Zach Bitter runs new American 100 mile & World 12 hour record

Breaking a Kouros record is a big deal

Let's be honest... If I'm not mistaken, Kouros 12 hour record was set at the halfway point of his 24 hour record. Also..How much money did Bitter win for his efforts? When ultras start offering decent prize purses for these events the bar will rise.

Zach pimping himself again?

Still an insane run, even if Yiannis did slightly less, and then ran another 87 miles afterwards. Molly Huddle's 12k world best got plenty of coverage, even though Mary Keitany's 12k split in her half marathon world record would've been better. By the way, Yiannis's 100 mile PR is only a minute faster than Zach's now.

johnson 5 wrote:

Zach pimping himself again?

Actually, I started the first thread about this performance shortly after the race started. Zach's performance speaks for itself. Maybe if people don't trash talk him, he'll join the discussion on here.

Yiannis 100 mile PR was on the road, not on a track. Big difference!

When the world record for 26.2 miles is 4:42/mile . It is not even in the same stratosphere to have a pace of 7:04/mile for 100 miles.

Wilson Kipsang could easily run 6/mile (if not faster) for 100 miles.

That would be about 10 hours or 1 hr 45 mins under the record.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Jon Olsen's marathon PR is 2:33... Zach Bitter's marathon PR is 2:31... Kouros' marathon PR is 2:25. If 2:15 - 2:20 marathoners had the ambition to alter their training a bit and run 100 mile races, we'd see sub 11:30's. What's the point? Elites view running as a sport, and not simply a recreational activity.

Elkhorn wrote:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Jon Olsen's marathon PR is 2:33... Zach Bitter's marathon PR is 2:31... Kouros' marathon PR is 2:25. If 2:15 - 2:20 marathoners had the ambition to alter their training a bit and run 100 mile races, we'd see sub 11:30's. What's the point? Elites view running as a sport, and not simply a recreational activity.

Yep, 100 miles at 7 min pace is recreational. Of course. Just like most of the folks running 14:30 5km on here are worthless ambassadors of our sport because they are recreational compared to the 12:50 guys. Nice logic.

Elites? You actually mean egotistical quasi-elite runners? Most elites know their limitations and do not claim they could simply move up, or down, in distance an be an elite at a distance other than their specialty.

Elites? You actually mean egotistical quasi-elite runners? Most elites know their limitations and do not claim they could simply move up, or down, in distance and be an elite at a distance other than their specialty.

Keeping it real.. wrote:

Yiannis 100 mile PR was on the road, not on a track. Big difference!

Yiannis also ran numerous track races and never broke 11:46.

Wilson Kipsang would not run sub-10 hours for 100 miles. Some Kenyans might run around 11 flat with proper training, but sub-6 pace for 100 miles is absurd. Keep in mind that the Japanese have been the best at 50 mile+ road races, historically, due to their immensely high mileage training. The world record for 100km is held by Takahiro Sunada, who ran 61:23 for 13.1 and 2:10:07 for 26.2. Even with his absolutely monstrous high mileage training specifically targeted at 100 km races, his 100km world record is over 6:00/mile pace.

Kenyans could drop the 100 mile record; I am not disputing that. They could not, however, drop it to anywhere near 10:00. If Kipsang, the Mutais, Kebede, and a few other top guys all raced 100 miles with ample time to feel comfortable racing the distance, a big cash prize to the winner, and large time bonuses, I'd put the over/under at 11:00, and I'd pick Kebede as the winner.

Wasn't Ryan Hall talking about attacking the Rim to Rim to Rim record a couple years back? I'd be really interested to see what he could do in 50/100 mile races once he gets sick of marathons. If he doesn't make it to the starting line healthy in the spring, I wouldn't be surprised if he just decided to take up longer races.

think again wrote:

Elkhorn wrote:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Jon Olsen's marathon PR is 2:33... Zach Bitter's marathon PR is 2:31... Kouros' marathon PR is 2:25. If 2:15 - 2:20 marathoners had the ambition to alter their training a bit and run 100 mile races, we'd see sub 11:30's. What's the point? Elites view running as a sport, and not simply a recreational activity.

Yep, 100 miles at 7 min pace is recreational. Of course. Just like most of the folks running 14:30 5km on here are worthless ambassadors of our sport because they are recreational compared to the 12:50 guys. Nice logic.

Exactly, 14:30 5ks by men are not worth mentioning on here. Neither are 11:45 100 mile runs. C'mon, bittner can't even break 2:30 for a marathon - Priscah Jeptoo would kick his a** in a race of any distance.

What I meant is most elites obviously consider running as a sport, and don't train or complete simply for recreation and/or a warm fuzzy feeling inside. How do you explain running 100 miles on track for little or no prize money and no competition? In my humble opinion, that is more of a recreational activity than a sport.

6 min/mile is awfully easy for a guy that can run 26.2 miles at 4:43 pace.

KjKranz wrote:

Last night a runner even relatively unknown to ultra marathoners, ]

Have to disagree with that.

The race director Nick Coury wrote an article on Irunfar specifically naming Bitter as a chance to break the record.

Congrats to him!!

Interesting, but Sunada has run just over 6min/mile pace for 62 miles, it is plausible that Kipsang could run maybe 6:10 - 6:20/mile for 100

Sunada was a pretty good marathoner 2:10:07 in Berlin. But he was still 6 mins 40 seconds or 5.5% slower than Kipsang.

If Kipsang was 5.5% faster than Sunada at 100 km, that would be about 5:50/mile pace for 62% of the distance of 100 miles. If you extrapolate, 6:10 - 6:20 would not be impossible.

Elkhorn wrote:

What I meant is most elites obviously consider running as a sport, and don't train or complete simply for recreation and/or a warm fuzzy feeling inside. How do you explain running 100 miles on track for little or no prize money and no competition? In my humble opinion, that is more of a recreational activity than a sport.

Yiannis may have only run 2:25, but he split within a couple minutes of that in a 100km race. Odds are good that he was capable of a lot faster than 2:25. I'd guess he could've run in the 2:15 range. Zach hasn't run faster than 2:31, yes, but he also hasn't run a marathon in almost 3 years, and his 50 mile times have come down ~20 minutes since running 2:31, so I'd guess with a season of specific training, he'd be ~2:20 at this point.

Other sub-12 100 guys have been in the 2:teens. Just because these guys aren't doing sub-2:10 doesn't mean that they are training for recreation.