Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
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The Week That Was Feb. 16-22, 2009 There was a lot of action this week with a big meet in Britain, a super-fast half marathon in Dubai, a world record in
Stat Of The Week We've spent some time looking at the list and think it shows some interesting facts. It certainly supports our belief that US distance running is flourishing at an all-time high currently. It also supports our belief that the low mileage mantra that took hold in this country starting in the mid-1980s until the rise of the Internet near the turn of the millennium really ruined performances in this country. The 20-year period from 1985 to 2004 really was embarrassing as the rate of 4-minute milers was basically the same as it was in the 1970s. Check out the # of 4-minute milers by decade to see our point. # of sub-4 American milers by decade The rise of the Internet allowed the proponents of high mileage to get their voices heard, as for too long they'd been drowned out by the studies done by exercise physiologists who had been dominating the covers of the likes of Runners World for years. Clearly, we're not trying to give JK or malmo all of the credit for bringing back US distance running, but applying Occam's razor, the Internet's rise and the rise of US distance running is no coincidence. Training theory has returned to its roots over the last decade and the performance of US runners has started to show it big time in the last few years. From 1985 to 2004, there were never more than 35 new sub-4 minute milers in a five-year period. Yet we've had 55 since the start of 2005. Someone Recruit Their Child Kiplagat didn't race last year as she had her first child. On a side note, we're wondering how long it is before some shoe company starts sending free baby gear to that child. Our only question after the race was this: Given a 21-second victory for Mosop, has he peaked too soon? Then it came out that he's coached by Renato Canova. Canova has a proven track record of working with the best and getting them to produce when they need to. Which brings us to our: Rather than talk more about who made the team for Kenya, we thought it was more interesting to list some of the studs who didn't make the team for Kenya. World 5k silver medallist Eliud Kipchoge, Beijing 5k bronze medallist Edwin Soi and Beijing 1,500 silver medallist and former World XC champion Asbel Kiprop all failed to make the team. Unbelievable. Just look at Kiprop, who had the early lead at the Trials. Kiprop is an unreal talent. Imagine someone who as a junior was way better than Alan Webb in the mile and way better than Dathan Ritzenhein at cross-country. He was in good form, as he'd been winning a lot of XC races this winter. He shows up at the national champs and doesn't make the team. Only in Kenya, baby. 2009 Kenyan XC Champs Recommended Read of The Week/Free Coaching Advice One thing we're always struck by with Olympic-year disappointments is how simple the reasons behind them often are. So many people try to force things and end up overtraining. When LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson was hired to coach at Cornell, the final thing he did while in Washington, DC was set up a lunch meeting with 1997 world championships bronze medallist at 800 meters, Rich Kenah, to talk about mid-d training. Robert asked Rich about his failure at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Robert remembers the exchanges as being something like this. Robert asked Rich about what happened in Sydney and the exchange was roughly as follows (hard to remember as it was 7 years ago): Rich: "Robert, you think of me as being someone who trains really smart, right? Rich said there were a few workouts he hadn't gotten in that he wanted to do just prior to the Games. He knew what he'd done to get the bronze at the world champs and he subconsciously forced himself to do the workouts a little faster out of a desire to get the gold in the Olympics. He ran the workouts faster than he'd ever done them before. The result? Didn't even make it out of the first round. So this is our reminder to you all of you out there training: "DON'T FORCE THINGS." In the Abrahamson article on Hall, there was a quote from 1968 Boston Marathon winner Amby Burfoot. Burfoot wasn't talking about Hall specifically but just about the overwhelming odds a US marathoner faces if he is going to win a world marathon major. Burfoot said, "You're asking almost for the impossible. How does someone stand on a start line with five Kenyans on his left, five Ethiopians on his right and think, 'I'm going to take it to these guys today.' The odds are 10 to 1 against you if you're equal, and it's hard even to convince yourself you are equal." We 100% agree with his assessment although a bunch of non-thinking people have criticized Burfoot on the message board for having a defeatist attitude. We disagree. He's just trying to point out the big odds facing an American trying to win. Hall's result in London in our mind is 100% proof that Burfoot is correct. Hall ran the greatest single marathon in history by an American-born athlete by clocking 2:06:17 and he finished 5th. Unbelievable. While the quote by Burfoot was criticized by some as being defeatist, thankfully, the quote also resulted in a fantastic thread being created on the message board that is full of thoughtful discourse instead of pointless name-calling or attacks by trolls. Our The thread is fantastic. The first two points feature a nice exchange between Burfoot and former 2:10 marathoner Bob Hodge. Hodge starts the thread by asking Burfoot if he's forgotten what it's like to be a top competitor. He says that when you are competitor you want to be standing on the start line and thinking "How are those guys going to beat me?" and have no negative thoughts in your mind. Burfoot's response is classic and 100% true. He writes that there "weren't any Kenyans or Ethiopians on the line at Boston '68. If there had been, I would have been in deep do-do ... He faces long odds in any world-class field." Totally spot on. Then in the 7th post, former sub-2:20 marathoner Joe McVeigh, who was the top American finisher in New York at least once in his career, comically in our minds comes up with the perfect amusing conclusion to the debate: "In almost any situation where there is more than a small number of possible outcomes -- a marathon, a horse race, NCAA basketball tournament, preseason "who wins the Super Bowl" picks -- if you have a choice between "one guy" and "the field", it's safer to bet "the field" no matter who the guy is. Speaking of the odds Hall faces, any fears that Boston was trying to intentionally water down the fields so we'd be almost assured of having an American winner seem to be dying down as the elite fields were announced last week. The race certainly won't be just a match race between 4-time champ Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot and Ryan Hall. 2008 Chicago winner and 59:03 half guy Evans Cheruiyot, who has never lost a marathon in his life, was added to the field as was Deriba Merga, the 4th placer from the Olympics. For Hall, it certainly won't be a 1 in 10 scenario like it is in London as Burfoot described, but more like 1 in 5 or maybe 1 in like 7 or 8 as Daniel Rono (seven top-three finishes in international marathons, including third in New York City last year; Robert Kiprono (debuted last year with a 2:07:21 course record in Frankfurt) and Gashaw Asfaw (4th Boston 2008, 7th Olympics) can't be discounted either. John Hancock Financial Announces Stout Boston Marathon Elite Fields A Look At Super-Rich Road Race #1
All of the prize money was paid out. The $$$ incentive to make sure people run fast certainly worked. On the men's side, 5 broke 60:00 with a 6th at 60:02. 10th place was 60:27. 11th and 12th ran 60:43 and 60:53, which got them zero money. Unbelievable. Compare that to the previous two years when only a total of 7 people had broken 60:00. The stipulation on minimum times for places 6 through 10 was really designed to boost the women's finishing times. Media chief Tim Hutchings was very blunt and to the point when he called Adere's course record of 70:58 to be "appalling slow." He also added, ""Yes, we all know that strength in depth in the women's distance running world is not as great as the men's, but that is no reason to ignore blatantly apathetic running." MEN - WOMEN - That's a great quote. Far too often, women are paid equal prize money to men in races when the results are nowhere near comparable. So what happened? The women's results clearly showed that the money incentive worked big time. Only one woman in race history had broken 71:00 before at the event and this year you had 13 women break 71:00. Hungary's Anikó Kálovics ran 70:59 - 1 second off the previous course record - to get 13th and zero money. 8 of the top 9 women set PBs in the process. One thing we should also point out is that 2nd-placer Wilson Kiprotich did become just the 5th human to break 59:00 as he clocked 58:59. His performance was largely forgotten thanks to Makau's win and Merga's bold early frontrunning. More: *Photos Of Race Via PhotoRun.net *Splits/Results For Top Competitors *IAAF Recap: Patrick Makau Gets 2nd Fastest Time Ever As Tune Sets National Record *AP Recap Of Race *MBoard: Patrick Makau And Deriba Merga Go Out Very Fast, Maybe Too Fast (13:40), Give World Record A Scare But Fade To 58:52 And 59:18 *Interesting/Detailed Explanation Of Prize Money *Women's Results *Race Preview Of "White Kenyan" Viktor Rothlin Rothlin: "At The Olympics in Beijing, I was the first white runner." Rothlin's race in R.A.K. was terrible as he went out slow and then DNFd. *RAK Marathon - No Senior Half Marathon Records, But Several Other Records Were Set *Interesting Write-Up Of RAK Race Super-Rich Road Race #2 May Have Been A Better Option In Nigeria, the race ended up being way longer than 21.1 km as the runners were re-routed mid-race. David Monti summed it up by saying: In the end, two world champions prevailed in Luke Kibet (2007 marathon world champ) in 67:49 and Lornah Kiplagat in 76:23. But you didn't have to run nearly as well to get a big payday. In the RAK race, Matthew Koech had to run within 1:02 of the race winner, who ran the 2nd best half in history, to get paid $5,000. In Nigeria, the 5th placer was 2:51 behind Kibet. On the women's side, 5th was 4:42 behind Kiplagat as compared to 56 seconds behind at the RAK Half.
WOMEN -
1. Lornah Kiplagat, NED 1:16:23 USD 50,000 2. Hilda Kibet, NED 1:19:27 25,000 3. Jane Wanjiku, KEN 1:20:06 15,000 4. Agnes Nyasiki, UGA 1:20:25 10,000 5. Irene Kipchumba, KEN 1.21.05 (USD 5000) MEN - Oh yeah, American Mary Akor, who was born in Nigeria and still has a
Nigerian passport, won a car for being the top Nigerian finisher. Nature Vs. Nurture We had it up there as a) he is a friend of ours and b) we knew he'd be running a mile that night after not having run since December 2007.
Then we got an interesting email from LetsRun.com daily visitor Nigel Brooks. Mr. Brooks, a 46-year-old English man who has been running since he was 12 and sports a very respectable 10k PB of 30:30, wrote us from Brazil, where works as an English teacher and consultant (oh yes, and nowadays he runs and races barefoot, but not, we understand, because of the crisis), wrote the following: DAN WILSON GOES SUB 5 ON HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY Do we agree? Looks like we don't have much of a choice, as you've laid out the facts for us. Talent and training are certainly what make champions. After Not Running For Over A Year, A Sub-4 Minute Miler Runs ...?????
In Stockholm in the middle of the week, Meseret Defar broke the women's 5k world record by running an insane 14:24.37. The old record belonged to Defar's rival, Tirunesh Dibaba, who got double gold in Beijing last year. News From Europe - UK Indoor Grand Prix In Birmingham *Combined Results *Results By Event With Splits Recommended Reads Sad News Olympic Gold Medal Winner In Hammer Throw Collapses & Dies at Practice at Age 26 Kamila Skolimowska had won gold at age 17. *She passed out in the weight room
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Runner's World &
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We were fascinated by what a former sub-4 minute miler could run in his first run (apparently he did run once in January) in 14 months. The ultimat
