Avocado's Number wrote:
I just watched the videotape of the portion of the race during which de Lima was attacked. Baldini (with Tergat and Meb in tow) was only 28 seconds (not 38 seconds as reported elsewhere) behind de Lima at the 35k mark (de Lima in 1:50:08, Baldini and Tergat in 1:50:36, Meb in 1:50:37). De Lima's lead was shrinking dramatically. De Lima was attacked shortly before the 36k mark. Baldini covered the last 7.2k in 20:19, which is absurdly fast, although there was a net elevation loss of about 450 feet over the last 10k.
you are right. Baldini was clearly superior, but I'm not sure about Meb. A quote by Baldini's coach lucio Gigliotti from here
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1114589#ixzz3AGfWypYd:
"For example, for marathon runners we use always the same test, objective lactate test, same speed in every type of season and every year. We do 6 x 2,000 with Baldini, and we do 6:20, 6:15, 6:10, 6:05, 6:00, 5:55. Throughout the year, you can reduce your level of lactate. That means that, for the same speed, you use less glycogen, so you are able to last more, or you are able to finish very fast if you have more glycogen in your tank. This year, the last test of Stefano, at 5:54 he had 1.8 mmol. We — me and Baldini's coach, Luciano Gigliotti, that was the same coach of Gelindo Bordin winning Olympics in 1988 — were that in condition like Berlin that [Paul] Tergat had, he could run very, very easy one minute faster than Tergat, 2:04. We knew Athens very well because we won World Cup in Athens in '95; the course is always the same. We know what we need in this case. Okay, the final is a little bit going down, but still, he ran 5:30 the last 2,000."