Official London marathon thread

rupp-certified saladbar wrote:

10th place: "From Morocco, now competing for Spain."

I can't think of a more doped bio.

El Keniano wrote:

LOL. Sorry, don't agree but this made me laugh.

:)

Only thing more doped would be if he switched to cycling...

or maybe fear of losing a chunk of his appearance fee ....

Patrick Rizzo top American. 12th overall in 2:16:05.

superawesomness wrote:

Anywhere where the athlete's individual splits are posted?

click on tracking

64-20 ? at halfway clearly not in shape so why there ?

Who would have guessed Eliud Kipchoge would run the fastest marathon of the day? For those unaware, he debuted with a 2:05:30 win at Hamburg. Very promising.

rupp-certified saladbar wrote:

MEB! MEB! MEB!

The commentators are giving credit to Makau for finishing even though he could have taken a DNF and spared himself the recovery once he knew his race was over.

Chris Sowimpsky and DNF Galen could learn from this.

You mean the guy with the shinning Silver medal, the highest American distance medal since 1972 (1500 == mid-distance), but if you include just the OGs, highest above 400m since then?

- wrote:

It was the way it was run that cost them the record. Most of the miles were ~4:45-4:50 at the beginning, with the time being made up in those low 4:30 miles, so it wasn't like a 61:34 consistent pace, it was very very erratic and only fast because of those insane splits. Those 4 or 5 super miles absolutely destroyed the field, wow the blowup was worse than the London '07 when they went through in 61:30.

This is correct. The commentators and some on this thread are acting like 1:01:34 was suicidal. Not so.

2:03:10 pace isn't going to make 2:03:40 guys run 2:11.

It was the fact that some of the miles were at damn 2:01:xx marathon pace. A steady 1:01:34 would have been too fast, but not as deadly as what we just saw. The fartlek was the issue.

Also, I am wondering if some of the Kenyans came in a bit off fitness with all of the flooding that people went on about pre-Boston. (Apparently not an issue for a race 6d later?)

G Mutai seems to have dropped between 30 and 35k. 20-25k in 14:30, 25-30k in 15:49, and then nothing.

TO be honest, would not have expected this from Kipchoge...So he runs a quality marathon while Bekele still lacks a half marathon time...will the king come back??

Btw, why letsrun didn't mention his debut?! ;-)

Raptured wrote:

G Mutai seems to have dropped between 30 and 35k. 20-25k in 14:30, 25-30k in 15:49, and then nothing.

Seems like he was being intelligent and saving himself because he knows he's having a really bad race, unlike Makau who chose to jog to a 2:14.

yyy wrote:

We won't be seeing more 2:03s the next decade.

No sub-2:04:00 marathons until 2020, or 2023?

Either way, this is the worst prediction I have ever seen on LetsRun, and that's saying a lot. Within 10 years, I would bet we see more than 10, easily.

Look at what 2:04:55 was in 2003. Untouchable. And now, 10 years later, there are more than 20 times faster.

With more guys coming to the marathon sooner and a 2:03:38 and 2:03:42 on the books already, you have to know nothing about the sport to predict no more 2:03s in the next decade.

rupp-certified saladbar wrote:

The commentators are giving credit to Makau for finishing even though he could have taken a DNF and spared himself the recovery once he knew his race was over.

Chris Sowimpsky and DNF Galen could learn from this.

26mi235 wrote:

You mean the guy with the shinning Silver medal, the highest American distance medal since 1972 (1500 == mid-distance), but if you include just the OGs, highest above 400m since then?

Yes. The one who DNSs and DNFs so much.

Kipwott wrote:

or maybe fear of losing a chunk of his appearance fee ....

Probably. I also think that African runners are held to a higher standard in terms of getting invites back and good appearance fees, so unless it's Geb they have to finish up no matter what.

OK 2020 then. If testing is enforced,yes.

https://twitter.com/philipcolman/status/325924263460761601/photo/1

If anyone would have told me this would be the outcome of the London marathon, I would have disagreed vehemently. Now I see why it may not be a good idea to clump talent and money in a single race such that there is no guaranteed outcome. I agree that >2.10 under not so bad conditions indicate guys were thrown off and threw each other. The only ones who did well were those who did not invest emotionaly into the hype. I would think Kebede just ran more or less what he would have run if the fied was typical.

Raptured wrote:

G Mutai seems to have dropped between 30 and 35k. 20-25k in 14:30, 25-30k in 15:49, and then nothing.

the average male runner wrote:

Seems like he was being intelligent and saving himself because he knows he's having a really bad race, unlike Makau who chose to jog to a 2:14.

Like Kipwott pointed out above, part of Makau's payday was probably tied to finishing. And having not done much since his WR, he can't just DNF Dave Bedford's race and stay in good graces.

As Boston and NYC champ and fastest ever over the distance, G Mutai is probably less constrained than even the WR holder Makau in this regard.