He was behind the course record pace until mile 70, but decided to run faster to keep from getting cold, and put something close to 2 minutes per mile on course record pace from mile 70 to 90, so now he's way under course record pace. Only Kyle Skaggs has gone sub-24 (23:23), and Kilian is about to go sub-23. Dude is the best athlete in the mountains worldwide.
He sure is the best long mountain runner, but Skagg's record is quite soft and should go down. Have some perspective and realize that the depth of talented athletes that have attempted Hardrock is virtuall non-existent. Kilian has been the best to run the course and he will set the CR.
I was explaining it to my wife why ppl freak out about these things. I said, babe, it's like my course record in Seattle, a 2:21, sure the locals think it's legendary, but in reality not a single African or Olympic-level athlete has raced the course so it's not that impressive.
Same with Hardrock. Now that Kilian has run it, there is a baseline for performance.
100 miles in 24 hours is 14:24/mile. I know the course is hard, but that still seems like a brisk walking pace.
Over 33K feet of elevation gain (and descent), average elevation 11K feet, high point >14K feet,some portions of the trails on the sides of cliffs, some covered in scree, some run in the dark. Are the top long distance runners in the world competing? No. But that doesn't make breaking 24 hours a "brisk walk."
Extremely impressive performance, but it can't rightly be classified as a "running" event. More of a competitive hiking/climbing race, really. It's only because of the complete badassery of the terrain and sheer length that I don't view this with the same scorn as racewalking.
Pretty impressive. No, I'm not talking about Killian. The very first and second post denigrated a great performance. Don't know who the roi person is but I expected better from xenon.
xenonscream wrote:
100 miles in 24 hours is 14:24/mile. I know the course is hard, but that still seems like a brisk walking pace.
it IS a brisk walking pace. of course, one couldn't walk the course nearly that fast i'd assume, but i bet a talented walker could beat a lot of the runners. not a race walker mind you, those quacks are just plain off their rockers, but someone who knows how to walk really well.
walking mechanics are mastered by very few runners, which is a shame, as it's practically a slow-motion run and as such makes it much easier to focus on form.
look at what Kilian has done relative to Carpenter, that should give you all an idea how badass he is.
ultra runners are endorphin junkies taken to the extreme. i wish i was durable enough to be one of them!
a longtime poster here,,,, wrote:
Pretty impressive. No, I'm not talking about Killian. The very first and second post denigrated a great performance. Don't know who the roi person is but I expected better from xenon.
Fake xenon...
Killian wasn't drug tested, just saying.
"100 miles is a long way. I was tired the last 2 kilometers" - Kilian
That 22:41 was a badass performance. The guy that got second thought Kilian could've gone under 22 hours if he hadn't been screwing around and running so easily at the start. And yeah, to anyone who thought this is a "brisk walk", I realize you're joking, but come on. This course is ridiculous. Have you ever run at more than 4000 meters before? I have and it is absolutely nothing like running at sea level. Add to that just shy of 68000 feet of elevation change (well more than going from the lowest point on earth to the top of everest and back), and incredibly ridiculous terrain (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xhLyaf9EztU/TjqI7E7qBFI/AAAAAAAAApw/xd3_F7Xbjho/s320/2%2BImg_1179.jpg , for example), and you get an idea of how hard it is to maintain his 13:36 average pace (not counting the 56 minutes he spent sitting around in aid stations). Kilian is honestly one of the fittest athletes in the world at any sport. He has a VO2 max of 90+, is a world champion ski mountaineer (ie, uphill skier... think about how incredibly taxing that would be...), and is more comfortable in mountainous terrain than virtually anyone else out there. I just wish that the race directors would allow it to be more of a pure race by reserving slots for the fastest runners. If Anton had been let in, for example, he likely would've pushed Kilian to a faster time...
Rol wrote:
He sure is the best long mountain runner, but Skagg's record is quite soft and should go down. Have some perspective and realize that the depth of talented athletes that have attempted Hardrock is virtuall non-existent. Kilian has been the best to run the course and he will set the CR.
I was explaining it to my wife why ppl freak out about these things. I said, babe, it's like my course record in Seattle, a 2:21, sure the locals think it's legendary, but in reality not a single African or Olympic-level athlete has raced the course so it's not that impressive.
Same with Hardrock. Now that Kilian has run it, there is a baseline for performance.
I halfway agree with you. A lot of top ultra guys (Dakota Jones, Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer, and some of the best euro runners) have run Hardrock since Kyle did, but I think that there just isn't enough competition on a yearly basis for everyone to push each other to the limit. That said, I disagree that Skaggs' record was quite soft. Meltzer, for example, who excels most at really gnarly courses, couldn't even break 24:30 at his peak in 2009, a year when he was just shy of Geoff Roes' annihilation of the Wasatch record. I think Kilian's true ability is somewhere in the 21s, but aside from him, I'd think that only Anton would realistically be able to break 23:23.
I would say the same thing about Jim O'Briens' "legendary" Angeles Crest 100 CR … It gets WAY too much cred for being "legit". Seriously, there's far too little competitive data to determine if this CR is legit or not ( vs Western States or Leadville, who've have numerous top-level elites take a crack at (LT100) or lower (WS100) the CR.)….In the same vein, everyone thought the Ice Age 50 CR was legit, then Max King "embarasses it" and makes it look like a joke….I don't buy the argument of "just because this record has stood for xx amount of years, it MUST be good!" … That only becomes legitimized if elites of equal or greater supposed ability, along with equally talented depth fail to lower the established mark year after year. I would say, currently, Leadville has to have the stoutest CR because of how many top-level athletes have failed to come remotely close to Carpenter's CR. Although, you could argue very few have actually focused on LT100 like Matt did (Anton being the prime example of supreme focus, yet coming up short often).
the walking jedi wrote:
walking mechanics are mastered by very few runners, which is a shame, as it's practically a slow-motion run and as such makes it much easier to focus on form.
Racewalking mechanics don't work well on hills.
and the sad thing is, Anton would have to TRY to break 23:23 (hyper-focused, not wasting any time at aid-stations) …. it's like Kilian didn't even *try* and still destroyed it ("dicked around" for the first 60-70mi's, spent ~1hr cumulative time at aid-stations)…. When it comes to mountain 100's, Kilian is the man, everyone else is still in diapers. He knows it, we all know it. Kilian only loses in 100's if he beats himself ('10 WS100 - not carrying water on a 92 degree day … Yet still runs 16:04 for 3rd … If Anton tried to do that, he'd DNF or run 19-20hrs).
Check out his Summits of My Live movies. Search Google. The next Summits movies should be interesting because they'll have Denali, Aconcagua, and Everest.
xenonscream wrote:
100 miles in 24 hours is 14:24/mile. I know the course is hard, but that still seems like a brisk walking pace.
It's not brisk, more like a stroll.
Kilian may be the best but he really shouldn't be able to do this. This just makes the competition look bad.
He is constantly drug tested throughout the year as are all professional mountain runners.
truf b told wrote:
Killian wasn't drug tested, just saying.
Uli is that you?
Rol wrote:
He sure is the best long mountain runner, but Skagg's record is quite soft and should go down. Have some perspective and realize that the depth of talented athletes that have attempted Hardrock is virtuall non-existent. Kilian has been the best to run the course and he will set the CR.
I was explaining it to my wife why ppl freak out about these things. I said, babe, it's like my course record in Seattle, a 2:21, sure the locals think it's legendary, but in reality not a single African or Olympic-level athlete has raced the course so it's not that impressive.
Same with Hardrock. Now that Kilian has run it, there is a baseline for performance.
I ran the PikesPeak ascent a few years back when I was in 250 marathon shape. I also live and train above 6,500. At the top of Pikes, even as I was red-lining it and passing runners, I had mile splits above 17-18mins.