Impressive but not unbeatable...
If the best Comrades ultramarathoners run it, I think they would squeeze in a sub 6 hours finish in best of conditions, easily... Just look at their records. The route is about 89-90 kms, and hilly at that:
Down route:
Men: David Gatebe - 5:18:19 (2016)
Women: Frith van der Merwe - 5:54:43 (1989)
Up route:
Men: Leonid Shvetsov - 5:24:49 (2008)
Women: Elena Nurgalieva - 6:09:23 (2006)
If anyone is interested here is a article that talks about his training.
He ran a pace faster per mile than most LRC can run a SINGLE mile at. I bet that less than20% of this entire board can run a single 5:57 mile.
KawauchiFTW_ wrote:
Impressive but not unbeatable...
If the best Comrades ultramarathoners run it, I think they would squeeze in a sub 6 hours finish in best of conditions, easily... Just look at their records. The route is about 89-90 kms, and hilly at that:
Down route:
Men: David Gatebe - 5:18:19 (2016)
Women: Frith van der Merwe - 5:54:43 (1989)
Up route:
Men: Leonid Shvetsov - 5:24:49 (2008)
Women: Elena Nurgalieva - 6:09:23 (2006)
No they wouldn't and they didn't.
SDSU Aztec wrote:
The reason that the 100K record is soft is because there is little prestige and money, it would f-up training and it would be an injury risk.
There is nothing soft about a record which was standing for 40 years.
100k times under 6:30h are rare. Especially now.
A big part of the problem is, that the US doesn't have one really good competitive 100k race.
The Mad City 100 is probably the best race but they just had 13 finishers this year.
https://www.madcityultras.com/resultsIt would be fun to see Bekele run under 6 hours. It wouldn't be that hard. He could do it after he gets the wr in the thon and Olympic gold.
Back in 1983 in New Plymouth NZ the Soh twins (2.08 and 2.09) did a run of around 80 miles around Mt Taranaki/Egmont. This was just a long training run as part of a huge training bloc. They cruised along at around 6.30 pace. 1982 Fukuoka winner Paul Ballinger followed them much of the way on his bike. It was no where near an all out effort. It isn't hard to imagine those guys would have been able to run well under 6 hours for 100 kms. One of the twins ran 4th in the OG marathon in 1984.
mo'pak wrote:
Back in 1983 in New Plymouth NZ the Soh twins (2.08 and 2.09) did a run of around 80 miles around Mt Taranaki/Egmont. This was just a long training run as part of a huge training bloc. They cruised along at around 6.30 pace. 1982 Fukuoka winner Paul Ballinger followed them much of the way on his bike. It was no where near an all out effort. It isn't hard to imagine those guys would have been able to run well under 6 hours for 100 kms. One of the twins ran 4th in the OG marathon in 1984.
Good read on the old Japanese marathon runners.
http://moti-athletics-marathon-m.blogspot.com/2011/05/toshihiko-seko.html?m=1Banana Bread wrote:
It would be fun to see Bekele run under 6 hours. It wouldn't be that hard. He could do it after he gets the wr in the thon and Olympic gold.
But he doesn't. And there are good reasons for that. Because this would be almost 3 times longer than Marathon distance.
It's not like all Half Marathon stars are good at Marathon.
Frank Shorter here wrote:
KawauchiFTW_ wrote:
Impressive but not unbeatable...
If the best Comrades ultramarathoners run it, I think they would squeeze in a sub 6 hours finish in best of conditions, easily... Just look at their records. The route is about 89-90 kms, and hilly at that:
Down route:
Men: David Gatebe - 5:18:19 (2016)
Women: Frith van der Merwe - 5:54:43 (1989)
Up route:
Men: Leonid Shvetsov - 5:24:49 (2008)
Women: Elena Nurgalieva - 6:09:23 (2006)
No they wouldn't and they didn't.
Yeah, well that’s just like your opinion... LOL
https://youtu.be/XVCtkzIXYzQKawauchiFTW wrote:
Frank Shorter here wrote:
No they wouldn't and they didn't.
Yeah, well that’s just like your opinion... LOL
https://youtu.be/XVCtkzIXYzQ
No it's actually a fact. Gatebe has run 6:44:34 in 2016. That is light years away from sub 6 hours.
Nurgalieva has run 7:31:14 in 2003 also far of the world record.
It's always funny when letsrun posters do the math on Marathon runners and what they could do if they just move up to ultras. But it does not work that way.
Small Pond wrote:
Sub-6 is mind-boggling but it is still jogging pace for a 2:03 marathoner. It will never happen, but if the world's best marathoners ran the 100K it could turn out to be a very soft record.
Using the idea you presented, we could hypothesize that since this guy (Takahiro Sunada) is a 2:17 marathoner, if a 2:03 marathoner properly trained for the 100k, they should be able to run roughly 10% faster (100%-100x(2:03/2:17)). Which would equal a 100K WR of about 5:32:00.
However, if we applied the same idea comparing the WR marathoner's 1500m PB to the 1500 WR, we could make a similar claim. Hicham's 1500 WR=3:26. Eliud's 1500 PB=3:33. So if Hicham ran the Marathon, he should have run about a 1:58:57.
The reason this prediction does not hold true is that the precise talent mix that makes you a good miler, takes away from your marathon potential. Similarly, the things that make you a good marathoner, probably take away from your ultra marathoning potential. The talent needed for marathons and ultras probably has more overlap than the talent overlap for marathon and mile. But it's reasonable to predict that there is still a major gap in the talent needed to excel at the two events (marathon vs ultra).
I do think that if the East African's had the same training/motivation toward ulra's as they do for marathons and mid-d, then the ultra times would come down, but probably not by as much as you think. I would predict that the best East African's could bring the 100k WR down to about 5:55:00
Frank Shorter here wrote:
KawauchiFTW wrote:
Yeah, well that’s just like your opinion... LOL
https://youtu.be/XVCtkzIXYzQNo it's actually a fact. Gatebe has run 6:44:34 in 2016. That is light years away from sub 6 hours.
Nurgalieva has run 7:31:14 in 2003 also far of the world record.
It's always funny when letsrun posters do the math on Marathon runners and what they could do if they just move up to ultras. But it does not work that way.
You’re a Moran.
ThatAverageRunner wrote:
You’re a Moran.
What's a Moran?
Small Pond wrote:
A world marathoner not being tough is ridiculous
We saw what happened to all Letsrunner´s beloved Kenyans in Boston. They were reduced to a bunch of crybabies.
The average speller wrote:
ThatAverageRunner wrote:
You’re a Moran.
What's a Moran?
You must be new on Letsrun.
Frank Shorter here wrote:
KawauchiFTW_ wrote:
Impressive but not unbeatable...
If the best Comrades ultramarathoners run it, I think they would squeeze in a sub 6 hours finish in best of conditions, easily... Just look at their records. The route is about 89-90 kms, and hilly at that:
Down route:
Men: David Gatebe - 5:18:19 (2016)
Women: Frith van der Merwe - 5:54:43 (1989)
Up route:
Men: Leonid Shvetsov - 5:24:49 (2008)
Women: Elena Nurgalieva - 6:09:23 (2006)
No they wouldn't and they didn't.
If the route is 89km, then yea, maybe on that day David Gatebe could have run another 11k in 41:30 (6:04/mi pace) to do a sub 6. On the up route, there is no way, because the last 11k in 35 minutes is 5:07/mi (after running 5:52/mi).
At any rate, it's clear that the record of 6:09 could be beaten pretty easily if there was money in it. While Shvetsov's up time wouldn't be conducive to a sub 6, it would be reasonable to have done it under 6:09. He would have needed another 11k at 6:26 pace.
Oh Please wrote:
Frank Shorter here wrote:
No they wouldn't and they didn't.
If the route is 89km, then yea, maybe on that day David Gatebe could have run another 11k in 41:30 (6:04/mi pace) to do a sub 6. On the up route, there is no way, because the last 11k in 35 minutes is 5:07/mi (after running 5:52/mi).
At any rate, it's clear that the record of 6:09 could be beaten pretty easily if there was money in it. While Shvetsov's up time wouldn't be conducive to a sub 6, it would be reasonable to have done it under 6:09. He would have needed another 11k at 6:26 pace.
Agreed. The prize money is the problem: $30,000 in Comrades vs. bragging rights in the 100K champs;)
Mentality wrote:
Mental toughness is something many sub 2:10 marathoners just do not have.
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!