Max King Wins Warrior Dash championships

Sort of this. The hills were ridiculous, however the obstacles were jokingly easy. Unless you have no semblance of strength they aren't hard.

That being said I got absolutely destroyed by the hills and finished around 40th place. My current 5K PR is around 18:30.

Congrats to Max!

Remind me, what college did he attend?

Realest wrote:

This course was no joke, and there's no way in hell any Kenyan runner was getting top 5 in my opinion.

Come on buddy

I wouldn't day he is King of trails or mountains either lately. Pat Smythe and Joe Gray have pounded him the last year's and all of a sudden Max switches to OCR. Would love to see steeple guys like Gray make the transition to warrior dash.

Also note that some of these guys with good road pr's got them on down hill courses (Hobie) or haven't been competitive in years (Austin).

george oscar bluth wrote:

Realest wrote:

This course was no joke, and there's no way in hell any Kenyan runner was getting top 5 in my opinion.

Come on buddy

I'd put my money on a Kenyan not being able to crack the top 5. I forget who said it, and because of that I'm hesitant to reference it, but I do recall reading (or hearing in an interview) that one of the coaches talking about Kenyan runners said none of the elite Kenyans are capable of doing a single pull-up because there is no upper body strength training for them. (I'm thinking it was in More Fire by Toby Tanser when he interviewed a coach)

Impending Choke wrote:

george oscar bluth wrote:

Come on buddy

I'd put my money on a Kenyan not being able to crack the top 5. I forget who said it, and because of that I'm hesitant to reference it, but I do recall reading (or hearing in an interview) that one of the coaches talking about Kenyan runners said none of the elite Kenyans are capable of doing a single pull-up because there is no upper body strength training for them. (I'm thinking it was in More Fire by Toby Tanser when he interviewed a coach)

If you're light and athletic (most steeplers HAVE to be fairly athletic to be successful, even if it is an event for 1500 & 5000 rejects), gaining sufficient upper body strength pull ups shouldn't be very difficult.

Impending Choke wrote:

george oscar bluth wrote:

Come on buddy

I'd put my money on a Kenyan not being able to crack the top 5. I forget who said it, and because of that I'm hesitant to reference it, but I do recall reading (or hearing in an interview) that one of the coaches talking about Kenyan runners said none of the elite Kenyans are capable of doing a single pull-up because there is no upper body strength training for them. (I'm thinking it was in More Fire by Toby Tanser when he interviewed a coach)

You think that NO elite Kenyan can do a single pull-up? You wouldn't read that statement and shrug it off as hyperbole?

george oscar bluth wrote:

You think that NO elite Kenyan can do a single pull-up? You wouldn't read that statement and shrug it off as hyperbole?

There was no need to really need pullup strength on this course anyways. The slanted walls with ropes you could easily run up, I ran up 75-85% of the way without even using the rope, and same thing for the wall with the rock climbing mounts. The cargo net you just need your arms to hold on, your legs are doing the climbing, and the cargo net pipeline is the only thing you MIGHT need pullup strength for- but that you could just crawl through if you had to.

I'd love to see Ezekiel Kemboi try one of these. He's got the steeple chops, he's wiry and probably sneakily strong, and he's enough of a character to compete with Kobe Call and that guy who posed naked.

I hope Max stopped en route, pulled Hobie to one side, screwed him up the backside then went on his way.

road rashed wrote:

Would like to see some video of this.

Seems like it would be pretty tough to do this 5k course that fast.

Impending Choke wrote:

george oscar bluth wrote:

Come on buddy

I'd put my money on a Kenyan not being able to crack the top 5. I forget who said it, and because of that I'm hesitant to reference it, but I do recall reading (or hearing in an interview) that one of the coaches talking about Kenyan runners said none of the elite Kenyans are capable of doing a single pull-up because there is no upper body strength training for them. (I'm thinking it was in More Fire by Toby Tanser when he interviewed a coach)

Cheserek vs. Max King in one of these races. You'd really put your money on Max King? Lagat vs. Max King? Someone like Rudisha? Kemboi? Are you serious?

rlyrlyrly wrote:

Impending Choke wrote:

I'd put my money on a Kenyan not being able to crack the top 5. I forget who said it, and because of that I'm hesitant to reference it, but I do recall reading (or hearing in an interview) that one of the coaches talking about Kenyan runners said none of the elite Kenyans are capable of doing a single pull-up because there is no upper body strength training for them. (I'm thinking it was in More Fire by Toby Tanser when he interviewed a coach)

Cheserek vs. Max King in one of these races. You'd really put your money on Max King? Lagat vs. Max King? Someone like Rudisha? Kemboi? Are you serious?

100% yes. Kemboi has no power or upper body strength. Max would probably give Rudisha a run for his money in a 20 minute all out race, minus the obstacles. Cheserk and Lagat would put about a minute on Max in a 3.2 mile race but that would disappear with the obstacles. Max's pace was around 2.5 minutes per mile slower than his 5k. That shows it's a much different stress and requires much different abilities.

A guy who doesn't train for the event is at a huge disadvantage. I think an explosive guy like Webb in his prime could have been decent at this. I really can't think of another runner more fitting at it than Max.

Specific Strength wrote:

100% yes. Kemboi has no power or upper body strength. Max would probably give Rudisha a run for his money in a 20 minute all out race, minus the obstacles. Cheserk and Lagat would put about a minute on Max in a 3.2 mile race but that would disappear with the obstacles. Max's pace was around 2.5 minutes per mile slower than his 5k. That shows it's a much different stress and requires much different abilities.

A guy who doesn't train for the event is at a huge disadvantage. I think an explosive guy like Webb in his prime could have been decent at this. I really can't think of another runner more fitting at it than Max.

Did you not bother to read my post? This race required almost 0 upper body strength. It's stupid to argue otherwise.

I am not saying where I would put my money, but you aren't really even addressing the facts at hand.

How would one of those stair-climbing racers do?

On this course, probably pretty good since the hills were really the hardest "obstacle".

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

How would one of those stair-climbing racers do?

Specific Strength wrote:

100% yes. Kemboi has no power or upper body strength. Max would probably give Rudisha a run for his money in a 20 minute all out race, minus the obstacles. Cheserk and Lagat would put about a minute on Max in a 3.2 mile race but that would disappear with the obstacles. Max's pace was around 2.5 minutes per mile slower than his 5k. That shows it's a much different stress and requires much different abilities.

A guy who doesn't train for the event is at a huge disadvantage. I think an explosive guy like Webb in his prime could have been decent at this. I really can't think of another runner more fitting at it than Max.

If this guy can't do a pullup, I'll eat my hat.

Kemboi looks to have pretty good strength:weight ratio, which is much more important than flat out strength in an obstacle race.

Moby Dick wrote:

I thought you were just making a joke saying Cobie Hall (Hobie?) was capable of running a sub 2:00 marathon, I didn't realize the dude actually said that! To his credit, he's a 2:16 marathoner who now specifically trains for obstacle course racing, like, this is his life and how he makes money. So dude has good speed, and trains for these and Max still beat him. I don't give 2 craps about OCR or how it stacks up against other disciplines, but that's really impressive. Props to Max.

2:16 on a downhill marathon ...

crete wrote:

Moby Dick wrote:

I thought you were just making a joke saying Cobie Hall (Hobie?) was capable of running a sub 2:00 marathon, I didn't realize the dude actually said that! To his credit, he's a 2:16 marathoner who now specifically trains for obstacle course racing, like, this is his life and how he makes money. So dude has good speed, and trains for these and Max still beat him. I don't give 2 craps about OCR or how it stacks up against other disciplines, but that's really impressive. Props to Max.

2:16 on a downhill marathon ...

meanwhile Max still ran faster than that during the recent OT Marathon