Hansons-Brooks Gets Stronger with Bobby Curtis

Calling Bobby Curtis -- he of 13:18 and 27:24 ability -- "by far the best runner to ever join Hansons," the gang at LRC predict that Hansons will benefit from the reinvestment in the team by Brooks. Here is their take in "The Week that Was"

Hansons-Brooks Gets Stronger

Eh, what kind of shoes are those?

Speaking of Elite training groups, the Hansons-Brooks team got a shot in the arm last week when it was announced 2008 NCAA 5,000 champ and former Villanova runner Bobby Curtis was joining the group. Curtis, who ran 13:18 in 2010 and 27:24 in 2011, was the latest runner to be dropped by Reebok, as Kim Smith was also recently dropped.

Reebok merging with adidas in 2005 hasn’t been a good thing for pro runners which is what you could have expected. First, it meant one less company to compete for runners. And then the brand Reebok has been gradually pulling out of pro running.

But not everyone is complaining about it, certainly not Keith and Kevin Hanson. One’s loss is another gain, right?

The Hansons seem to be benefiting from the fact that the shoe companies seemingly are being more judicious on the money they give out to the elites.

Curtis at 13:18/27:24 is by far the best runner to ever join Hansons but he is the third relatively high profile “get” for the group in the last few months. Instead of getting just 14 minute 5kers and 29 minutes 10kers as they have for most of their existence, they have picked some significantly better talent as shown by the list below.

2013 Hansons-Brooks Men’s Team With PRs

Jeremy Criscione    13:43/29:28
Bobby Curtis        3:57/13:18/27:24
Luke Humphrey       29:04/63:58/2:14:39
Colby Lowe          13:42/28:45 + 3 NCAA Top 10s In XC
Brendan Martin      8:15/14:09/29:43
Mike Morgan         14:15/29:33/64:04/2:14:22
Drew Polley         29:26/2:16:36
Jake Riley          13:32/28:08
Robert Scribner     14:13/29:07
Ethan Shaw          14:10/29:17
Clint Verran        13:51/2:14:12

The guys in bold really stand out.

In addition to getting Curtis, the Hanson brothers also got a nice present last week as Brooks re-upped its support of the team last week. Brooks also announced they’ll be starting a mid-d group in their new hometown-to-be of Seattle (currently they are in a suburb).

Oh yeah, one more thing before move on. We did want to say one thing to those of you who have criticized the group in the past for not producing enough studs/Olympians in the past. Take the list above and compare it to the Schumacher photo above. Before Curtis, the worse guy in Schumacher’s group was better than the best guy in the Hansons group and of the 9 guys pictured in Schumacher’s group – only two made the Olympics.

Our point is simple.

1) It’s damn hard for everyone to make the Olympics.

2) Different groups should be held to different standards just like in other sports.