Official 2016 World Half Marathon Discussion Thread

Clerk wrote:

Farah is not winning any fans looking over his shoulder 13 times in the last 80 meters.

Its dumb on my end, but that made me dislike him more.

He's not losing fans either. The two guys who beat him here don't stand a chance against him on the track in Rio. Mo might not win the 5 / 10, but he's more of a track guy than his conquerors. Great race.

UK Dude, ignorant comments.

Kamworor is hardly a no-name athlete.

Mo Farah showed guts today. PB pace, freaking monsoon, freaking battling 3 other Africans for the bronze, kicking in 51 to earn the bronze. That was a tough day.

And for those of you talking champions, Kamworor was the defending champion and no other nation is better at half marathoning than the Kenyans. No one.

whats with the red pounch thing on farahs waistband?

cl wrote:

Mo Farah showed guts today. PB pace, freaking monsoon, freaking battling 3 other Africans for the bronze, kicking in 51 to earn the bronze. That was a tough day.

He did not show guts. He settled for 3rd place. Where did you see that he finished in 51? That's faster than his track finishes.

Mo Farah showed GUTS.

Let me know the next time you knacker yourself for an hour in the rain against the best in the world.

Thanks.

cl wrote:

Mo Farah showed guts today. PB pace, freaking monsoon, freaking battling 3 other Africans for the bronze, kicking in 51 to earn the bronze. That was a tough day.

And for those of you talking champions, Kamworor was the defending champion and no other nation is better at half marathoning than the Kenyans. No one.

Eritrea might have something to say about that.

cl wrote:

Mo Farah showed GUTS.

Let me know the next time you knacker yourself for an hour in the rain against the best in the world.

Thanks.

this race had about half a minute of rain. Where you watching something else?

100% agree. Mo's refusal to ever run at his limits from the start, to make any race a pure guts race as Pre said, is why he lost today. Kam was not afraid to run a guts race, balls out from the start, and he won for it. It is higher risk, but it shows real courage. This is what Kam will need to do on the track to get Mo: a hard, fast pace from the start, pushing himself and Mo to their limits. None of this bullshit loping along for 24 laps and then all out sprinting. Kam won;t let Mo get away with that cowardly milarki anymore.

Mo's reign is over, Kam is the new King.

My assumption is that Kenyans avoid running in the rain not because of mosquitoes, but because their roads and tracks are dirt and get very muddy and even often impassable in rainstorms. They have very good reason to fear mosquitoes that carry Malaria and Dengue, but only when they are walking or stationary. Mosquitoes cannot catch you or stick long enough in the wind to bite you when you're running (especially when these guys are running!). I get bitten constantly around here but never when I run in the swamps.Terrific performance from Kamworor. Farah was beaten by two better men at this distance today. However, this was a major improvement for him from that xc race in January in Edinburgh. He went from being soundly beaten by Heath to kicking for bronze here over very solid competition in difficult conditions. Farah's progress (and note that it is not as if he were running very fast in the meantime, remember that 7:38(?) with not much of a kick?) allows him confidence that he'll be nearly as strong as Kamworor by World's, but a lot faster at the end. Also, the margin at the end was quite a bit greater than it would have been had he not slowed down (it was 22 seconds at the 15k but about 50 seconds at the finish) to draft off of the Ethiopians and the Kenyan to save strength and outkick them at the end.

ventolin^3 wrote:

kmaclam wrote:I haven't read anything in all the pre race talk about how the Kenyans have traditionally disdained the rain, even forgoing or at least putting off a scheduled run/workout until the rain has stopped. I've interpreted it almost as a bad luck, superstitious kind of thing. I know L.R. has someone over in Kenya now for the next 6 months, if you're around this morning, could you chime in?

i believe they don't train in the rain because that's what brings the mosquitoes out & kenyans are more terrified of those than a lion or tiger

BS. Mo lost because Kam is a better HM runner.

Corrected your comment, Spank-nozzle. You're welcome!

jjjjjj wrote:My assumption is that Kenyans avoid running in the rain not because of mosquitoes, but because their roads and tracks are dirt and get very muddy and even often impassable in rainstorms. They have very good reason to fear mosquitoes that carry Malaria and Dengue, but only when they are walking or stationary. Mosquitoes cannot catch you or stick long enough in the wind to bite you when you're running (especially when these guys are running!). I get bitten constantly around here but never when I run in the swamps

no

mosquitoes is the reason given by the great moses tanui, 10kWC & 1st man < 60 on the roads

african mosquitoes are meaner, tougher & plain badassser than the mcdonald fed varieties of your acquaintance & will chase you like a junkyard dog who hasn't eaten in a week

anyone think its a little strange that the only person to fall at the start was the only one wearing a bright white cap?

elmore345 wrote:

anyone think its a little strange that the only person to fall at the start was the only one wearing a bright white cap?

Why it obviously made him topheavy and he tumbled to the ground as a result. S

Analyzing from the footage, that cap weighed about 25 pounds.

Typical results for the US, best finisher is 23rd finishing behind an irishman no less. These guys run better at any rock n roll race. Typical 62 would have put them a more respectable 14th.

Other options wrote:

Clerk wrote:

I for one cannot wait to see ventolin^3 factor in that fall to say that his performance today was intrinsically a world record. That and his super-special formulas for wind and rain, and calculating the extra distance he covered at every bend.

Do you NOT think he is in world record shape?? With a fall and the crazy rain and wind at the end?? No doubt in my mind he could run under the current world record right now. I'm glad you wrote this early as he kinda proved you wrong.

He might be. But my sarcastic post was literally about ventolin factoring that in, not about what shape he's in. As in, giving it a time value, creating a time value for how much it cost him after. That in addition to the way he's shown to invent the extra distance runners travel running wide, and use formulas to calculate the effect of the wind.

Saying Kamworar is in good shape is not ridiculous. Doing all of the above is ridiculous.

eh ???

if a guy falls, you don't think it is vital to estimate how much that cost ???

the fall was for ~ 10s & then not only hurt as grazes on his knees show & unknown internal meniscal/cruciate damage which likely affected his running for miles if not whole race, the loss of momentum from sheer physical shock of fall !! &, the suicidal sprinting to catch this up within ~ 3'00 !!!, having to likely weave thru obstructing runners to get to pack, i'd estimate that "total loss" from this mishap cost his final time probably in ballpark of

~ 30s

he probably put in an effort in 1st mile of

~ 4'00 !!!

then kept going for another

12.2 miles !!!

& not just trudge in 5'00 behind winner but won by huge magin !!!

this without offering anything for uneven pace, freezing cold from wind-chill which africans hate, wrecking wind which was so bad that it nearly blew Kamwo over & cut of tv for ~1'00

quite simply the worst conditions by far for a major road race i have seen in 40+y, albeit not too many road races screened in '70s

i estimate this cost him from vast observational experience

1'00+++

for a perfect, paced to 10k in ideal meteorology of

~ 57-low / mid

utter nonsense

do you have any clue about geometry ???

if you run wide on a bend on the track you are running extra distance from

pi * ( width - 0.3 )

this can also be a factor in road races but with different geometry as you need calculus for arc length

basic geometry is problem for you

you'd probably collapse trying to calculate arc length from required calculus

this was also a small factor today as latter part of race had frequent turns & Kamwo was running outside Krokey on these

easy to estimate for straights using wind-altitude calculator

utter nonsense

one of main functions of a forum is to estimate what runs couda/wouda been in perfect conditions/pace drafting/etc

if you don't have skills/experience to offer anything on this then don't waste the board's time