I posted this on the initial Tunnel Hill thread, but wanted to share it here, since this one is still going:
His splits according to the live results seem a little weird to me. 5:50 pace for the first 10.39 miles, 5:28 pace for the next 16.11, then he runs 5:56 pace coming in. Doesn't seem to be an issue with the timing mats because the runner in second had much steadier splits throughout.
What do people who know the 50-miler distance better than me make of these splits? Are the timing mats just off? Or is this how you would usually pace this? I get starting off conservative initially (not that it was even that conservative when world best pace was only ~2s per mile faster), but it seems like running 5:28 pace for that many miles, that early is almost suicidal? Does this mean that he could go a lot faster with proper pacing and more patience?