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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.
Don't be depressed. Just reread the comment, until you realize that there is really no reason to construct it like this.
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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
Wait ... why a laser projection? You could just use the car for pacing.
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I don't know for sure but I strongly suspect that Pratchett was heavily influenced by Operation Black Buck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck In particular, this diagram from that page makes the process clear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck#/media/Fi... Hopefully the name of the original mission is enough to help you find a link to some relevant mathematics :-)
There is an excellent book about XM607/ Operation black buck written by Rowland White. It’s not just about the actual mission it’s also about retiring the Vulcan then bringing them back and all the other bit that led up to the mission. http://www.rowlandwhite.com/portfolio-view/vulcan-607/
Given that "[i]t will not be recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers," Mr. Kipchoge's attitude represents the best of sport: "Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me... This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful worl…
Back then people didn’t believe a four minute mile is possible, but after the barrier has been broken, dozens followed suit. In his eyes, his achievement is not the run, but breaking the barrier, and I appreciate him for that.
I read an interesting article about that explaining that this wasn't really down to any kind of barriers but more having pacers and a better track (which is coincidentally about the previous 2h marathon attempt.)
https://sportsscientists.com/2014/12/2-hour-marathon-4-min-m...
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Don't be depressed. Just reread the comment, until you realize that there is really no reason to construct it like this.
I did and I read your other comments in this thread as well, all but one seem to be unnecessarily negative about this man's achievement.
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I'm not alone in thinking this, but it's not just his pace that makes him truly remarkable, it's his consistency. I can't remember accurate numbers, but I think it's like in ten consecutive marathons, he came first nine times. Runners are prone to injury, and if you're not feeling 100% on the race you're likely to not win or run at your best.
He has won all ten of his last ten marathons. He was beaten by Wilson Kipsang in the 2013 Berlin marathon, but Kipsang ran a world record time. Kipchoge is incredibly consistent in arguably the most competitive field in history. He is an extraordinary athlete in both performance and spirit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge#Competition_rec...
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…
The catch with certain classes (maybe/probably all? disclaimer: am not theoretical computer scientist/mathematician) of uncomputable problems is that they are such that there is no notion of "getting closer" to the solution that's analogous to traversing the desert to a known location. There is no way to verify whether the next incremental step is taking you closer to or farther from the solution because calculating such is essentially the same problem as the root problem. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecidable_problem
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The benefit of the support runners wasn't just to help him keep pace (he could probably do this with music). They also provide a drafting help to limit any head-on air resistance.
Is that significant when running?