You've restored some of my faith in humanity. thank you
Gamera wrote:
reallybetterbekidding wrote:This is akin to running for 10m and saying you have the 10m world record. Or running sideways for 150m and saying you have the sideways 150m world record.
Of course usain bolt or any decent collegiate runner would beat you but they choose not to be idiots. 100 mile world record means NOTHING. Any decent kenyan runner under 2:30 marathon would smash this guy and karnazus. They are probably laughing at this right now. If you think this means anything you are an idiot and it is not amazing at all. Sure these guys are decently fit but by no means elite.
This record has probably been smashed a zillion times by your average ethiopian runner out for an extra long training run or cruising around the hills to the next village.
Not sure if you're joking, but the 100-mile distance is not all that obscure. There are over a hundred different annual hundred mile races in the USA currently. Many of them have been around for quite a while. Finishing one may be easy to dismiss to the talented folks of the LRC msg board, but is actually an awesome accomplishment in my opinion. Why? BECAUSE IT'S F***ING HARD!!
I can't speak for everyone, but most ultra runners are not like Dean Karnazes. Most do it for a personal challenge. As in "I bet it would be really HARD to run 100 miles. I think I'll give it a try". Some race competitively, while some basically just want to finish. But merely finishing a 100 miler is exponentially more difficult than merely finishing a 5k.
It's been a while since I ran an organized ultra, and I know very little about Jon Olsen. But if he is like many who went before him, I doubt he would say "I am the US record-holder for the 100 mile distance; therefore I am the best there has ever been, and my record is equivalent in difficulty and amount of talent required to the shorter track and road distances." What do you want him to do? Ask for forgiveness? Apologize to all the elite marathoners who would have beaten him if they had decided to run the event? The guy set the US record for 100 miles, and that's that. If you set a record in some local road race, do you have to publicly apologize because even though you technically set a record, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenny Bekele, and thousands of others would have beaten you IF they had decided to run?
And while I agree in principle that ultra records are not as "strong" as, for instance, the marathon record, I think you are underestimating the strength of the records. You say that "any decent kenyan runner under 2:30 marathon would smash this guy". WTF does that mean? For starters, are Kenyan 2:29 marathoners better than other 2:29 marathoners? What does being Kenyan have to do with it? And anyway, plenty of sub 2:30 marathoners have run 100-milers without demolishing Jon Olsen's time.
Finally, about your statement "this record has probably been smashed a zillion times by your average ethiopian runner out for an extra long training run or cruising around the hills to the next village" Oh, screw it. I just can't be bothered with that one.