Did the Olympic Channel just unknowingly reveal how Des Linden (and Yuki) won 2018 Boston? Des has a 19.6% body fat percentage

If anything, I'd say it's a combination of higher body fat and lower surface area -- surface area might be the more important factor, as it is with cooling the body during hot conditions.

Second, Rojo, this was a lie: I'm not sayings it's the only reason why she won but a key reason. Perhaps the title isn't clear but I only had like 118 or 128 characters to work with. I didn't have enough space to write, " Did the Olympic Channel just unknowingly reveal a key reason as to how Des Linden (and Yuki) won 2018 Boston? Des has a 19.6% body fat percentage".

You could have easily condensed it to "Did the Olympic Channel unknowingly reveal a key reason how Desi and Yuki won Boston 2018? Desi has 19.6% body fat."

Very simply, 19 less characters than what you wrote. It's ok to make click bait headlines, but don't deny it after the fact.

The Angel of Death wrote:

This whole premise of this thread is insane and is why running (especially with female athletes) has, and will continue to have, an eating disorder epidemic. Des is skinny as hell and even saying "has a relatively high body fat % to other runners" perpetuates an absolutely unhealthy archetype of what a successful runner should look like. You can see her ribs when she's wearing her singlet for crying out loud.

People need to stop obsessing over crap like this and conversations like these need to end for the sake of the sport and athletes.

I get what you're saying and agree that obsession over trying to be a particular weight is not healthy and can lead to disordered eating, however, in this particular situation, I disagree with the quote above. This thread is not fat shaming Des; it's basically acknowledging that majority of elite distance runners are at body fat percents under the low end of what is considered healthy for the normal population and Des happens to be higher than this, but within the healthy range of body fat (low end of it) and is one of the top female marathoners in our country. This is exactly the kind of thing we should be talking about to counter the belief that you have to be a certain body type or size to be fast. This shows that you can be in a healthy, normal body fat range and still be very good at distance running. The hypothesis that this slightly higher body fat % may have helped her suceed over other pros w/ lower body fat who got hypothermia and dropped out or ran terribly is an interesting point to consider. Of course that's not the only reason she won, but it certainly could have been a factor that gave her an advantage over skinnier runners.

It took months until I felt normal again after that Boston. That was the strangest race I’ve ever experienced.

I don’t doubt that body fat helped her. Also she chose better equipment than her competitors.

But the even with those things the main factor was her mental toughness from training through Michigan winters. I mean 35 degrees and rain is a nice weather day in Michigan during the winter.

Virtual Racer wrote:

How do you explain Sarah Sellers 2nd place finish then, she’s really slim?

Sellers ran 2:44. He needs to explain how someone ran 2:44? Everyone else dropped out. Someone had to win.

Plus wasn't Sellers just getting back into it? Here is a photo of her in the race. Doesn't look super thin.

You did it by 2 characters. Your post is perfect. Try doing that when you are working to a 1 am sleep deprived with a two year old.

rojo wrote:

You did it by 2 characters. Your post is perfect. Try doing that when you are working to a 1 am sleep deprived with a two year old.

Rojo defensive as always. Whenever there's a chance to be defensive, remember, you have more options: to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other person's point, or to move on and acknowledge you just disagree.

In this case, as usual, you rushed in with a reason you shouldn't be expected to do better. It's a weird concession wrapped up in an excuse. Just own something, man.

You can just say that your post isn't perfect and leave it at that, or you could play these ego games.