Perhaps the top men running last week's Boston Marathon could have come closer to the course record (but probably not have broken it, given the course record is also the unofficial world record) had they followed Meb during his "surge" at mile eight. The elite women didn't make the same mistake when American Shalane Flanagan made her move. Thus, they set personal records while also preventing an American from stealing the win.

Just like Meb, Flanagan had a time in mind and hit it exactly. Unlike Meb, hers wasn't fast enough. The 2:22:02 she ran wasn't nearly enough to overcome defending champion Rita Jeptoo's 2:18:57. Flanagan PR-ed by more than three minutes and later admitted to Runner's World magazine she did all she could for the win. She just wasn't fast enough. With Runner's World magazine, she also spoke, among other things, about Jeptoo's unreal final move, including the 4:48 mile she unleashed on mile 24 (by comparison, Meb's mile 24 split was 4:47).

"Her (Jeptoo's) last 5-K was just phenomenal, and she ran mile 24 in 4:48," Flanagan told Runner's World. "There's not much I can do about that. There aren't many people in the world who can deal with that. I think I gave myself my best chance to win, but I can't be too bummed about it, to be honest. Maybe down the road, the stronger and older I get, I could maybe run that, but as of right now, I can honestly say I could never do what Jeptoo did in the last 5-K on Monday. It's just not within me."

Flanagan, a Massachusetts native, felt specially connected to the Boston Marathon. She held it in higher regard than the Olympics or a world record. Losing hurt, but at least she had a pretty good day.

"But at the end of the day, it was the best I could put forward, so there's not much to regret. I ran to win. I didn't have any self-preservation out there. I poured everything I had into my preparation and set out to run 2:22. I thought that would be good enough to win on the Boston course, and history would tell you that. But obviously it was a phenomenal day and everyone came to run really, really fast."

So what is the best strategy for winning a race in which you aren't the favorite? It seems as if both Flanagan and Meb believed their best chance was setting a fast pace and hoping the rest of the field either didn't follow or wasn't prepared to follow. It's tricky to try the opposite approach -- slow the race down and kick -- because rarely do lesser runners have the best kicks. Plus, a marathon kick is certainly different than one in a mile, 5k, or 10k. Every runner is going to be hurting at mile 20 no matter the pace. At that point, the race is less of a kick and who's in better shape anyway. Probably, Flanagan's approach was the best way. Jeptoo was, as she said, just too good.