What is Bekele's Excuse This Time?

Does KB get the same appearance fees whether he finishes or not? Or is there qualifications like: "must get to at least half way" etc.

What is the difference in pay if there are qualifications?

i have a feeling he's wealthy enough not to really care, but who knows what grand plans he has for money.

right here b*tch

weather sucked, weather or not KB is injured or was is speculation. i think he says he is 80-90% all the time so he has an excuse when he drops out.

like i posted in on another message...the pace was right on but the rain was requiring them to push so much harder to try and stay on pace. when KB knew it wasnt going to happen to saved his legs, got paid and bailed.

kipsang tried to maintain the pace and it killed him, and my guess is it did him in bad, prob wont see a good marathon from him 1-2 years. kipchoge had to go to the well super hard and admitted it, he will need a year to recoup.

was KB slightly cowardice for dropping it? yes

was he slightly smart to save himself and go for the glory in his mind the WR? yes

KB did a great "training" run, as Retardo would love, WR-to 2:02:59 pace for 30k...

so instead of dying to a 2:06 and being shot for a year or more he did the smart thing. i will tell you this i think kipsang is done for a long time after his effort, and kipchoge will either get injured or be at 2:05s now, he went to the well way too much, i think its the most impressive marathon time he has run, his 2:03:30 was worth 2:02:20s...or faster its hard to say how much the weather took out of these guys, but to see kipsang drop out instantly and kipchoge say it was his hardest marathon ever should tell you something.

smart move on kb, but for the LRs on here it wasnt honorable

mindweak wrote:

smart move on kb, but for the LRs on here it wasnt honorable

Super smart.. getting crushed and dropping out of another marathon... super smart!!!!

Why win when you can drop out and save yourself?!

Why be competitive when you can drop out and save yourself?!

Why ever finish a marathon?

El Keniano wrote:

We're petulant for asking questions now?

For asking questions, of course not. For being boorish and hateful, yes.

His form is off. Not symmetrical. He looks injured/old.

Coached Fitness Blogger wrote:

Sledge_hammer wrote:

i actually think Kipchoge ruined the race. He had the pacers go for a suicidal pace in the first 5k which in turn messed up the pacing of both Kipsang and Bekele. Had the pacers followed Kipsang's advice to go just a bit faster in the first half, we might have seen the WR already.

So, the reason KIpchoge won is because the pacers went out way too fast. CHECK! If they hadn't done that, the first half marathon would have been even faster, in turn setting the stage for a WR. DOUBLE CHECK!

How many people on this board post from some kind of group home?

This is a rather meh comment, but It sort of brings up another point. After watching the marathon all these years, I think Negative splits are the way to go to run a fast time. Tergat ran his record with a Negative Split, as did Geb, Kimetto, and Radcliffe in her crazy 2:15. Now lets look at the 4 attempts that at getting the record the got close since Kimetto set the record:

Kipchoge 2016 London 2:03:05 1:01:24 1:01:41

Bekele 2016 Berlin 2:03:03 1:01:11 1:01:52

Kipsang 2017 Tokyo 2:03:58 1:01:21 1:02:37

Kipchoge 2017 Berlin 2:03:32 1:01:28 1:02:04

Dennis Kimetto went 2:02:57 1:01:45 1:01:12

What made Kimetto's run a world record wasn't a crazy early pace, it was a 14:09 5k from 30k to 35k. This is what broke the other runners and set up his moment of glory. Interestingly enough, all of these other runs fell apart after 30k.

Kipchoge 2016 London 30k split: 1:27:13 Final 12.195 kilometers: 35:52

Bekele 2016 Berlin 30k split: 1:27:30 Final 12.195 kilometers: 35:33

Kipsang 2017 Tokyo 30k split: 1:27:27 Final 12.195 kilometers: 36:31

Kipchoge 2017 Berlin 30k split: 1:27:24 Final 12.195 kilometers: 36:08

Kimetto 2014 Berlin 30k split: 1:27:38 Final 12.195 kilometers: 35:19

As the Dubai marathon seems to prove every year, Suicidal early paces don't work for getting WRs. What makes the biggest difference is those final 10-15k, not the first 25k.

I would say that Dubai's approach is basically an odds play. They bring in a lot of talented guys willing to go for broke. Odds are that someone has a great day and hangs on for a 2:04 on a super flat course. Sometimes it's a few guys. But lots of those who posted fast times have had trouble competing in the WMMs and Olympics.

stink train wrote:

what would be the physical benefit of grinding out a marathon in 2:12 when you can save your legs and resume training? or even 2:05 or 2:06?!

Grinding out a marathon is SO hard on your body. it takes a long time to truly recover from and he knows he doesn't have many chances left. it's really hard to line it up on the day of the race.

When I was a kid I dropped out a race because I never lost and someone else was giving me a hiding for a change.

I got the biggest scolding ever and never dropped out again. What was worse is that I was so disappointed in myself for even contemplating dropping out.

That's driven me to beat people now when I probably shouldn't have.

That's the kind of spirit / desire that Bekele should show.

He's likely going to take 2 weeks off after Berlin anyway so he might as well have pushed to the end and rolled in a 2:05 / 2:06 (which I believe he was on pace for).

He's now got a habit for dropping out and habits are hard to break.

I don't fault Bekele as much as I fault the Letsrunners who still expect him to do something earth-shattering at this late date.

El Keniano wrote:

We're petulant for asking questions now?

What do you think of Desisa? Is he finished too? It just seems odd he is running so poorly now, he's only 27. I think his motivation is gone. Same as Bekele. Bekele has nothing else to prove.

Rapo wrote:

sdasdas wrote:

It's very evident from watching London Marathon and now Berlin, that it is the new Nike shoes that are messing with his gait. In London he had blisters but looked awkward running in those shoes. Same thing with Berlin. His usual beautiful form was off. I'm suspecting the shoes.

Why are the elites getting fooled into wearing these shoes that are based on pseudoscience. Bekele should know better, he has developed a natural gait that has seem him run crazy WR's at 5 and 10km and now wants to mess with that by using these gimmick ridden shoes.

He deserves the DNF's if he can't think with a bit of intelligence and independence.

Another example of him not thinking too smart is he cut a hole in the back of his training shoes on his right foot I assume to cure Achilles injury but didn't think to cut a hole in the other shoe to prevent it!

Also don't blame him for dropping out, if I'm going for a time trial record I don't do it if it's too windy it's just a waste of effort.

It was because he wasn’t wearing rain shoes. Yep.

https://m.soundcloud.com/runblogrun/kenenisa-bekele-post-berlin-marathon-2017?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_content=https%3A//soundcloud.com/runblogrun/kenenisa-bekele-post-berlin-marathon-2017

yyy wrote:

The conditions were not terrible. In contrast to other years, no sun exposure.

A huge plus. Of course pool and wet asphalt is not ideal.

97% humidity.

Horrific.

asdfadf wrote:

His form is off. Not symmetrical.

If you wrote this before the article came out, congratulations.

Uncle Beemer wrote:

97% humidity.

Horrific.

No. It was not hot. The humidity was no problem. The wet road, the rain and the wind were problematic.

Sonora wrote:

Kipchoge is the GOAT of the Marathon.

You can't be the GOAT if you are #3 on the form list, especially if the two above you are contemporaries. He's arguably not even the GORN.

Point at his consistency all you want, but you throw away "undisputed" by introducing special criteria.