2015 London Marathon men's elite field is amazing - greatest ever?

+ for Eliud Kipchoge. Just like Bekele he has the Track Credentials at 3:50.0, 12:46. High then his speed is sustained at 59:00, 2:04:05. This correlation of raw sustained speed can trump the kipsang, kimetto camp albeit at this incredible level of work and talent it will only be by a narrow margin...All of the aforementioned are greats its just that Eliud can breakthrough this field because he has the speed set, consistency, and gap ability for the last 2k

Nutella1 wrote:

seriously brah wrote:

And London. There's 3 months between them.

One month to recover, two weeks tapering leaves 6 weeks for training. It may be enough for him to run 2:05-2:06 but he is not going to be able to be a factor.

I predict DNS.

You're an idiot as usual, 3 months is plenty of time. And running 2:05 does make you a factor.

Obviously it looks awesome from the perspective of fans to have these great athletes go at each other. But from the perspective of athletes and their management, it may not be a brilliant idea unless London is dishing out appearance money of at least $200K for each of these athletes. Kipchoge, Kimetto and Kipsang are chasing World Marathon Majors' points towards the $500K jackpot and putting them head to head works to eliminate the weaker of them from the race towards the jackpot, whereas any of these "weak" athletes would have had a greater chance at winning Boston. Lets just say the money London gives them is good enough for them to forfeit their race for the jackpot?

1. London

2. NYC

3. Boston

4. Chicago

5. Berlin

6. Dubai (fast times only because of short course)

7. Tokyo

8. Frankfurt

9. Paris

10. Rotterdam

The only two names missing are Ryan Hall and Meb. Typical snub of the Americans.

neither Meb nor Ryan would make top 5 in London. Probably not top 10

I heard from one elite runner (Eritrean born Swedish marathoner) that there is no appearance fee in Dubai (and he also mentioned that is the reason why top Kenyans usually don't go there). So I don't think that Bekele will be running Dubai unless he is thinking that he has a chance in winning it.

londoner wrote:

I suspect London is Bekele's main target and that it's Dubai he's doing for the cash - given that's pretty soon after Chicago too, I suspect he'll run that (Dubai) at 90%. He wants selection for Rio 2016 so needs to put down a big marker among the very best.

But I might be biased as a long-term fan. I'd love to see him do something special.

Dubai is a warm up for Bekele, he knows he's not going to get selected for the World Champ or Olympic team by a Dubai win w/ not much competition... He's just going to sit and kick it, that means less impact on his legs so he can recover quicker for London, pick up his prize money, taper, and get another couple weeks of training...

If Bekele can have a good race at London, he'll get selected for the teams...

Tough list to add to, but Fukuoka should be in there somewhere.

I'll start with the guessing on the placing:

I place my bets on

1. ???

2. Emmanuel Mutai

3. ???

4. ???

that is all

London

NYC/Chicago

Boston

Berlin

but if I were a super-elite, I'd most want to run them with these preferences

Chicago

London

Berlin

Boston

NYC

That's pretty cold mate. Give the guy a little props.

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

I'll start with the guessing on the placing:

I place my bets on

1. ???

2. Emmanuel Mutai

3. ???

4. ???

that is all

It's Cold wrote:

That's pretty cold mate. Give the guy a little props.

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

I'll start with the guessing on the placing:

I place my bets on

1. ???

2. Emmanuel Mutai

3. ???

4. ???

that is all

I did, if he gets second he either beats Kipchoge, Kimetto, or Kipsang or all of them, while it is that he won't win again he will take some scalps

Drugs vs. Drugs. vs. Drugs vs. Drugs vs. Drugs............

Sounds Cool!

londoner wrote:

I suspect London is Bekele's main target and that it's Dubai he's doing for the cash - given that's pretty soon after Chicago too, I suspect he'll run that (Dubai) at 90%. He wants selection for Rio 2016 so needs to put down a big marker among the very best.

But I might be biased as a long-term fan. I'd love to see him do something special.

Renato CANOVA has already explained in some previous posts that these top-top elite athletes can recover relatively fast from a marathon if it is a "time trial" (even paced) type of marathon, like WR attempt, and that the tough marathons difficult to recover from - in particular due to the mental strain - are (according to him) the ones with a lots of opposition.

BEKELE will likely run Dubai at 100% effort, but running it like a big "time trial", and London will obviously be a much different kind of race considering the strong field...

I guess that grandpa CANOVA knows what he is doing... ;-)

What needs to be remembered is that the Ethiopian selectors seem to just pick the three fastest marathon runners for their championship teams, rather than the best racers. I think this is why Bekele is going to Dubai. Faster course and an opportunity to get a time in the bag prior to London which is the big payday with appearance money. Not saying that he can't run a good time in London, it's just that if he gets a 2:03 in Dubai then it takes the pressure off for London, he can just sit and let the others force the pace and see what happens.

BBen - agreed.

Be interesting to see what Canova can do with somebody of Bekele's calibre, who has already hit such heights and so has clearly got a lot right in his training in the past. You could argue he has likely passed his career peak (though I still think he can do much more in the marathon).

That Bekele even felt at this stage in his career that he needed Canova's oversight is intriguing in itself.

Evidence? Evidence? Evidence? Evidence? Evidence?

That's a good point Bayno. I still can't see him wanting to run a sub-par marathon in London though. He's not used to losing regularly and Chicago must have hurt for someone like Bekele.

You know the other possibility is that he's just desperate to get some good performances on the board and being a bit impatient about it.