I’m almost 6’3”, 0 talent (6:00 mile freshman year) with terrible form. People say I look like a giraffe running through quicksand. My height is mostly upper body. I still ran 4:24 and 9:26 this year as a senior. If i can do that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that Jane is as good as she is. I always felt if i had good form, balance and body awareness, a bit of talent and a few more inches in my legs rather than toreso my height would be an advantage and I could be a 4:10 guy.
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Ruxton Towers XC wrote:
6 foot wrote:
She is 6'0".
JH is 6'0? Huh? That doesn't sound right at all. Does anyone actually know?
BTW, Sonia O'Sullivan was pretty tall and did better than average on the world scene...
Yes, 6'.
O'Sullivan is only 5'8". That is a world of difference. Jane is the tallest woman in history to break 15.
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Gatorade listed her at 5'11"
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Most people I have met have said 5'8 to 5'9 is the ideal height for distance
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david100 wrote:
Most people I have met have said 5'8 to 5'9 is the ideal height for distance
Geb, Kenny B, and Kipchoge were all 5’6” or less. But Cheptegei and Jacob are 6’ and 6’1”, respectively.
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HsNoname wrote:
I’m almost 6’3”, 0 talent (6:00 mile freshman year) with terrible form. People say I look like a giraffe running through quicksand. My height is mostly upper body. I still ran 4:24 and 9:26 this year as a senior. If i can do that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that Jane is as good as she is. I always felt if i had good form, balance and body awareness, a bit of talent and a few more inches in my legs rather than toreso my height would be an advantage and I could be a 4:10 guy.
If I had different athleticism, speed, endurance and physicality, I would have been better…?
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the430miler wrote:
... in the last half decade (that's how long I've been monitoring her development) ...
This is a chilling statement, considering the source.
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HsNoname wrote:
I’m almost 6’3”, 0 talent (6:00 mile freshman year) with terrible form. People say I look like a giraffe running through quicksand. My height is mostly upper body. I still ran 4:24 and 9:26 this year as a senior. If i can do that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that Jane is as good as she is. I always felt if i had good form, balance and body awareness, a bit of talent and a few more inches in my legs rather than toreso my height would be an advantage and I could be a 4:10 guy.
OK, but just about every runner could run faster if they could lengthen their legs by a couple of inches. What you’re saying is no different than saying you would have been faster if you had a higher VO2, faster top-end speed and better stride efficiency. Just being tall didn’t make you a comp for Hedengren’s. “Balance and body awareness” is yet another LRC platitude.
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HsNoname wrote:
I’m almost 6’3”, 0 talent (6:00 mile freshman year) with terrible form. People say I look like a giraffe running through quicksand. My height is mostly upper body. I still ran 4:24 and 9:26 this year as a senior. If i can do that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that Jane is as good as she is. I always felt if i had good form, balance and body awareness, a bit of talent and a few more inches in my legs rather than toreso my height would be an advantage and I could be a 4:10 guy.
If height mattered... there would be more fast tall guys than there actually are. Granted, part of it is that some guys are in other sports... the only thing about height in distance running that is important. The taller you are... the skinnier you need to be. You can see some guys who are sort of mesomorphic who are really good who are under 6'0". But not many over 6'0".
As far as form goes... there really isn't a good correlation between "form" and running economy when measured physiologically.
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Grade level wrote:
4 Minute Mi-liar wrote:
Height is basically incidental in running. Per Astrand has a chapter on scaling in his ex phys textbook that explains all this. That is the same chapter that explains how lighter people(and usually shorter) have an advantage in developing a relative VO2 max compared to larger people.
Jane happens to be tall. Bolt happens to be tall.
There aren't as many 6'4" sprinters out there mostly because there aren't as many 6'4" people as there are 5'11" guys.
In distance running you've had 5 foot nothing guys like Yifter and you've had a 6'7' guy like Jack Bachelor be world class level runners... but most great runners are average height. Again, because there are more people of average height.
Bachelor was never world class. He was national class at his best.
Bachelor was top 30 in the world in 1971 while in the thick of his PhD work at Florida. He was also an Olympian at the Marathon. Kenny Moore was about 6'4". Tall guys can run to if they are thin enough. Bachelor was 6'7" and 170 lbs.
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Uncle Bosie wrote:
And this is why we can't get too excited. she may have already peaked physically. Not saying she will decline like Cain did but how much is left to improve is wait and see.
She reminds me of Goddess Paula Radcliffe. I think she will take down the American, if not world record in the marathon one day. Based on her physique.
And I doubt she peaked considering that she was a half lap ahead of her competitors at Brooks. That means she could have gone even faster.
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4 Minute Mi-liar wrote:
HsNoname wrote:
I’m almost 6’3”, 0 talent (6:00 mile freshman year) with terrible form. People say I look like a giraffe running through quicksand. My height is mostly upper body. I still ran 4:24 and 9:26 this year as a senior. If i can do that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that Jane is as good as she is. I always felt if i had good form, balance and body awareness, a bit of talent and a few more inches in my legs rather than toreso my height would be an advantage and I could be a 4:10 guy.
If height mattered... there would be more fast tall guys than there actually are. Granted, part of it is that some guys are in other sports... the only thing about height in distance running that is important. The taller you are... the skinnier you need to be. You can see some guys who are sort of mesomorphic who are really good who are under 6'0". But not many over 6'0".
As far as form goes... there really isn't a good correlation between "form" and running economy when measured physiologically.
Someone posted a college basketball team's workout in the mile. I believe it was Houston. Most of the team was in the 5's which tells me that height does help if you have general high fitness.
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4 Minute Mi-liar wrote:
Grade level wrote:
Bachelor was never world class. He was national class at his best.
Bachelor was top 30 in the world in 1971 while in the thick of his PhD work at Florida. He was also an Olympian at the Marathon. Kenny Moore was about 6'4". Tall guys can run to if they are thin enough. Bachelor was 6'7" and 170 lbs.
There’s no way Kenny Moore was 6’4”. If you look at some pictures from his races, you’ll see he didn’t tower over other runners. According to Wikipedia, he was 6’.
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age wrote:
Jane is a genetic anomaly based on her height and talent
She's taller, bigger, stronger than all her highschool competitors. Her physique looks 25 but she turned 18 in September 2024.
OMG nooooooo!
Someone has an advannnnntage?
Those poor girls will be "brutalized" by her!
😭😭😭😭😭
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Anyone who can break the records that she's broken, and run the times that she's running is clearly a genetic outlier. Kinda goes without saying.
Just like with Athing Mu, its not just the leg length in ratio to the torso, but the muscle fiber composition, the whole cardiovascular system. She's obviously the real deal and having one of those purple patches where it all comes together. I hope it lasts.
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tall no wrote:
Wow they actually quoted a hater, sour person in the Forbes article. Trying to diminish Goddess Jane's success by blaming super shoes:
“I think Jane’s indoor and outdoor tear put her on the Mt. Rushmore of high school girls distance running," Chavez said. "She’s already beating college women without having taken a single class at BYU. (But) I think I still give the edge to Mary Cain as the best high schooler because she was able to make the 1,500m final at the World Championships in 2013 and it was in an era before super shoes.”
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A girl that runs 4:23 for the mile in high school is anomalous?
No way.
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Jakob is a pretty big boned taller distance runner.
Jane is probably the equivalent of a 6'6 guy. though i don't know if you can really play the guy/girl size equivalency game like that when you're making comparisons for things like bio-mechanics, injury probabilities, etc.
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the430miler wrote:
Not really. She's just not short and stout like ritzenhein.
Jane is right where she needs to be. The only thing she has ever done in the last half decade (that's how long I've been monitoring her development) that has disappointed me is her 800 time. There's no reason why she can't be around 159 if she spent 1 month training for that specifically.
Everything else about her is right on schedule. But I think she's going to see thst bringing that 800m time down is going to improve her competitiveness in all other distances at the college level.
I hope that the police are keeping tabs on you.
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