Slow Run wrote:
If you look at the photos of the race and see him there at the finish, that hill behind him looks pretty damn big to me! This is a tremendous confidence booster for him, but how real is it? He will get his "honest chance" to prove it coming up very soon!
Agreed, it's basically a free fall for running.
The course has zero relevance to the track.
How's that work?
D3 for free wrote:
If its the same Jacob Austin, the guy who got 7th raced at D3 nationals a few days ago. He ran 3:51 in the 1500 this year.
It is, he is from a really small town about 40 minutes SW of St. Charles.
J.R. wrote:
Agreed, it's basically a free fall for running.
The course has zero relevance to the track.
Incorrect. A person's best time for a Rubik's cube has zero relevance to the track. A person's downhill mile time has some relevance. This tells us a lot more about his ability than, say, a 400m time trial would.
Judging from responses it appears he's certainly under 4:10 shape for a mile, perhaps 4:05.
Slow Run wrote:
If you look at the photos of the race and see him there at the finish, that hill behind him looks pretty damn big to me! This is a tremendous confidence booster for him, but how real is it? He will get his "honest chance" to prove it coming up very soon!
Here's the thing, was this his first "track" race of the season? He just started working out more than once a week on the track. Who thinks he's actually near peak form at this point? He was just blowing the tubes out to a 3:56 road mile, and he appeared to be enjoying himself a bit much coming into the end to have completely blasted himself.
I started out a season at 4:20 for a mile and got down to 4:10, and even when I opened the season I had been doing 2-3 track workouts a week during the winter months.
I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him run under 4 on the track this summer if he has a couple good attempts (webb like attempt would be ideal).
Why is this thread so hot right now? This course was obviously wicked fast and this time isn't that impressive at all.
well im sure he's got the other dream milers sweating, since before this race his mile seed was the slowest...it sounds like the downhill helped or maybe im just saying that because im jealous, who knows man.
I'd say the course is greatly aided if some guy you've never heard of runs 3:53.
ExCoastRanger wrote:
I'd say the course is greatly aided if some guy you've never heard of runs 3:53.
How much is greatly?
Do you know all of the sub 4:05 guys?
Bad Area wrote:
ExCoastRanger wrote:I'd say the course is greatly aided if some guy you've never heard of runs 3:53.
How much is greatly?
Do you know all of the sub 4:05 guys?
well considering we know the guy isn't a super stud. He's a 29min/1:06 HM guy.
There aren't many 29min/1:06 guys who are 3:53 milers, let alone sub 4 milers.
Rakunishu wrote:
Why is this thread so hot right now? This course was obviously wicked fast and this time isn't that impressive at all.
You're right...that's a pretty average time for a 17 year old. But if he was a 16 year old sophmore, then that would be good!
4:02.56y at Lukas' next track race (provided that it's the mile). You heard it here first.
4:08 is more likely.
Honestly I've participated in these downhill mile races before and you are usually around 15 seconds faster than you normally are, I'm really surprised this is much talk at at all honestly, I thought LRC memebers were supposed to know more about running.
Hell, this is on the level of the Joggers world and Dean K crowd.
Earlier in this thread it was stated that the net elevation drop was 70 feet. Another poster said it was 200 feet.
To clarify, it is 70 feet. I live near St. Charles, IL. There are no 200 foot drops in any mile within a very wide radius. The designers of Illinois used a rolling pin to set up the land out here. If I want a decent hill workout; I have to do endless repeats on small hills.
Let's keep this all in perspective -- if he were Kenyan, we'd all be saying the same thing: "Why is that Kenyan so white?"
You really think that all of the other guys in the race are that slow on a flat track? Didn't Ptacek run 3:44? I know Andrew Nelson has run a 4:09 mile at the MDG, and Jacob Austin just ran 3:51 at D3 Nationals.
dfcameron wrote:
Earlier in this thread it was stated that the net elevation drop was 70 feet. Another poster said it was 200 feet.
To clarify, it is 70 feet. I live near St. Charles, IL. There are no 200 foot drops in any mile within a very wide radius. The designers of Illinois used a rolling pin to set up the land out here. If I want a decent hill workout; I have to do endless repeats on small hills.
Didn't Coach Kellogg (sp?) have a conversion factor for downhill races? It was something like for every 1.8 meters downhill, add 1 second to your time to get the flat equivalent.
70 feet is approximately 21.336 meters. 21.336/1.8 = 11.85 seconds.
So, roughly a 4:08 flat mile according to this formula. Does that seem reasonable? I'm surprised no one has brought this formula up yet.
If this race had a constant gradient, instead of the one big drop 3/4th into the race, would it have affected the times or would the times still have been the same?
bottom line: the dude is a super talent, a class act, and track is not his only sport. it's not sub-4 but it's pretty damn impressive. give the kid some props.
The guy who won that no one knows was a Spira sponsored runner it looks like. Aren't those shoes banned by usatf because they aid performance?