London Marathon 2016 - Official Thread

jflo wrote:

The London Marathon gets better every year.

This was epic. What a race

Absolutely. Competition into the last couple miles. Kenenisa hanging tough. And of course two guys under 2:04, with one very near WR, after starting on 2:00:30 pace through the first 10 miles.

well done to Callum Hawkins booking his Rio spot 21052 ish

London better get a pace car after this. Kipchoge would've broken the WR if he knew how fast he was going before the final straight.

Don't worry! Kipchoge just broke the world record, just not the marathon but the 30K WR set in Dubai this year. 1:27:13 from 1:27:20.

doot doot wrote:

jflo wrote:

Running with a smile on his face now.

This man may be the greatest marathon runner I have ever seen

God so close to the WR

I think Callam Hawkins got more time on the tube than Kipchoge did.

Still .. congrats to the kid. Very cool.

kmaclam wrote:

Damn, so with no pace car in front with clock showing predicted finish time as they have in a lot of these marathons, Kipchoge had no idea how close he was to the WR?!

On the other hand he can probably afford a watch that will do that for him...

And spare a thought for Sumgong's courageous performance in the women's race

NBC coverage was horrible.

Sad to think this is what we will have to look forward to in Rio

The BBC feed was great....that really was one of the best races ever. If Kipchoge didn't hold back from 23-25 miles he would have gone 2:02:45 easy. He had so much left. GOAT--no question.

rejected by the girl wrote:

NBC coverage was horrible.

Sad to think this is what we will have to look forward to in Rio

No wheelchairs or other gender race at Olympics, so may be better.

jflo wrote:

And spare a thought for Sumgong's courageous performance in the women's race

Absolutely. Amazing.

Kipchoge has the performance of the day of course, followed by Sumgong and then Bekele in my opinion.

kmaclam wrote:

Damn, so with no pace car in front with clock showing predicted finish time as they have in a lot of these marathons, Kipchoge had no idea how close he was to the WR?!

Pace car with the clock only turns off with 400m to go.

yeah the fact that he can "train for just six weeks" in preparation for a marathon and come out and run 2:06 is unbelievable. someone on the broadcast said something about him "not being able to run over an hour in training".........

Metric Miler wrote:

jflo wrote:

And spare a thought for Sumgong's courageous performance in the women's race

Absolutely. Amazing.

Kipchoge has the performance of the day of course, followed by Sumgong and then Bekele in my opinion.

+1

It's pretty weird since a pace car was leading the women race

Bad coverage anyway, so little attention for male athletes....

I would rate it by performance not looking back

Sumgong -not just fall and get back up, but you win!

Bekele - After injuries and struggles such a pleasant surprise

Kipchoge - No Peer right now. Seriously it's not close. Would have probably broken the world record if that was his focus.

And that's not to discount Kipchoge's astonishing performance, but I think it's expected of him now.

Sumgong and Bekele surprised me

Dubjos wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

KIPCHOGE! Gotta be the big fav going into Rio.

Yes, if he is selected by AK

If the AK had any brains, and this is highly questionable, here is how they should do it.

Men.

1. Eliud Kipchoge

2. Stanley Biwott

3. This is up in the air.

Women:

1. Jemimah Sumgong.

2. Florence Kiplagat

3. Mary Keitany

Too bad that Gladys Cherono won't be there (I believe).

I think Mary was just unlucky today.

vampgaze wrote:

yeah the fact that he can "train for just six weeks" in preparation for a marathon and come out and run 2:06 is unbelievable. someone on the broadcast said something about him "not being able to run over an hour in training".........

Did Bekele really say this?

I mean, it would sort of be in line with his post-London 2012 Olympics statement that if he had had "just 2 more weeks" to train that he would have been gold-medal ready, but only 6 weeks for a marathon? And no run, regardless of type, over 1 hour?

I'm in London. They had a pace clock. At 37k is was 2:02:xx didn't catch exact seconds