Sub 2 Hour Marathon Attempt

Manceau · Post by **Manceau** » Fri May 05, 2017 3:36 pm

Tomorrow morning (4:45am UK Time) at the Monza racetrack, Italy, 3 of the best distance runners in the world will attempt to run a sub 2 hour marathon for the first time ever (or, first recorded time ever at least).

There's a bit of a battle between Nike and Adidas to have the first successful under 2 hour athlete, and Nike are having first stab. To put into perspective what an achievement this would be, for any park runners, a successful attempt would mean the athlete would be running 8 and a half consecutive 5ks at 14:13 each.

Loads of information about it here, including links to where you can watch it (if you're still up / setting your alarm clock / are even remotely interested).

http://www.runnersworld.com/2-hour-mara ... on-attempt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

minnieclaret · Post by **minnieclaret** » Fri May 05, 2017 4:16 pm

good luck to them. they'll need it.

TheFamilyCat · Post by **TheFamilyCat** » Fri May 05, 2017 4:31 pm

I used to eat them quicker than that.

Any reason why it's a specially set up attempt? These runners race in plenty of Marathons in a year - surely they can just aim to run sub 2 hours in one of those, can't they?

Edit: probably should have read the link before posting; I guess the key is having the pace car.

minnieclaret · Post by **minnieclaret** » Fri May 05, 2017 4:48 pm

i ran the Selby marathon back in the day. A two lapper the only hill on the course was a hump back railway bridge. they should have done it there.

Imploding Turtle · Post by **Imploding Turtle** » Fri May 05, 2017 4:50 pm

I hope that's an electric pace car. Who wants to be chewing on exhaust fumes for nearly 2 hours?

TheFamilyCat · Post by **TheFamilyCat** » Fri May 05, 2017 5:39 pm

Imploding Turtle wrote:I hope that's an electric pace car. Who wants to be chewing on exhaust fumes for nearly 2 hours?

They could get Lance Armstrong pacing them on a bike. Is he still a Nike man?

Manceau · Post by **Manceau** » Sat May 06, 2017 7:45 am

First runner came in at 2:00:24, 25 seconds outside target time.

Brilliant effort but just not quite enough. 2 hours still to be beaten.

TVC15 · Post by **TVC15** » Sat May 06, 2017 7:54 am

Wow - that's incredible

Only certain marathon courses count towards any world record attempt. Some are deemed too "easy".

I can't get my head round how it's humanly possibly to run this fast for so long - they are almost sprinting the whole way. I do think that the times they are running now are nearly impossible for a white man to run....you rarely see them in the top 10 of the main races and they are often 10 minutes behind the Kenyans etc. Same for the women.

Manceau · Post by **Manceau** » Sat May 06, 2017 8:00 am

Yeah, I don't think this will be ratified as a world record because of technical rules to do with the pacers, it was more an attempt just to have someone run sub 2 hours.

As you say, incredible time, and you're right, it is pretty much sprinting for 26 miles.

wilks_bfc · Post by **wilks_bfc** » Sat May 06, 2017 9:52 am

These were Kipchoge 5k splittimes

14:14
14:07
14:13
14:15
14:14
14:17
14:17
14:27

Finish: 2:00:24

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Sat May 06, 2017 9:57 am

wilks_bfc wrote:These were Kipchoge 5k splittimes
14:14
14:07
14:13
14:15
14:14
14:17
14:17
14:27

Finish: 2:00:24

That's like doing the 100 metres in 17 seconds... but then doing that around 422 times in a row.

bobinho · Post by **bobinho** » Sat May 06, 2017 10:15 am

TheFamilyCat wrote:They could get Lance Armstrong pacing them on a bike. Is he still a Nike man?

Depends who's supplying the "medicine". He's anyone's man. Fraud.

bobinho · Post by **bobinho** » Sat May 06, 2017 10:17 am

TVC15 wrote:Wow - that's incredible

Only certain marathon courses count towards any world record attempt. Some are deemed too "easy".

I can't get my head round how it's humanly possibly to run this fast for so long - they are almost sprinting the whole way. I do think that the times they are running now are nearly impossible for a white man to run....you rarely see them in the top 10 of the main races and they are often 10 minutes behind the Kenyans etc. Same for the women.

I could be wrong, but I'm not entirely convinced this is down to skin colour. Surely training locations have a greater relevance, and in this day and age, people can train anywhere.

bfccrazy · Post by **bfccrazy** » Sat May 06, 2017 10:20 am

wilks_bfc wrote:These were Kipchoge 5k splittimes
14:14
14:07
14:13
14:15
14:14
14:17
14:17
14:27

Finish: 2:00:24

It takes me this long to get from town to the turf on a match day

And thats with losds of cars in the way.

I can't wait for Guy Ritchie to pitch up and do it in 1:45 mins in a few weeks

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Sat May 06, 2017 10:27 am

Some of it is down to genetics/skin colour.

A large number of the greatest marathon runners are either Kenyan or descended from Kenyans, who're usually from a specific part of Kenya I remember reading.

See the article
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... es/256015/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is amusing to see the Kenyan tribe are located roughly where Home Sapiens originated from.

TVC15 · Post by **TVC15** » Sat May 06, 2017 12:12 pm

bobinho wrote:I could be wrong, but I'm not entirely convinced this is down to skin colour. Surely training locations have a greater relevance, and in this day and age, people can train anywhere.

I`m pretty convinced from the everything I have read on this Bobinho.

Training in high altitude places definitely helps - and that is part of it. But there is a hell of a lot of money in athletics now. The top distance runners are multi millionaires. So if it was purely to training locations you would have a lot of europeans just going to training camps in Kenya.

The domination of africans has not always been the case - 20 years ago and beyond countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal had great marathon runners. The olympic marathon has been won by an Italian and by an Australian.

In recent years its hard to remember a long distance event of any magnitude where a european was even in the leading group. With the obvious exception of Mo Farah who is of course from Somalian heritage. The really scary thing is that when it comes to things like the Kenyan olympic trials that the competition is so great that world record holders or the london marathon winner often miss out on qualifying for the olympics. There was a statistic mentioned a couple of years ago that the top 20 Kenyan men would get in most other teams.

When i referred to "white" athletes what I really meant sorry was the genetic side of things as American and say Jamaican black athletes are even further behind the likes of Kenya in distance running than the Europeans.

To a lesser degree we have seen the same kind of thing in sprinting with Jamaican, American, French and British black athletes dominating. It`s a while since Alan Wells was winning gold !!

Croydon Claret · Post by **Croydon Claret** » Sat May 06, 2017 12:52 pm

Africans can carry more oxygen in their blood so they're always going to have a physical advantage.

Makes Paula Radcliffe's world record all the more impressive

TVC15 · Post by **TVC15** » Sat May 06, 2017 1:54 pm

Croydon Claret wrote:Africans can carry more oxygen in their blood so they're always going to have a physical advantage.

Makes Paula Radcliffe's world record all the more impressive

Yes it does - but she had a cunning plan of freeing up room for oxygen by getting rid of other things inside her on the pavement !!

minnieclaret · Post by **minnieclaret** » Sat May 06, 2017 5:30 pm

The restrictions on courses are to stop someone doing a straightline downhill road race.
Any course using the same start/finish line is legal. Because whatever downhill you have gained must be countered by the uphill.
I think I'm correct in saying the Great North Run can't be ratified for record times as it is a one direction course with a percentage fall over the length of the race.

Great effort by Kipchoge even if it was purely a Nike publicity run.

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