In the space of a few months he had lost 4 stone and was taking regular exercise. How can anyone not be inspired by his achievements?"

Maybe I'm a hardfaced so and so but I don't find someone not eating to excess inspiring.   

here here.  someone not eating to excess is hardly inspiring, but then again hardly insulting, either.   likewise, somebody saying he's going to qualify for the olympics, or fly to the moon under his own steam fuelled only by a large slice of peperoni pizza held under his left armpit, is neither inspiring nor insulting.

a much more salient question is why you can't buy those mathbox miniature army men about 10mm tall any more, that came in those little boxes about 6 inches square by 2 inches.  they were great!  i had 2 boxes of the japanese ones, they kicked the ass of my mate percy's americans.

romans? i'm quite envious.  i had their enemies the ancient britons, they were pretty cool. 

but not much good against WWII japanese infantrymen in a stand up fight though, to be honest

http://www.airfix.com/airfix-products/dioramas-and-figures/figures/

I used to use my bed to create whole battle fields, now my bed IS a battle field...

Lardarse, you beauty!!

I'm getting the britons and the romans, plus the japs and the marines 

I know this thread has been rambling on for a bit now, but I just want to put my opinion across!

I think this bloke is doing / has done very well. In my opinion, it takes a lot longer than a couple of years to get good at this running lark, so he's progressed nicely. There are always people who will knock him saying 'eee, in my day, we were knocking sub 2.20 out for marathons left right and centre and that wasn't brilliant' but these types rarely congratulate the runners these days that strive to do the same.

I'm friends with several runners who have come from the heady heights of 3.30 for marathon to about 2.45 for the same distance using hard work and yet holding down a steady job and juggling the busier life that seems to be around at the present, where we have to work around 12hour days just to keep the wolf from the door.

Leave him alone and focus on something else such as why is the funding for sportsmen and women getting so bad in this country?

OK, I'm done.

In the Uk,funding for sportsmen and women has never been better,so I don't think that's the reason for the evident decline in distance performance.

That's not to knock today's Uk elite.I'm sure they are doing their best and giving 100%:the question is why their best isn't as good as their equivalents from 20-30 years ago,when logically,it should be as good or better.

I know this is a very daft question and I can almost disagree with my self but is the world we live in very different from not that long ago?with polloutions etc I know this has some negative input and for example the marathon in beijing being heavily critisised could it be runners from the african countries etc dont have to be exposed to these modern day difficulties?

By all means I know this is a very rough and maybe wrong observation but I agree that there shouldnt be a genetic reason for not being better we should have evolved further

I am also in awe to elite runners for their dedication and sheer effort that is exercised in races in any disapline especially marathon distances so well done!

Could we be too technically advanced and reliant than our counterparts from 3 decades ago?