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Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

nytimes.com

231–240 of 281 posts

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, he also had pacers.

The rule for pacers is that they must start the race at the same time and be able to keep up with the runner being paced, though they don’t have to finish it. Swapping fresh legs in mid-race isn’t allowed. In a college indoor track 5K, one of my teammates was being lapped by another teammate competing for a podium spot. The guy being lapped started sprinting to help the guy near the front of the race finish strong. T…

It varies by event. Personal pacers in the marathon are uncommon to begin with. In ultramarathons they are specifically not allowed until late in the race. That a track event would rule that way had become an unfortunate expectation.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#232
post #160

Anyone have estimated of how many calories he burned during this run? I wonder how much he ate before starting and when? Are they allowed calorie dense drinks during these runs? I do not do runs, walking sure, so I am just really curious how much it takes for the human body to do this type of run

Kipchoge probably burned about 2500 kcal according to online calculators. Maybe slightly less in reality due to drafting off his pacers and having an exceptionally efficient running form. Runners can drink anything they want as long as it doesn't violate doping rules. The elites all have customized carbohydrate mixes.

Probably much less. It is not just running form that makes elite runners efficient. Due to both genetics and training, their bodies use fuel more efficiently, too.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#233
post #73
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

IIRC it was done that way as a way to follow the optimal path, instead of eyeballing it and taking corners too wide and adding more distance. Might not seem like much, but he had to shave off less than a minute of his previous attempt, so every little helps.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#234
For those of us who have only ever run shorter distance, this is an average mile time over the whole course of about 4:33.84 minutes.

The current world record for a single mile is 3:43.13, which would shave about 22 minutes off the two hours, for a hypothetical 1:38:00 minimum time if we assume perfectly linear extrapolation of human physiology given the proper training techniques (seems unlikely, given that you would need 26 pacers that could all run at world record pace or something like that). Said another way this would allow one to run about 6 additional miles in the same time if you could sustain the pace for the duration rather than the distance.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#235
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…

"At that point he'll be 35..." A well-known secret in running circles - many Ethiopian and Kenyan runners have dubious official birth years including Eliud Kipchoge. from https://runningmagazine.ca/the-scene/zane-robertson-swears-k... (Zane Robertson, one of two identical twin brothers from NZ who live & train in Kenya and ran 2:08:19 for the marathon): "That’s when Robertson got involved, commenting that Kipchoge is…

If he is really 40, which I don't believe, that would make this record even more remarkable.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that was not heated but toxic. I had to nope out of that after reading the first 2 pages.

Not toxic, just informed. When people follow a sport closely ("passionately") they're more likely to be offended by and call out bullshit. The shoes provide a significant mechanical advantage that most consider unfair. Others claim they're just shoes, but then you might as well claim that rollerblades are shoes. This comes on the heels of US anti doping handing a 4 year ban to the coach of Nike's elite running team.…

I'm no fan of Nike, but if you call rollerblades shoes, you might as well call F1 cars airplanes.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#237

At this pace he would beat lots of amateurs ON A BIKE!

Maybe a tourist cruising down the beach path would go slower. But this guy went 13.1 mph which, on a bike, is actually a bit less cardiac output than a 3mph walk.

I biked to work on a dirt bike for many years and never hit this speed. Later I learned you are supposed to use an easy gear and pedal at a cadence of 60-90 rpm, instead of a hard gear and pushing hard with each stroke, and hit it easily.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 mph, not much more than walking speed? I have doubts about keeping it up for 5 hours, though.

I think running 5mph for 5 hours is a very ... achievable goal for the median person, but I don't think I would put money on the median person, or at least, American, completing that time without additional training from their current condition. If you took a random sample of people -- or at least a random sample of people 18-50 with no outstanding health issues -- and put them on a "couch to marathon" 6 month traini…

I don't really have much of an idea of what the median would be for time required to walk/run 26 miles. I doubt that there's any good data. The original comment just specified "men", which is presumably global and would include the elderly. I've read that about 45% of people are non-urban, which may be expected to increase fitness, perhaps.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. That was advertisement. You can check the results on strava or elsewhere. Nobody had 4% decrease in time after switching to this shoes.

NY Times used data from Strava to write the article, and there are other sources as well. Like this study from 2017: A Comparison of the Energetic Cost of Running in Marathon Racing Shoes > Conclusion > The prototype shoes lowered the energetic cost of running by 4% on average. We predict that with these shoes, top athletes could run substantially faster and achieve the first sub-2-hour marathon. https://link.springe…

Not that easy. NYT data shows not only 4% increase for VaporFly, but also 3% increase for Streak. Springer is harder. Though 18 male aren't enough to prove anything, the data is quite consistent. But 4% equals to 5 min in marathon. That means that a lot of athletes from 2013-14 could break 2 hours in that shoes easily. Probably 5 min on a treadmill at 18 km/h has little in common with 2 hours at 21 km/h.

Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

#240
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait ... why a laser projection? You could just use the car for pacing.

Maybe for keeping a safe distance without having to eyeball it, or for avoiding the fumes.

Could be a requirement to stay a certain distance back to keep the car from performing too much of the drafting maybe?
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