Farah couldn't run that fast. He had a great kick and finish but that's all. He doesn't have that pace and never had. Mo progression is also suspicious as hell while Bekele was in his prime in a natural age for an athlete.
The thing is that I don't think Bekele can run sub 26:50 or sub 27 now, but he is still able to get within 2 seconds of the marathon record. If he had that explosiveness of his young years he would have beaten the record.
Since this whole thing is hypothetical, let me add a couple of hypotheticals:
Assume that 25 year old Bekele had done marathon specific training, had Vaporflys and other guys worldwide running 2:02. In that case, I'd give him 1:59 high.
If you had 25 year old Bekele without Vaporflys, and nobody else under 2:04 worldwide, I'd give him about the same as he ran this weekend.
blamb61 wrote:
dunes runner wrote:
Spoken like a true young whippersnapper. Wait till you're 60 and then see how you feel.
Ditto, I was about to post the same.
I was about to post "Wait till you're 50"!
The ability to recover is much slower then when you're in your 20s, injuries take way longer to heal.
Strength is not much diminished, but power is pathetic, fast finishes are gone by early 40s,
There's a reason why most runners move up in distance as they age.