Official INEOS 159 Challenge Discussion Thread

Roller skates are also passive devices. So too bicycles and fared recumbents.

So without the 4% shoes what does he run? 4% slower or 2:04-5'ish?

Regardless of the shoes; he still has to train to hold specific pace. Instead of bitching about the shoes, which apparently you don't have, go out and purchase a pair and see for yourself if or if not how much improvement you find.

Look at the rules for time trials in cycling; you cannot be within a much longer distance behind the cars. And if you go behind a car in a time trial it has to be orders of magnitude greater than the 2 feet. I was a 2:30s/Cat III runner/cyclist, and even running behind a single runner made it easier. Sure, in cycling you try to be as close as possible but that just says that closer is better, not that being further behind is useless.

In the case of the car with the large attachment above that would move air much more like a semi than a car. And that help from the car likely interacts with the benefit from the pacers.

That said, I think that 1:59 is still a huge accomplishment; one that I now think is like for EK, especially having seen Bekele duplicate is race time, meaning what is generally possible for the best is better than it used to be.

Qwertyuiopasd wrote:

Does anyone have an idea how much the pacemakers are being paid? 5, maybe 10 Gs?

As I recall, pacers get 15,000 pounds to show up and the same as a bonus if he breaks 2hr.

Kipchoge gets 1 mil to show up and 1 mil if he breaks 2hr.

Recall from where? Never seen that info made public? I heard 10k for the pacers, dunno if it's Euros or GBP.

Bootsontheground wrote:

Sitting beside the course as I type. Weather is looking good and they are doing final prep on the course at the moment.

Curiously, they have some LED scoreboards predicting a 2:02:40 finish.

As for the car/aero question, I can only speak from experience in car racing but there is certainly swirling and disturbed air very close to the back of a car - known as aero breakaway. That said, at the speeds we’re talking about, the aero benefit or otherwise has got to be negligible.

Cars are Audi SUVs this time, not a Tesla. I’ve seen three different Audis on the course this morning, two are camera cars and one is the pace car.

Boots on the ground too as I've landed and am making my way to Wien on the train !

Have you spotted any good areas to spectate? Does the finish fanzone have a good view of the final stretch?

So excited for this. The boys and I will be watching it together.

I think INEOS did an amazing job with this. They put out 4 quality documentaries and a bunch of other great content. They did a great job hyping it up and getting the word out.

This says he's wearing white 4'%. Well see

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-billionaire-the-olympian-and-the-quest-for-the-sub-2-hour-marathon-11570794264

ZidaneValor wrote:

So just for my own sanity, the race starts in less than 15 hours from now, correct?

8:15 am CEST (Europe)

2:15 am EST (US)

11:35 pm PST (US)

They rather choose to run in 9C/48F at start and are okay with ending in 12C/54F in sun than to start at 7C/44F which is interesting. I would have chosen the 7C, as the 12C in sunny conditions definitely have some effect but everyone got his own ideal temperature.

Some folks have predicted that Eliud will run even faster than 1:59:xx, perhaps 1:58:xx or even 1:57:xx.

Does anyone know what the arrangement is for him to speed up if in fact he feels capable? I would think that the pacers would go with him, but would they leave the car displaying the laser line at 2:00:00 behind them? When he slowed down in Breaking2, the car obviously kept on 2:00:00 pace without him.

I just find it funny that the pacers are going for 4.5km at a time. As if none of these 41 pacers could hold that pace for say, 10km or 20km at a time? Yet Kipchoge is expected to do it for the entire distance?

You'd think less noise from having pacers switching out every 13 minutes would be ideal.

UA Runner wrote:

I just find it funny that the pacers are going for 4.5km at a time. As if none of these 41 pacers could hold that pace for say, 10km or 20km at a time? Yet Kipchoge is expected to do it for the entire distance?

You'd think less noise from having pacers switching out every 13 minutes would be ideal.

Many of them are not used at running fast on roads. Ingebrigtsen is a track boy. He probably runs 27 mid-high on the track, but can only run in the 28s on a road 10k.

10k in Kipchoge pace is 28:26 on the roads, while frontrunning which the pacemakers need to do. You want them to be comfortable to run the pace, so 4.5k (exactly 1 straight) is more than enough. Hell, Henrik Ingebrigtsen would probably die doing a 10k leg on the roads in 28:26!

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

ZidaneValor wrote:

So just for my own sanity, the race starts in less than 15 hours from now, correct?

8:15 am CEST (Europe)

2:15 am EST (US)

11:35 pm PST (US)

They rather choose to run in 9C/48F at start and are okay with ending in 12C/54F in sun than to start at 7C/44F which is interesting. I would have chosen the 7C, as the 12C in sunny conditions definitely have some effect but everyone got his own ideal temperature.

Looks like the temp at the start will be a little higher. 50 degrees. And if I'm not mistaken the course is pretty shaded and it will be at least partially clouded too. Sun shouldn't be an issue.

I would have gone for the coolest temps with enough time after sunrise so there's good visibility. That may be what they are doing if the area is indeed well shaded. Any earlier and it may have been more difficult to see well. Plus, I'm a little more insulated than EK. 50 is probably cold to him.

This is a joke, Nike has become a joke, promoting doping putting on fake time trials with shoes that aid performance, a pace car to block the wind, 41 pacers, this is fiction.

Who cares.

Bootsontheground wrote:

Sitting beside the course as I type. Weather is looking good and they are doing final prep on the course at the moment.

Curiously, they have some LED scoreboards predicting a 2:02:40 finish.

As for the car/aero question, I can only speak from experience in car racing but there is certainly swirling and disturbed air very close to the back of a car - known as aero breakaway. That said, at the speeds we’re talking about, the aero benefit or otherwise has got to be negligible.

Cars are Audi SUVs this time, not a Tesla. I’ve seen three different Audis on the course this morning, two are camera cars and one is the pace car.

Nobody calls it that. And at the speeds they're going, the drafting effect is very real.

It's pretty obvious one of the keys to the "success" of this stunt is the drafting off the car. After the controversy with the Tesla+huge clock from Breaking2, this attempt has a bigger car and total frontal area for the car+clock+lasers is higher than it was in Breaking2.

And of course if they didn't want the car to be a factor, the car could be 50m in front of the runners and the lasers would still work. You know... like you can point a laser to the Moon and get a reflection back.

I'm excited! At the very least we get high quality marathon TV coverage for free. No women, no handicapped, no whatever.

I wish I was in Vienna. 8.15am on a gorgeous Saturday, you can go for a run in Prater park and you'll see Eliud fly by many times as he heads back and forth along the Prater Hauptallee. What a treat.

well that wouldn't work when the cars are going around the round abouts... the lasers would be cut off

I ran the course at noon today and it’s still pretty shady in parts at that time. I think that they are hoping for a small reduction in humidity with the later start. And being in among so many trees, the temp felt cooler than when I was out of the Prater on the way back to my hotel.