Well okay, you think (based on trying to look at notoriously innacurate "instantaneous pace data" I pressume?) that Rob ran a downhill for 1/3 of mile heading into Tennessee Valley at sub 5-min pace? Yeah I admit that could be true....for a quarter of a mile downhill. I'm not sure how you think you calculated those exact speeds for less than 1/2 of a mile in distance though? His fastest actual mile split of the race was a 5:26....on that downhill at mile 48. It is all right here: https://www.strava.com/activities/188173878/overview Yeah maybe for 100m or 200m here and there he hit sub 5-min pace but there are no mile splits that were sub 5 min miles from him....and there were no sub 5-min miles from me when I ran 6:07 on the 51.7 mile course in 2014. Well it does look like you split a 4:54 at mile 5 (your fastest). But then again you only ran just about half the race and then dropped out? FYI part of the reason you probably cramped was because you didn't pace yourself very well. Nobody in the lead pack who wants to finish top 10 will drop a sub 5:00 mile so early in the race (Not even Max King)...even on that first big downhill at mile 5 in dry conditions.
zzzz wrote:
I checked out Rob's TNF race in 2013 on strava. From 41.7 to 42 miles he was sub-5, going as fast as 4:34 pace. Coming into Tennessee Valley at mile 43, he was going as fast as 4:24 pace (briefly). So the reports were accurate.
As for me, yeah, I really did drop a 4:46 in the race in 2015. I wasn't in the lead because I'm a hobby jogger who hasn't really trained since 1991. I haven't done hill repeats since the early '90s, and was at least 15 lbs heavier than PR weight, so I suck going uphills (though I run in the mountains all the time). I was in about 40th right before the downhill, and passed 30 people or so on that downhill to make it into the top 10/lead pack. I was thinking, why are people going so fast on the uphills, but so slowly on the downhills?
I'm a short distance trail runner, and my usual running (jogging 10 mpm pace on trails/not really training) and/or physiology means that I've only done well on races less than about 1 hour 50 minutes. I've cramped in every running race I've ever done longer than that. I had raced my local trail race series in the fall (15 to 35 minute long races), so TNF50 felt like it was basically easy running in the race (both up and down hills), until it wasn't. My legs couldn't go anymore on Cardiac, so I jogged/walked it in to Stinson for a DNF. Yes it's on strava. The 4:46 was from about 3.7 to 4.7 miles, and it looks like I hit 4:05 pace momentarily.
https://www.strava.com/activities/445071336