Elite Athletics Thread

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SPR
SPR
Jan 2017
10:31am, 10 Jan 2017
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SPR
Women's marathon running is different though.Track still gets the best runners for women but take your point and the 2:15 performance was extraordinary. Paula left track at her peak as she didn't have the leg speed to compete at the end of a race. Paula had male pacemakers all the way for that record as well. Usually you'd be on your own for the hardest bit. Keitany was the one runner in the past that I thought could challenge the time at least the 2:17 women only record. Now you'd be looking at someone like Ayana to step up while she's still one of the best.

P.S. I didn't say it's impossible, just impossible in terms of legitimacy and Nike have admitted that themselves which begs the question what exactly is the point. Marketing I guess at the expense of the sport.

I don't understand the fascination with it TBH, why not enjoy the racing and let that push the times up. When 2 hours eventually comes, no one is going to be talking about if 1:57 is possible.
Ceratonia
Ceratonia
Jan 2017
11:22am, 10 Jan 2017
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Ceratonia
>I don't understand the fascination with it

Well, it's an arbitrary distance in an arbitrary time.

OTOH, my teenage sons know who Roger Bannister is, but not who Steve Ovett or Steve Cram is. I expect in 60 years time it will be the same for whoever does a sub-2hr marathon first.

If Nike prioritise their money & effort on this rather than some of their other projects that seem a bit whiffy from the outside, that's probably no bad thing.
Chrisull
Chrisull
Jan 2017
11:23am, 10 Jan 2017
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Chrisull
Roger Bannister didn't need a downhill track or springy shoes ;-)
larkim
larkim
Jan 2017
11:33am, 10 Jan 2017
1,587 posts
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larkim
I suspect the marketing aspect is a huge one for someone like Nike or Adidas. TO be directly associated with the sub 2hr marathon will be a massive publicity opportunity, and the marketeers in Nike have obviously been pitched an idea which they perceive as allowing them to claim the prize. After all, once it has been done once there is no second chance here.

From what I heard on the MarathonTalk podcast, whilst they are looking at putting some artificial benefits in there, it did seem a fairly legitimate go at the 2hr mark. They were talking about waiting for "perfect" weather, running fairly large lap (3 miles I think was mentioned), more frequent refreshment stations, and possibly having pacers drop in and drop out. If those were the main advantages of the setup, I'd say it still shows a human covering marathon distance fairly legitimately in under 2hrs. It all depends what else they add which is outside of the normal IAAF rules as to how "illegitimate" it feels.

If it is laps, that precludes using a big elevation gain, and some have questioned whether a big vertical drop anyway would be that beneficial due to the impact on the quads.

I'm not too bothered about Kipchoge giving up this year to achieve this. If I was him and I had the opportunity to go down in the record books as our generation's "Roger Bannister", provided I was satisfied that it was still clean running, I'd bite their hand off for the cheque. And whilst we're all cynical about Desisa and Tadese's ability, I don't doubt that the Nike guys know who they are spending their money with and whether that is a good bet or not. Clearly Kipchoge is the stand out guy there though.

I also hope that the outcome of this is actually to reduce pressure on times in major marathons. If even just a couple more of the Majors followed Chicago's lead in refusing to allow pacers I think that would add much more interest to the marathon over the next few years and potentially allow for the world's best to be more regularly taking part in the Worlds and Olympics rather than giving them a miss for a big paycheck to run a fast time with pacers and a "guaranteed" win at a big city marathon. But then I'm an idealist!
SPR
SPR
Jan 2017
11:58am, 10 Jan 2017
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SPR
Comparing this to Roger Bannister is disrespectful to what he did imo. It just isn't the same.
SPR
SPR
Jan 2017
12:04pm, 10 Jan 2017
23,380 posts
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SPR
en.m.wikipedia.org
Bazoaxe
Bazoaxe
Jan 2017
12:35pm, 10 Jan 2017
10,814 posts
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Bazoaxe
I don't think Paula took the record straight down to 2:15:25, did she not have a 2:17 beforehand ?

That said, 2:18-2:17-2:15 is still a massive progression especially as sub 2:20 these days is a notable time
SPR
SPR
Jan 2017
1:07pm, 10 Jan 2017
23,381 posts
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SPR
Yes she did Baz. And the 15 run had male pacers all the way. One of the Letsrun founders was a pacer that day.
SPR
SPR
Jan 2017
1:23pm, 10 Jan 2017
23,382 posts
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SPR
I also hope that the outcome of this is actually to reduce pressure on times in major marathons. If even just a couple more of the Majors followed Chicago's lead in refusing to allow pacers I think that would add much more interest to the marathon over the next few years and potentially allow for the world's best to be more regularly taking part in the Worlds and Olympics rather than giving them a miss for a big paycheck to run a fast time with pacers and a "guaranteed" win at a big city marathon. But then I'm an idealist!

I think this shows the opposite will happen given we are missing out on one of the best races possible due to it.

Who else remembers Wanjiru vs Kebede in Chicago? Epic race.
Chrisity
Chrisity
Jan 2017
1:30pm, 10 Jan 2017
15,195 posts
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Chrisity


This is for 2012, the interesting figures for me are the two distance percentages for Swimming and Running are the highest. perhaps this indicates that the women's marathon record is as expected.

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