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Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

nytimes.com

141–150 of 281 posts

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#141

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.

What was the "Class A time" for the Marines 20 years ago? No offense but if you broke 18 minutes (6:00 mile) for the 3 mile I'd be surprised. Kipchoge just ran a 4:30 mile for 26 miles.

Hell, the best marathoner the US had in the 2000 Olympics ran a 2:30. Literally a half hour slower than Kipchoge.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#142
post #112

Link to full video in case you didn’t watch it live (in which case, what’s wrong with you?): https://youtu.be/k-XgKRJUEgQ This is an extraordinary achievement. It was just last September that Kipchoge set the W.R. time of 2:01:39[1]. It’s only a matter of time (no pun intended) till sub-2 is broken in competition. Probably at Berlin. Just knowing it’s possible is a huge barrier to break through. I’ve run over two doz…

Congratulations on qualifying for Boston. I found "Jack Daniel's Running Formula" an invaluable resource in learning how to obtain the best performance from your body. His V-Dot fitness estimator can predict your marathon time (with optimal training) from your 5k race performance. I also had a goal to run a 3 hour marathon, but my 5k race time was just a few seconds too slow to extrapolate a 3 hour marathon. I did hi…

Thanks. Sorry to hear you've written off sub-3. I've got that book and many others. :-) I got myself from a first marathon of 4:22 to a 3:36 with Pfitzinger and stubbornness, to a 3:22 with Crossfit, improved running form, and more training, and to a 3:12 BQ and then 3:07 PR with better training. I respond well to mileage, but need the strength training so I can put in higher mileage without injury. Knocking off another 7 minutes, especially in my late 40s now, will probably take some coaching help.

I don't know how much credence to give to VDOT or any of the other calculators working from 5K or 10K estimates. I think they are okay for guidelines but wouldn't use one to say I can't unless it was way out of range. I much prefer a half-marathon and fast-finish long runs for predictors. I do like to run Yasso 800s for confidence though.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#143

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.

Back in the 1980's I lived next to a park that had a wonderful 5K loop that many people used. One morning I was out running my usual 5k, on track for close to a personal best when someone passed me so quickly and quietly that it startled me. There was a noticeable breeze from her passing. She lapped me twice in the course of my 5K (meaning she did close to 15K).

I found out later she was the current world record holder at 10K meters. And she wasn't pushing it that day.

These folks can run like you wouldn't believe.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#144
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What possible benefit would AR provide in this situation?

phkahler thinks if the record attempt is invalid because of the team of pace runners, why not use a simulated pace runner to gain the benefit without breaking the rule? Of course, if the speed benefit of pacing is down to psychology and camaraderie rather than purely information, a simulated pacer might not offer the same benefit.

There were 3 reasons why the record is invalid: swapping pacers, drinks handed directly to him by support team (on bicycles), not an 'open event'.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#145
post #49
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they bending the rules if they try to prove that a human can run a marathon distance in less than two hours? I am not arguing that he has run a marathon below 2:00, but he is the first recorded human that has achieved such a feat - which is kind of a barrier many people have tried to break or at least recognized to exist - even though it has required them to remove all possible outside factors like wind and t…

So, if they wanted to prove that a human can run a sub 2 h marathon distance, then why is not the entire doping arsenal in play? Similar, one could probably improve on the record by driving behind the runner with a car with an really big fan. Neither of that was done to prove that a human can run sub 2 h. My argument is now, that would shatter the spectacle. The NYT would not report on the first fan assisted sub-two…

While I do recognize that the bar is arbitrarily set I do still believe that there is a significant difference between a scenario that could very well happen by chance in the normal world (optimal weather, zero wind, optimal surface) compared to doping and pushing the runner with wind from behind.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#146
post #53
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Factor 3 (7 km/hour) is very fast walking for ‘normal’ people.

Speed walkers can go over twice as fast, but they don’t really walk.

https://www.iaaf.org/responsive/download/downloaddirect?file... defines it as

”Race Walking is a progression of steps so taken that the walker makes contact with the ground, so that no visible (to the human eye) loss of contact occurs. The advancing leg must be straightened (i.e. not bent at the knee) from the moment of first contact with the ground until the vertical upright position.”

and also states:

”All the Judges shall act in an individual capacity and their judgements shall be based on observations made by the human eye.”

Of note here is the “to the human eye” phrase. If one were to introduce electronic aids similar to those used in fencing to detect whether there always is a foot on the ground, speeds would decrease significantly.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#147
post #80

Reminds me of this post on HN from 5 years ago: what will it take to run a 2 hour marathon? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439408 Unfortunately the linked article seems to have disappeared. I wonder if today's record was run with those special Nike shoes with the blades inside... The ones that supposedly give you a 1 percent boost or something similar... If you have shoes that give you such a boost, is it dopi…

He ran with prototype shoes with carbon fiber in the sole.

https://www.believeintherun.com/2019/10/09/a-breakdown-of-th...

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#148
It should be noted there are, at least 3 things here that make this quite a bit different than a normal marathon:

* questionable shoes, but personally I'm fine with this, its just better shoes!

* the pace car is too close providing large aerodynamic advantage

* the pace makers aren't in the race from the start, might as well just let the car get even closer and dispense with the charade entirely

The last two points make it kind of silly, like top speed bicycle records where you are behind a vehicle and go over 100mph.

It is still fun, of course! But it isn't a story of physical achievement as much as basic engineering and clever showmanship. Other than, of course, you need a human who can run 2:03 without a car to draft to start with, which is insane.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#149

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 si…

I don't play many video games, but when I do they tend to be military strategy games of various types. After reading your comment, it made me think if I ever deployed such a tactic in the video games that I've played and I couldn't think of a situation. I found this very interesting! Seems like an amazing dynamic to add to a video game if it were possible.

Some commenters responded saying rockets have this property... but I don't know. I'm having a hard time reconciling that mere stages model this concept. Since if so, you could argue that anything that introduces a progression satisfies this condition. Maybe there is some nuance here, for example, the caches can't be directly controlled by a player.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#150
post #80

Reminds me of this post on HN from 5 years ago: what will it take to run a 2 hour marathon? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439408 Unfortunately the linked article seems to have disappeared. I wonder if today's record was run with those special Nike shoes with the blades inside... The ones that supposedly give you a 1 percent boost or something similar... If you have shoes that give you such a boost, is it dopi…

I remembered this article also, thanks for digging it up again. Its predictions were pretty spot-on: - Predicted in November, actual mid-October - Predicted in Debno, actual in Vienna, but both are very flat courses (I can't find if Debno is flatter) - "The pacemakers will form a human wall" - yes, pacemaker strategy seemed critical here. - "Mindblowing pay-day" - No clue, no articles seem to mention it. - "Kenyans w…

> the shoes I guess - I don't know how big an advance these are

The pacers wore Vaporfly, Kipchoge wore a prototype. The Vaporfly have been shown to actually make a difference of around 4%.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/18/upshot/nike-v...

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