2 athletes start 200m apart in the track; first one to catch the other wins. Who will be the best in the world?

Our high school track coach tried this once indoors in our large gym. An upperclassman was supposed to catch an underclassman starting in opposite corners. Most of the underclassmen were caught pretty quick. When it was my turn (underclassman) against an upperclassman 800m/Xcountry guy, I loafed through a couple of laps until the upperclassman had almost caught me, then took off like a bat out of hell. He never did catch me.

That would be my guess. You aren't catching him at anything under like 30k and I doubt the marathoners can run sub 58. I expect a super hard 10miles or so. And this would probably hold if you made it a 100m gap.

It probably comes down to what 10k guy is in the best shape....

Maybe in Africa up to 80 years ago.

No Europeans or American has ever chased down their prey without a horse and gun powder or arrows. ...Or currently a 230 lb fatty from a 4 wheeler with .300 mag

The only Americans slaying their prey is via the drive thru at Burger King sitting in a Ford Explorer

Fun!? I could foresee to stubborn distance runners absolutely grinding this out for awhile.

It would be fun, but if you have a 30+ second gap they'll just time trial it. If you have someone who runs 15:3x (5:00 pace) and someone running 16:0x (5:10 pace), the 5:00 pace guy can treat it like a fast tempo run.

How 'bout four runners on an outdoor track, 100m apart? Once you're passed, you step off. Continues until one of the last two passes the other.

Also FWIW I think a 5-10k guy would be the best choice for the OP's race, but maybe not for this race I've just proposed.0

Here’s a better format.

Teams of 5. 200m track would be ideal so 100m separation at the start. Each team would probably put rabbits of different distance specialities on the team to force the longest distance runner on the other team to go out too hard.

You or are out if someone from the other team catches you. End it after a set number of laps.

Could be an interesting spectator event.

Toss up btwn Ayana, Hassan, G. Dibaba, YY, Obiri, Gidey

Agree it’s an interesting though exercise, thought no one seems to have yet considered that there might be no runner who can beat *everyone* in the world.

The format imposes a partial order but not necessarily a total order, for example, Ingebrigsten beats Kipchoge but loses to Cheptegei but Kipchoge beats Cheptegei. And these outcomes could be very consistent (like say 8/10 times or more even if you don’t buy this particular triad’s example). The reason is that the distances involved in different pair-ups might be very different, so a total order may not exist.

Excellent thread topic.

I have read the various opinions, but what might matter most is HOW someone runs a particular distance, how much gap they can close, how they can recover from the effort and regroup, and how they can attack again.

Fascinating topic. Coming in, my guess for men would be maybe someone like El G, or a 10k’er who can surge repeatedly.

I agree with the poster who said it was all about matchups—eg Kipchoge, Bekele, Cheptegei

The transitive property does not hold so the general principle of ordering does not apply.

For example, a 1500/5k runner could catch a marathoner within the first 5k; that marathoner would be able to beat a 10k runner who eventually gets run down unable to build a 200m lead. But the 1500/5k runner can’t build a 200m lead on the 10k runner like he could the marathoner and gets run down.

Pretty sure the top 5k guys could catch him.

Its whomever the best pure time trial 10k guy is. Which is probably cheptegei if hes healthy and kiplimo otherwise. Cheptegei at 26:11 is probably a thing of the past, and kiplimo is better than 26:33, so lets say 26:20/57:30

someone who is truly committed to the marathon isnt going to be able to run 26:5low/58:15 to not get passed

people are also overlooking the fact that the 10k guy will become the chaser which gives extra advantage

Anyone shorter than 10k isnt even in the discussion.

On their best day, I believe this is between kiplimo or kipruto with kiplimo as betting favorite. I don't believe in any man being 30 seconds faster than them at any distance preceding half marathon. Then it is a question of which of those two outlasts each other past that.

Who is the more likely marathoner out of them?

At what point does Cheptegei pass Kiplimo? I don't believe this is correct. Would need to be a little over 30 seconds faster over 10000 to catch him there. After that, Kiplimo is taking over with that ridiculous 15k-half marathon strength.

Nah, I thought about it and decided Kiplimo would beat everyone in the world. He beat Jakob in a 3k and holds the WR in the half marathon, along with holding a 26:33 10k PB with really impressive splits. Heck, he split 26:37 in his half marathon WR. His 5k/10k PBs are too strong for Jakob/Cheptegei to catch up to him, and he has the wheels to catch Kipchoge within the first 13 miles.

Galen Rupp FTW

I completely agree. I think some people are over complicating this with “depends on the matchup” talk. Obviously it depends on the matchup, but more often than not it’s going to go to a guy with great 5k-30k range. Occasionally a top marathoner may be the best in the world, but Kipchoge is probably too specialized to run within ~33 seconds of Kiplimo at somewhere between 10-25 K. If Kiplimo runs 65s (27:05/57:09 pace) for as long as possible he puts himself in position to catch Kipchoge and likely beat anyone in the world.

To the poster saying “Cheptegei could beat Kipchoge, but not Bekele. Bekele could beat Cheptegei but not Kipchoge,” get real, this isn’t 2008. (In 2008, the argument would be Bekele vs. Tadese vs. Wanjiru). Bekele is 40 years old and could not break 27 for 10k (and IMO would decidedly lose to Kipchoge at 5k and 10k), and if he managed to go past 10k before Cheptegei or Kiplimo overtook him, they would still catch him before 20k.

To the poster who said “Ingebrigtsen beats Kipchoge but loses to Cheptegei but Kipchoge beats Cheptegei”—no. Cheptegei beats them both somewhere between 10 & 20k, and Ingebrigtsen might not beat Kipchoge. Ingebrigtsen vs. Kipchoge would be an interesting matchup and the results may vary, but it essentially comes down to whether Ingebrigtsen could put ~33 seconds on Kipchoge over ~6-12k. Regardless, they’re also-rans in this contest vs. the guys with world-beating range from 5k-25k.

Of course there would be a best in the world, and it would usually be a guy with 5k-30k range, and at this time that looks like Jacob Kiplimo.