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One step closer to a two-hour marathon

strata.oreilly.com

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Re: One step closer to a two-hour marathon

#2
Interesting article, and I think a 2 hour marathon is certainly doable. I mean, 3 minutes in a 26.2 mile 2 hour race seems like if someone just has a great day they can do that. That being said, I'm not sure I agree with his analysis of the data. The section of graphs that he says are all straight lines, looks to me like several of them are curves going to a plateau.

We can always get better, but at some point there is a soft limit. Someone can always do a little better, but I think we can all agree that there won't be any 30 minute marathons any time soon. Suggesting that gaining 3 minutes in 30-40 years is simply linear progression seems kinda silly to me. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 2 hour marathon tomorrow.

Re: One step closer to a two-hour marathon

#3
post #2

Interesting article, and I think a 2 hour marathon is certainly doable. I mean, 3 minutes in a 26.2 mile 2 hour race seems like if someone just has a great day they can do that. That being said, I'm not sure I agree with his analysis of the data. The section of graphs that he says are all straight lines, looks to me like several of them are curves going to a plateau. We can always get better, but at some point there…

His conclusion is contingent on the continued exponential growth of the runner population. Obviously, this growth itself is not sustainable, but it seems plausible that it will end before we start hitting the wall of human performance.