Can we all agree that Mo Farah is primarily a mid distance runner?

Yeah, the hater who thinks 26:40 is speculation clearly is not familiar with Mo Farah's racing results of longtime. The 2011 Prefontaine Classic 10,000 meters was awesome--I watched the whole thing streaming and it was a thing of beauty seeing him and his fantastic form at the final stretch of the race.

At his track distance peak--whenever that was--in a properly time-trialed race, it would be hard to doubt Mo Farah could go much faster.

Plus, as someone said, he just placed 2nd to Geoffrey Mutai, after falling down hard! I had the impression from the Letsrun coverage, that the fast times were not the ceiling of potential, given a better course (Mutai clicking off metronomically, etc.).

The people who keep saying that the 5k or 10k competition is weak are ridiculous. The most you could say was that the 10k competitors haven't always shown up at their best (injuries, flopping, etc.), but I think the 2012 Olympic final 5k was stronger than the field Bekele beat in 2008. People drop names like Eluid Kipchoge and Moses Kipsiro--those two guys at their best were very excellent and had shining moments, but certainly they didn't always show up to top threatening form at championships.

I would not just say wait for April and London, but maybe a 2nd marathon after that.

Enough with this business about track distance being weak cause everyone moved up to the marathon. If there was so much more money in track distance, it wouldn't just be a cosmetic change, it would be pretty profound, and maybe the existing track athletes would be doing things differently, too.

It's already been said but 10K is not middle distance.

agip wrote:

I would say that any guy who can run 3:28 is never going to be a candidate for best marathoner in the world. 2:05 maybe, on a good day, but the very thing that lets him run 3:28 will prevent him from being an absolute top end marathoner.

Maybe Mo could be a truly great marathoner if he did marathon training for 5+ years...at which point he would certainly not be a 3:28 guy any more.

Shear speculation! You can say it all you want. There are variables that you can not always account for. There is no way you can say (validly) that Farah can not be a truly great marathoner.

Really looks like he is drama queen. Looks pretty scared and pretty real to me! These boards are unbelievable Mo wins races and he is on drugs or is gutless and can only win in sit and kick races. He loses to one of the best marathoners in history after taking a heavy fall and it is proof he will never run a good marathon. Maybe he won't run a great marathon but at least he has the guts to try and compete. We will see come London what he has got.

It is a joke to think the best marathoners would just step down and easily win 10k races at worlds or Olympics. Geb was running world records at the marathon and tried to return to the track and was well beaten and this is a guy with more track experience that any of the current top marathon boys.

The claim that Mo and Rupp had no endurance the last two years is another joke. Do you seriously think they both were in worse shape in 2012 and 2013 that they were in 2011 when Rupp struggled in the 10k at worlds but ran 26 48 a couple of weeks later.

10k aint mid distance

RRRR wrote:

Just keep telling yourself that he is a mid-D runner, we'll be sure to pull this thread up again when you are proved painfully wrong.

You mean like when he ran a 3:28 but Bekele dusted him in a 60:10 race right around Farah's peak championship form? Sure Farah was capable of running 26:40 the year he ran 26:46, but last year he wasn't. That's obvious to anyone who knows what they are talking about. He hasn't demonstrated anything suggesting otherwise since.

iak wrote:

RRRR wrote:

Just keep telling yourself that he is a mid-D runner, we'll be sure to pull this thread up again when you are proved painfully wrong.

You mean like when he ran a 3:28 but Bekele dusted him in a 60:10 race right around Farah's peak championship form? Sure Farah was capable of running 26:40 the year he ran 26:46, but last year he wasn't. That's obvious to anyone who knows what they are talking about. He hasn't demonstrated anything suggesting otherwise since.

moron

we've been thru this already

no

get that thru your pea brain

Somlier wrote:

If more of the marathon guys had stayed focused on the track he wouldn't have won any distance medals at world level.

This type of post happens when monkeys sit down at keyboards.

Subfive wrote:

Shear speculation!

Is this speculation without its wool?

The opening statement is a TROLL premise.

iak wrote:

RRRR wrote:

Just keep telling yourself that he is a mid-D runner, we'll be sure to pull this thread up again when you are proved painfully wrong.

You mean like when he ran a 3:28 but Bekele dusted him in a 60:10 race right around Farah's peak championship form? Sure Farah was capable of running 26:40 the year he ran 26:46, but last year he wasn't. That's obvious to anyone who knows what they are talking about. He hasn't demonstrated anything suggesting otherwise since.

Sorry iak, but just want to clarify...by "dusted", do you mean beaten by 1 second in one of the greatest half-marathon races of all time? Yeah...total failure on Farah's part:

Also, are you suggesting that running a 3:28 1500m 2 months prior in 2013, automatically translates to a 26:40, sub 60 min half, or victory over someone like K. Bekele in September?

I'm by no means a Farah fanboy, but if that's your argument for his inability to be as successful at longer distances as he has been at middle distances, it's a pretty poor one.

RRRR wrote:

Sorry iak, but just want to clarify...by "dusted", do you mean beaten by 1 second in one of the greatest half-marathon races of all time? Yeah...total failure on Farah's part:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/09/kenenisa-bekele-holds-off-mo-farah-in-one-of-the-most-thrilling-road-races-in-history-2013-bupa-great-north-run/

Also, are you suggesting that running a 3:28 1500m 2 months prior in 2013, automatically translates to a 26:40, sub 60 min half, or victory over someone like K. Bekele in September?

I'm by no means a Farah fanboy, but if that's your argument for his inability to be as successful at longer distances as he has been at middle distances, it's a pretty poor one.

How are you guys such poor readers? I clearly said what I meant.

I said that running 3:28 and losing that half the way he did shows that he has less endurance than he had when he ran 26:46. In other words, he was in speed shape not endurance shape in 2013. And he hasn't demonstrated a shift back to endurance shape since then. So at the moment we should all certainly agree that he is a mid distance runner who competes in the 5k and 10k. Until he shows otherwise.

Nowhere did I say that he would have an inability to be successful at longer distances, but at the moment he has not shown that he is in endurance shape again yet.

iak wrote:

RRRR wrote:

Just keep telling yourself that he is a mid-D runner, we'll be sure to pull this thread up again when you are proved painfully wrong.

You mean like when he ran a 3:28 but Bekele dusted him in a 60:10 race right around Farah's peak championship form? Sure Farah was capable of running 26:40 the year he ran 26:46, but last year he wasn't. That's obvious to anyone who knows what they are talking about. He hasn't demonstrated anything suggesting otherwise since.

How does losing a 60:10 half-marathon suggest he wasn't capable of 26:40 10k?

Can someone please post the names of the ETH and KEN marathoners who would have won the medals in the last three world 10000s and 5000s?

Then just let us know which marathoners would win the 5000 in '15 and '16. We can just send them the medals and forego the races.

I mean Kipchoge ran some of the best marathons last year but could not make the Kenyan Olympic 10000 team but by all means lets just give him the medal for a 10000 in 2015.

Okay, idiot, are you aware he only ran 60:3x before he ran 26:46? No? Didn't think so. So no there is not proof his endurance decreased from 2011 to 2013.

HardLoper wrote:If ventolin is accurate Mo's 800 ability is only ~1:46 (and this was the same fit in which he predicted 3:28). So no I would say he was a great 5k runner who can range down to 1500 or up to 10,000 given the right opportunity.

the calculator said ~ 1'45-high in his 3'28 shape

3k woud be his best event & 1500/5k ~ = strong

( mathematically, the exact equivalents of his 3'28.81 are

3'28.81 = 1'42.30 = 7'23.23 = 12'43.62 = 26'23.81 )

he woud demolish that 3k in his 3'28 shape, be good for a few secs off that 5k but maybe 1/2 dozen shy of that 10k ( but you never know, his 10k maya been better than expected ~ 26'30/26'35 of last 3y )

however, i do have to commend him - his likely actual 1500 - 10k are from mathematical point of view all pretty strong

to me, i think he has the likely best, consistent range of any guy, ever, from 1500 - 10k, with all distances pretty close in potential

it's just a pity he hasn't really chased anything 3k - 10k...

That's what I figured... definitely way better at 3k/5k/10k than 800, therefore not "mid-distance." Similar to Daniel Komen, without the desire and/or ability to run fast, even splits by himself.

As probably the second-biggest user of that calculator on this forum, I have always thought the 10k predictions seemed too high. Being in WR 10,000 shape is a definite possibility for him.

HardLoper wrote:I have always thought the 10k predictions seemed too high. Being in WR 10,000 shape is a definite possibility for him.

i do find that a bit of a stretch

but you never know, like when paula moved to M, her 10k got down to 30-flat & probably more like 29'40/29'45 in her 2"15 shape, mo might set some huge 10k pbs if he ever comes back to it

moe got beat by bekele sure. moe was on the downside of his season while bekele was on his upside.

but true moe has yet to show he's capable of sub 59 in the half. but he surely can go 59. and so far there is some evidence that long distance is a challenge for him. but his three half marathons were not peak and infact they are preparation events.

you got to give moe credit for getting out there and competing.

i've said before that no one has ever run 3.28 and run a superb marathon or even half marathon ever. so there is something very weird going on if moe pulls off this feat.

it may well be that moe was (and is) a middle distance guy all along and wasn't training right until a year or so before he met alsal.

going with the data at hand, in the marathon moe will probably die a hard death and hit the wall and gladly go back to track.