Kenenisa Bekele "dismayed" by Jos Hermens’ comments to LetsRun about him - vows to break world record

I'm curious what value Hermens adds that could not be found elsewhere. You would think for someone of KBs stature there would be many options for managers. Seems like showing such disrespect would be a foolish move, professionally.

well as a shady piece of work like hermens is, he prob has no prob talking sh*t to kb as kipchoge is his new cash cow.

he is prob hoping kb does drop him cause he is hard to make big money off of. if all he does is manage kipchoge he can prob market the f*ck out of him, you know pimp him out to the max. make a bunch of money and put him in promotional races, like in asia...oh wait already doing that.

if i was kb i would dump him too unless dude has lots of sauce dirt on him then well sh*t kb is screwed and has to play by hermens rules.

Thank you, LRC. I freaking LIVE for all things Bekele...and I don't think I'm the only one. Keep the updates coming!

I'd like to counter this with a theory I have:

I think people overestimate age based on looks. With respect to Kipchoge, he is Kenyan. What's a Kenyan dietary staple? Ugali. What is ugali? A carbohydrate-heavy food. The higher percentage of carbs in your diet, the more likely you are to have sugar in the blood. The more sugar in the blood, the more likely it is to glycate. The more glycation, the more likely it links proteins in the skin. The more glycated proteins in the skin, the more wrinkles. Insulin response is improved with exercise, but only to a point, and nobody beats time.

Couple with this the fact that all these guys have been running at a high level for many years. That's way more oxygen being burned than the average 30mpw hobby-jogger, or somebody whose sole exercise is walking. More oxygen being burned means a greater chance of free oxygen radicals floating around. The more free oxygen radicals, the more likely some of them are to be able to bond with water and form hydrogen peroxide. With increased levels of H2O2, the body will compensate, such as increasing production of anti-oxidizing enzymes like catalase...but only to a point. So where's it all to be dumped? I posit that the answer is the hair folicle, since it has been found recently that gray/white hair is from the folicle literally having the color bleached out of it with accumulated hydrogen peroxide. This may account for appearances of pre-mature aging in runners who have been training at a very high level for many years...such as Eliud, Kenenisa, and even Ritz these days.

Too make matters worse, there are actually very few foods that deliver vitamin E in appreciable amounts. Example: You'd need to eat about 1.5 pounds of spinach leaves to get the "recommended" daily dose of vitamin E necessary just to keep the "average" person's red blood cells from oxidizing while at rest. Sure, there are vitamins, supplements, and fortified foods. But how common are those in East Africa compared to America?

I bet that most East Africans are the age they say they are, but just lead a very different lifestyle from most Americans or other westerners.

trails for life wrote:

This may account for appearances of pre-mature aging in runners who have been training at a very high level for many years...such as Eliud, Kenenisa, and even Ritz these days.

Bekele looks perfectly fine for his age. Only Kipchoge looks old.

Although I generally agree, I think he could look better than he does...if we were to examine his diet and look for ways to improve it.

From the man himself: Expect Great Things™✔️

doot doot wrote:

From the man himself: Expect Great Things™✔️

Boom.

Both Jos and KB were diks, but both had some truthiness to what they said.

KB *did* at times sound quite prideful, defensive and downright irrelevant to the point of being silly:

"How can one question the professionalism of an athlete that has the second fastest marathon time ever and is still a world record holder in the 10k and 5k to this day?”"

First off the WR in 10k and 5k was set 8-10 years ago. Secondly his 2:03 was a year ago. So all this is irrelevant because Jos was talking Berlin prep, he did not say KB was unprofessional in the past.

Many runners set PBs in Berlin and ran well, including second placer Ethiopan Adola. Wake up KB, that should have been you at the end duking it out with Kipchoge!

Final conclusion:

- KB was not fully or appropriately trained

- KB wimped out because he realised he could not WR and likely not win

- KB was smart to save himself for another race

Ya, the world is not black and white. KB may still be the GOAT, but pride cometh before the fall and his DNFs are chipping away at this GOAT status.

his goat status is compared vs Geb who has 4 DNFs, that argument is worthless he's the goat no matter what compared to anyone current or past right now, itll be at least 10+ years till there is someone else we can call the goat

Im so tired of hearing from loudmouth Jos Hermens

Wouldn't it be kinda funny if kimetto's record doesn't get broken for 10 years or something?!

That would be a shocker. But I'm already very surprised it has lasted so long. Kenenisa and Kipchoge were supposed to break it two years ago at least.

Loud chewing people wrote:

Wouldn't it be kinda funny if kimetto's record doesn't get broken for 10 years or something?!

What's wrong with Kimetto anyway? He ran just under 212 last year and just under 206 the year before his WR. Is he done? He's around 33 now, so maybe just too old...like KB, ha ha.

"he year before his WR" should read "he year after his WR"

Dennis the menace wrote:

What's wrong with Kimetto anyway? He ran just under 212 last year and just under 206 the year before his WR. Is he done?

After his win he was included in IAAFs testing pool.

mako wrote:

trails for life wrote:

This may account for appearances of pre-mature aging in runners who have been training at a very high level for many years...such as Eliud, Kenenisa, and even Ritz these days.

Bekele looks perfectly fine for his age. Only Kipchoge looks old.

Being out in the sun a lot, wrinkles the skin.

Also, humans development fine tuned facial recognition in our formative years by looking at the faces that are around us. That means we are really good at recognizing subtle differences in faces of our own race (this has nothing to do with racism, its just a fact of how the brain works). So, if you grew up looking at white people, and looking at your own white face in the mirror, you probably are not a reliable judge of the age of African faces.

Can some African letsrunners please chime in on how old KB and EK look?

Just looked up “DANCAN”

Was able to put a face to the infamous COACH J.S. or Jan Stensson

I can die happy now

DasWetterStinkt wrote:

Who cares about age at this point? They'e the top marathon runners in the world; there are no age divisions anymore. Ryan Hall retired in his early 30s. Meb's still going in his 40s. I don't care if Kipchoge is 33 or 53 -- the point is, he's still the best. Yes, he'll get too old at some point, but that *point* is different for everyone (see: Hall and Meb)

This is correct. This guy has a 2:07 p r and ran 2:08 at age 43.

We're not talking about sprinting or playing running back. This is long distance running where especially in the Marathon you can compete at a high level for a long time!