IM athletes have physical governors on their bodies that keep them from running very fast marathon times. Their legs are comparably heavier due to all the muscle cycling puts on them. Likewise, their arms and shoulders carry a lot more muscle because of swimming. The goal of their train is to be a jack of all trades, master of none. So, Lange's stand alone marathon PR might not be much faster than 2:25 mostly because that is probably as fast as he trains to run a marathon. If you gave him 3-4 years to devote exclusively to the marathon, I would think he could push 2:15 given his world class aerobic engine.
There was a lot of similar speculation about Mark Allen's marathoning ability after his 2:40 in an Ironman, and Allen did make a serious effort to qualify for the 1996 Olympic trials, focusing solely on running, when the standard was a relatively relaxed 2:22. He wasn't successful. Apparently, he was quite surprised by the intensity required to maintain the faster pace over the marathon distance. The topic was discussed at some length on this site:
There was a famous experiment similar to sub 2 a few years ago. 3 Kenyan 2:10 marathoners were trained to do an Ironman race. There times were pretty terrible, even sandbagging for the marathon
This.
And Lange's time is worth 2:39.
LRC posts are famous for speculation similar to this. "Is so and so could do this in this situation, what could they do in this situation?"
The great thing about running is that speculation is minimized. Your PR is your PR. The clock does not lie.
Lange might not be able to go much faster.
He had a nice swim and bike to warm up and get nice and loose. He was already likely cruising along at or near his sustainable max threshold pace. He is well trained and experienced, and knows how to rehydrate and refuel. He trained to run close to his max.
another professional german triathlete ran Frankfurt once. I think it was Steffen Justus and he finished in 2:18.
Christian Bustos ran a 2:16 open marathon. Luc Van Lierde ran a 2:15 I believe
Justus was an olympic distance athlete and very diffrent to an ironman athlete because he has trained to race 2h which is pretty close to a 2:15-20h marathon. So he had the aerobic gears for a good marathon and just needed to adapt his muscles. by the way Justus has alwasy been a good runner and started his career as a U18 national champion in the 3000m and his father is the 1974 European Champion in the 1500m.
Yeah you've gotta subtract at least a few minutes for the brutal weather too.
2:28
Precious Roy wrote:
IM athletes have physical governors on their bodies that keep them from running very fast marathon times. Their legs are comparably heavier due to all the muscle cycling puts on them. Likewise, their arms and shoulders carry a lot more muscle because of swimming. The goal of their train is to be a jack of all trades, master of none. So, Lange's stand alone marathon PR might not be much faster than 2:25 mostly because that is probably as fast as he trains to run a marathon. If you gave him 3-4 years to devote exclusively to the marathon, I would think he could push 2:15 given his world class aerobic engine.
This!!! End of discussion.
Out of competition testing very sharply at iron man events...;(
^â€shabbyâ€
UberGerman wrote:
I think he could run around a 2:15. He is only 135lb so kinda built like a runner with a good stride. Guessing he can and will run a few min faster in Kona as well, prob closer to 2:35 which I bet he will do in a couple of years when pushed by Patrik Nilsson and Gomez.
these ironman guys are extremely good at holding a given pace for an incredible long time, but very often their marathon pr is not that much faster. they do not train to run superfast. considering those ironman i know, i would be nicely surprised if he could touch sub 2:20. but i do not know.
Sub 2:20 is not a tough run.
It only became hard when you all started to over think it.
head to head to head against wanjiru and kipchoge on a flat course...2:03:38you guys are idiots(short course, talent is so much more important than training to be able to run a 2:18, i bet he can't even run a HM under 1:12)(ironmans are insanely difficult though, i will admit)
Latrick Pange wrote:
Patrick Lange ran a 2:39 this weekend after biking 112 miles and swimming 2.4mi to win the Ironman world title. All that in Kona weather, which the IM website describes as:
"Temperatures on race day range from 82 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, with the humidity hovering around 90 percent. Crosswinds on portions of the bike course sometimes get as high as 60 mph."
How fast do you believe he could run a marathon with fresh legs, in good weather and on a good course like berlin, but not with this year's weather?
HA! My first thread that makes the home page. Kinda proud lol
Well seeing as he has run 1:11 for a half during a 70.3 I’m pretty sure he can run a few min faster in an open, prob 1:06 at least like sanders.
midwest ponds wrote:
(short course, talent is so much more important than training to be able to run a 2:18, i bet he can't even run a HM under 1:12)
He ran 1:11:51 in a 70.3 (half ironman)
https://www.endurance-data.com/en/result/73/2-patrick-lange/Ben Paredes, who was in the mix at Kona a few times although he was much more accomplished as a duathlete than a triathlete - Paredes was 2nd in the 1994 NYC Marathon in 2:11:24. Doesn't mean Lange is a 2:11 guy (or a 2:15 guy or a 2:25 guy or whatever), you never know.