average elevation of US: 760m
average elevation of Mongolia: 1580m
average elevation of US: 760m
average elevation of Mongolia: 1580m
Because the Chinese have machines and industries and technology. But as soon as that falters, guess what's gonna happen. The hardy nomads from the steppes will swoop in and plunder their riches, as history has proven repeatedly.
All the "great" Euro civilizations and Chinese dynasties met their end by the hands of ragged wandering tribes from Central Asia and the Nordic lands. Huns, Mongols, Goths, Vandals, and Lombards, born in the crucible of nature and forged by the elements, iron of will, stout of heart and strong of arm.
USF had a legit Mongolian runner a few years ago. Low 14s in 5k
How common is a sub 2:09 for someone age 33 or older? I can easily think of a few examples off of the top of my head, but is this type of a performance an extreme outlier?
The Golden Horde wrote:
Dude, actually that's encouraging since most Americans of European ancestry are part Mongolian.
You should read that part of history a little more carefully.
The Mongols ruled the land but had practically no inbreeding with the local populations. Even as far as Russians... extremely few that have any Mongol blood.
Blowing Rock Master! wrote:
Bat-Ochir's time in Fukuoka is the Mongolian record. 6 Americans have beaten the Mongolian record 14 times.
Not on record-eligible courses, they haven't. The number of those is much smaller.
Credit to Ser-Od for his progression, especially since 2007, when he reached 2:16. He has steadily progressed to his current level for a long time.
As for the Mongolia-USA comparison, here is another dimension: Ser-Od is the only Mongolian ever at sub-2:20. Not surprising for a country with little or no distance running tradition or infrastructure. So again, credit to him, but he is the history of international level Mongolian distance running, all by himself. The comparison of him, based on his marathon best, as Mongolia v. USA distance running is of very limited use.
The fact is Mongolia is just a better country.
Google argues otherwise. It's not a huge percentage, but significant.
"In more quantitative terms, ~10% of the men who reside within the borders of the Mongol Empire as it was at the death of Genghis Khan may carry his Y chromosome, and so ~0.5% of men in the world, about 16 million individuals alive today, do so."
1 in 200 men
agip wrote:
Maybe Meb would beat him. Maybe not.
How can this be. We bad.
Meb beat him by over 9 minutes in the Olympics.
That was his 39th marathon according to Tilastopaja.
A lot of our runners have run less than half as many.
Cool getting a personal best, after having run so many.
We need a wall to keep him out!
I wonder how he trains. Mileage? Coach? Training location? Is he competing in other distances? Speed? How far could he 30/40?
Sesamoiditis wrote:
agip wrote:Maybe Meb would beat him. Maybe not.
How can this be. We bad.
Meb beat him by over 9 minutes in the Olympics.
and I beat Joan Benoit at Falmouth! ok, it was in 2011, but still.
He is happier than you and me:
Everyone is talking about his long term improvement, but could that have more to do with being able to train year round rather than intermittently in the winter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulaan_Bator#Geography_and_climate If you look, you'll see Ulan Bator is hellishly cold for 4-5 months of the year, and never gets that warm. He's living in the UK now or splitting his time between the UK and Mongolia. In no month of the year is the average high in London even below freezing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London#Climate. In January the low in london is on average a shade above 29C warmer than Ulan Bator. Thats 51 degrees F. Thats more remarkable than going from say Chicago to Florida in the winter to train.
edward teach wrote:
He's living in the UK now or splitting his time between the UK and Mongolia. In no month of the year is the average high in London even below freezing
I thought that he has been training in Japan for the last 18 months, racing for a Japanese corporate team.
agip wrote:
wrestling, Judo, boxing, Judo
That's a lot of Judo.
Kawauchi fan wrote:
edward teach wrote:He's living in the UK now or splitting his time between the UK and Mongolia. In no month of the year is the average high in London even below freezing
I thought that he has been training in Japan for the last 18 months, racing for a Japanese corporate team.
maybe. He was training in the UK for a while though and Japan also has far milder winters than Mongolia.