high school xc coach wrote:
OozmaKappa wrote:
The what discipline? Now youre just making stuff up lmao
The scoring tables are literally designed to compare performances across disciplines, if you dont believe in them at all youre a flat earther. You dont have to believe that a 57:31 is equally impressive as a 3:26.2, but you have to acknowledge that the two performances are at least in the same ballpark.
It is difficult to put them in the same ballpark when you have a guy like kibiwott kandie running 57:32. He is awesome, but not an all-time great. It is a good record, but probably more similar to something like a 26:30-35 than a 26:00-26:10.
The 1500 is basically the gold standard of distance. Every great distance runner has taken a shot at it.
The 1500 is not a gold standard of anything any more than the 800 is. Or the 400. Or the 5000. You get the idea, event supremacists are stupid. ESPECIALLY not of distance, the mile isnt even a distance event. It's middle distance. If youre going to be an event supremacist, at least pick an event that makes sense like the 100m or Marathon. At least theres some logic there. Hell, I could use your exact same reasoning to say the 5000m is the gold standard. Everyone tries it. Ofc the real reason for that is bc it happens to be the goldilocks distance for distance running, not too long not too short, but my point stands. And this reasoning works better for the 5000 than the 1500.
Also, the scoring tables equate a 57:31 to a 26:15, not a 26 flat like you suggested. If there is a gap between how impressive the tables claim road races are and how impressive they actually are, it's evidently smaller than you and a lot of others think.
You say Kiplimo's WR is only as impressive as a 26:30-35, which is roughly 30 points away from what the tables have his WR at. Now keep in mind that theres only a 31 point difference between Kiplimo's 10k and Half PRs. If that gap we talked about exists, it has to be less than 31 points because I dont think anyones going to say Kiplimos 10k pr is more impressive than his Half wr, and Kiplimo definitely improved. So, the gap is less than 31 points but by how much is debatable.
Also, in regards to equating times to the 1500m, the comparisons seem especially off bc the perception of fast is skewed for milers. The mile is an event that historically sees a lot more hobbyjogging, which leaves people with the impression that sub 3:27 is untouchable, just like sub 1:42 in the 800. But they're not, we just see them less often than we should due to the nature of those events. So much so that we're lauding guys who barely break 3:30 despite having the aid of supertracks and superspikes.