9.77 Kenyan sprinter Ferdinand Omurwa runs 5k - guess his time

rojo wrote:

Kvothe wrote:

18 minutes seems crazy to you? There are high school freshmen who run faster. You know sprinters do occasional distance runs of a few miles as part of their training - thats all it takes to run 18

You and many people on this site don't realize that almost everyone who runs or comes to letsrun is in the top 10% talent pool for distance running.

I think a majority of the world's population would have a hard time breaking 19 even if they trained for it.

For comparisons sake, the winning average time for the girls xc winning team in Maryland this year was 20:36 and the couse is listed as 3 miles.

As a person who lives in MD, you should know about Hereford. Probably the toughest course most HSer will ever run. People run slower for 3 miles at Hereford than they do for 5k at VCP. And VCP isn’t flat.

Hereford course wrote:

rojo wrote:

You and many people on this site don't realize that almost everyone who runs or comes to letsrun is in the top 10% talent pool for distance running.

I think a majority of the world's population would have a hard time breaking 19 even if they trained for it.

For comparisons sake, the winning average time for the girls xc winning team in Maryland this year was 20:36 and the couse is listed as 3 miles.

As a person who lives in MD, you should know about Hereford. Probably the toughest course most HSer will ever run. People run slower for 3 miles at Hereford than they do for 5k at VCP. And VCP isn’t flat.

Apologies. Thought you were talking about a state meet team.

habs wrote:

18 minutes, even if 18:59 is really impressive. Remember Bolt could only run around a 2:07 800 (598 iaaf points) at his peak, make a trend line with his 9.58 (1355 pts) and 45.28 400 (1160 pts) and you get well under 0 points, or 23 minutes ++ for 5K.

according to wiki, Omanyala is part of the Luhya tribe, not Kalenjin like most of the distance runners. There's a result for him here at the Expo 2020 run (held recently on 11/19/21) where he ran 23:39, 190th place:

https://results.sporthive.com/events/6867167413881296640/races/480404/bib/5180

Ezekiel Kemboi sighting in the race photos

rojo wrote:

Kvothe wrote:

18 minutes seems crazy to you? There are high school freshmen who run faster. You know sprinters do occasional distance runs of a few miles as part of their training - thats all it takes to run 18

You and many people on this site don't realize that almost everyone who runs or comes to letsrun is in the top 10% talent pool for distance running.

I think a majority of the world's population would have a hard time breaking 19 even if they trained for it.

For comparisons sake, the winning average time for the girls xc winning team in Maryland this year was 20:36 and the couse is listed as 3 miles.

Everyone is right and you are wrong. There's nothing notable about this. When I saw the thread title I thought he might have run in the low 14s.

when i was young i trained for a while with some good sprinters to work on my speed and for fun (i was tired of long distance training). during the build up-phase in the winter we did on most days of the week a 3.5-4 mile progression run as warm up routine. some ran the last 3 km in low 11, sometimes in sub 11. during the build up some sprinter guys, not all of them, are quite good at short distance runs.

malmo wrote:

rojo wrote:

You and many people on this site don't realize that almost everyone who runs or comes to letsrun is in the top 10% talent pool for distance running.

I think a majority of the world's population would have a hard time breaking 19 even if they trained for it.

For comparisons sake, the winning average time for the girls xc winning team in Maryland this year was 20:36 and the couse is listed as 3 miles.

Everyone is right and you are wrong. There's nothing notable about this. When I saw the thread title I thought he might have run in the low 14s.

But of course if he could run low 14 for 5000m and under 10 seconds for 100m then he would likely be a challenger for best 800m runner in the world. 18 minutes, not so much.

World class Decathletes run 4:15-30 1500m in very tired condition after two days of competition. Most would not like it but I think many of the leaner ones would run 18 min. 5k or faster, if they were forced to run it fresh without preceding 9/10 events. And most of them would be 10.4-11.0 100m runners.

kartelite wrote:

carmine9 wrote:

A world class 100m sprinter running an 18 minute 5k seems unlikely.

With the kind of sprint speed he has, it seems impossible he would have that kind of endurance

An 18 minute 5k is about the same IAAF points as a 27.0 200m or 13.2 100m.

I’m pretty sure almost any top male distance runner could hit those 100m or 200m times, so why shouldn’t a top sprinter be able to hit an equivalent distance time?

Two different animals.

World class middle and long distance runner can have excellent, but not world class speed. You don't need examples of this...milers up to 10k guys who can blast a 200m in 22 seconds or even faster.

The genes you need to be a world class sprinter preclude being able to run even a solid 5k, It's even unusual to see a world class 100m/200m guy be able to run a decent 800m.

Has something to do with this fast twitch slow twitch thing. Maybe someone here knows.

All I know is that in my many years of following running, I have seen many world class middle and long distance runners with excellent speed (but not world class) but have never seen a world class short sprinter ever run a solid race above 600m. There have been a handful of 400m runners with world class times that could also run tip notch 800m -- even those are few and far between

malmo wrote:

rojo wrote:

You and many people on this site don't realize that almost everyone who runs or comes to letsrun is in the top 10% talent pool for distance running.

I think a majority of the world's population would have a hard time breaking 19 even if they trained for it.

For comparisons sake, the winning average time for the girls xc winning team in Maryland this year was 20:36 and the couse is listed as 3 miles.

Everyone is right and you are wrong. There's nothing notable about this. When I saw the thread title I thought he might have run in the low 14s.

He's a 9.77 sprinter. I agree with rojo.

Imo 18 at 5k is impressive for someone like him.

Run6556 wrote:

Imo 18 at 5k is impressive for someone like him.

i agree. based on the paltry 800 times from guys like bolt and carl lewis, they would not be near something like 18:00.

the time is not earth shattering or impossible, but it is surprising. I was expecting 21 range.

My thinking is they had different waves of starts and he saw a time for a different wave or the course was short or he inadvertently cut the course.

He probably runs 30-50km per week just with warmup/cooldowns/intervals. Plus you know he's doing some general conditioning alongside that, and he's been doing this for 10 years.

I see nothing surprising here and have no idea why we're comparing him to an average human.

If FloJo could run a 5k in 20:30 I wouldn't be shocked if a male 100 m runner could run 1 under 19 minutes in his gen prep phase.

landon gallon wrote:

He probably runs 30-50km per week just with warmup/cooldowns/intervals. Plus you know he's doing some general conditioning alongside that, and he's been doing this for 10 years.

I see nothing surprising here and have no idea why we're comparing him to an average human.

he also may have grown up in the stereotypical kenyan tradition of 4 miles to school and 4 miles back home

Hardloper wrote:

Ezekiel Kemboi sighting in the race photos

Nice catch:

Please correct the misspelling in the title. It’s your site and your own thread.