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Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

nytimes.com

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Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#51

Post by paganel »

jon-v wrote: post #38
paganel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The recent Salazar scandal proves otherwise, i.e. that a lot of today’s athletics-related performances are reached based on same old drug cheating. Too bad, athletics as a competitive sport used to be an event that genuinely filled up big stadiums (like in 1993 in Stuttgart or in 1999 in Sevilla), nowadays we’re left wondering which results will be wiped out in 5 years’ time, while the recent 100-meter World Champs f…

The Salazar scandal involves a case in which doping of athletes was very specifically not proven.

Giving thyroid medication to otherwise healthy athletes for sporting reasons only is still morally doping, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Armstrong scandal dragged on for years until actual doping was legally “found”, so to speak. All this does is to scare away both the public and potential new and not-cheating athletes while endangering the health of the cheating athletes who actually go down this route.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#52

Post by paulcole »

yk wrote: post #36

That is, while impressive, pretty meaningless. The thing is, that sports are defined by their rules and to the best of my understanding the long distance running rules are written to prevent teamwork. (Unlike cycling, which is explicitly a team sport.) Basically, the two hour mark is important in the specific circumstances of Olympic marathon, and was broken in a different sport. To broaden the discussion a bit, it s…

> They succeeded, but they only succeeded in a game of their own invention.

As opposed to the natural phenomenon of running through the streets of Berlin/NYC/Boston/Chicago/Tokyo as God intended?

All sports are a game of our own invention.

You are also incorrect about long distance running rules preventing teamwork. Marathoners definitely work together.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#53

Post by rimliu »

yomly wrote: post #18
arh68 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed ? > He ran behind a timing car driving 4:34 per mile I think most men could pull 12 minute miles (26 in a row, that is), so maybe a factor of 3?

Define "could", my intuition is that there is a vast population of men who couldn't complete a one mile run (right now with no training)

Interesting. Your intution bascially says that vast population of man could not walk a single mile. Because factor of 3 means walking, not running.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#54

Post by ddeck »

phkahler wrote: post #40
Someone wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drafting_(aerodynamics)#Runnin... : ”Drafting behind another runner can conserve energy, although the effect is less than in cycling due to the fact that speeds are lower.” There also is a psychological effect. It is easier to keep a constant pace if there’s somebody in front of you that does it, too.

So use an AR headset to put a virtual person in front of you keeping a constant pace?

No need for AR in this case. There was a laser grid projected onto the road in front of the runners by a pacing car.

https://image.businessinsider.com/5da1887a4af90974904877c2

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2...

But that can't provide the drafting and morale benefit of running behind your teammates

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#55

Post by JshWright »

loeg wrote: post #24
bandrami wrote: post #14

I can't sprint that fast nowadays. When I was in the Marines 20 years ago, my 3-mile pace was slower than that, and I still had a class "A" run time. This is amazing.

He's literally the fastest distance runner in the world. It's not surprising you were slower than him. (I am too!)

It's still amazing to point out that the pace he runs over 26 miles is a pace that most people wouldn't be able to maintain for one lap around the track at their local high school.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#57

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

So Kipchoge had rotating teams of pacemakers running _before_ him, throughout the race. Each team was able to outrun Kipchoge for a short amount of time, but of course Kipchoge himself had to keep the same pace throughout the race.

This reminded me of an episode from Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. This is mostly from memory, but he describes an invasion of the country Ephebe where the invasion force comes from the side of a desert considered impassable, because no expeditionary force could carry enough provisions to make it through the desert. The trick is that a number of expeditions have preceded the invasion whose function was to leave caches of provisions for the actual invasion force to use. Each expedition only has to carry enough provisions to make it to a cache location and back and of course multiple expeditions can deposit provisions to the same cache location, until it is sufficiently stocked for the invading force.

It's a slow and costly process, but it gets the job done and it made me wonder if there are algorithms like that, that can compute results otherwise uncomputable. I'm pretty sure there are- in fact I'm pretty sure it's something blindingly obvious that I'm missing because I'm thinking of it in terms of runners and soldiers crossing deserts... Maybe divide and conquer strategies, or dynamic programming?

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#58

Post by chasd00 »

jacquesm wrote: post #50
yk wrote: post #36

That is, while impressive, pretty meaningless. The thing is, that sports are defined by their rules and to the best of my understanding the long distance running rules are written to prevent teamwork. (Unlike cycling, which is explicitly a team sport.) Basically, the two hour mark is important in the specific circumstances of Olympic marathon, and was broken in a different sport. To broaden the discussion a bit, it s…

This kind of comment really depresses me. Someone achieves something absolutely amazing and some random commenter on the net will be happy to belittle it in every way that they can think of.

it's ok, they were probably picked last for every school recess kickball game and hold a grudge.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#59

Post by darkerside »

yk wrote: post #36

That is, while impressive, pretty meaningless. The thing is, that sports are defined by their rules and to the best of my understanding the long distance running rules are written to prevent teamwork. (Unlike cycling, which is explicitly a team sport.) Basically, the two hour mark is important in the specific circumstances of Olympic marathon, and was broken in a different sport. To broaden the discussion a bit, it s…

Dude, I get it. It wasn't a race. But it was damn close to race conditions. Pacemaking is a situation that regularly happens on race day. There was no giant fan. It was basically race day under ideal conditions. You are obviously not a runner, and don't appear to have an understanding of how important certain rules are (or aren't) and yet want to enforce your judgment on everybody else. Now that's what I call Bullshit.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#60

Post by JshWright »

jobigoud wrote: post #29

Interesting image showing the reversed-V formation of the pace maker runners, tested in a wind tunnel. (inverse of what birds do). https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGqIhcSXUAca387?format=jpg&name=... From https://twitter.com/BertBlocken/status/1182907965306748929

Birds are optimizing for max efficiency gains across the flock, as opposed to the pace runners, who are optimizing for a single member of the group
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