So is Mo a world class half guy now?

I'm sure I can remember Farah

racing Kamworor in the World half in Cardiff (losing but still taking World bronze)

racing Bekele in the Great North Run

racing the London marathon despite knowing he had no prospect of winning even starting off in the second pacing group

There are a lot of 'set up' races in the UK which is nothing new at all, organisers like to give the British public what they want to see (a Brit winning, they don't know or care who else was there) plus Farah himself wants to protect his brand. No different from Coe and Ovett dodging each other so they could win all their races - especially Ovett who was trying to protect his long winning streak at 1500.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13086490.seb-coes-last-race-was-fixed-so-he-could-win-says-runner-who-took-10000-to-lose/

That's true, but those 2 races, if anything, give legitimacy to him being a world class half marathoner (which some people fail to grasp). Both were run against some of the greatest to ever do it. Him losing to Bekele at the Great North Run was one of the greatest half marathons I've ever seen (obviously not timewise but racewise). But my point still stands; Mo's ego was a big part of the races he ran and while many of the British races were catered to him winning, I'm sure he was also aware of who would be at the starting line as well. Sucks that he didn't go for the times he was clearly capable of running.

zinger wrote:

Jack Daniels equates his performance to 59:14 (he went through in 59:21). I think all the turns you make on the track must be worth around 10-15 seconds. He wasn’t wearing alphaflys either so maybe 58:40 +/- 10 seconds?

LMFAO so when Cheptegai runs 20ish seconds faster on the track in dragonflys than next% on the road, and all records are faster on the track; but Farah would be faster on the road blowing all expectations?

Oh Please wrote:

hgjghjgjh wrote:

21 men have run the half marathon below 59min. Mo’s performance yesterday was weaker than that. So of course he is world class, but he is not one of the all time greats at the half marathon.

It is however very impressive that he is running these times at age 37. Of course, Bekele ran a 2:01 marathon at age 37. But he is impressive too (it does not take anything away from Mo).

Mo is certainly one of the greatest sub master half marathon runners of all time.

You cannot compare to a road half marathon as Farah was subject to the track shoe rules and couldn't run in alpha flys. You put him in alpha flys on the roads with those guys, he will also run 58:30.

?

You do realize that Abdi was ahead of Mo at 20k and only finished a few meters behind Mo. how fast do you think Abdi is?

hystorian wrote:

zinger wrote:

Jack Daniels equates his performance to 59:14 (he went through in 59:21). I think all the turns you make on the track must be worth around 10-15 seconds. He wasn’t wearing alphaflys either so maybe 58:40 +/- 10 seconds?

LMFAO so when Cheptegai runs 20ish seconds faster on the track in dragonflys than next% on the road, and all records are faster on the track; but Farah would be faster on the road blowing all expectations?

I can see why you would think that, but let me explain why I said that.

First off, Cheptegei ran the world record with literally perfect pacing because of wavelight. In his road 5k, he didn’t have anyone help pace at all, If I remember correctly his first 1k split was the fastest he ran.

Now half marathons do not have wavelight, but they do have very experienced pacers who can take athletes through the majority of the race, easing the mental stress on the athlete and allowing them to relax into their pace.

Second, about the shoes. I do believe the Dragonfly spikes are one of the best options of spikes for 5k-10k, likewise I believe Vaporflys are the best option for road 15k-Marathon. We saw Rhonex Kipruto wear tradition Adidas shoes and he ran 26:24, so I do not believe for 10k and under vaporfly makes much difference. These are just the shoes Nike athletes are paid to wear.

However, there’s a big difference in wearing vaporfly for road 1 mile and road marathon. The shoes are made for marathon and will help the athlete preform better because that is their purpose.

Dragonfly is made for track 5-10k, not 21.3k. This is especially important in an event like the one hour run, because it is very very closely associated with Lactic Threshold. The lactate curve is exponential, so every second Mo Farah runs it gets increasingly harder. So spikes made for a shorter distance are going to be much more uncomfortable to run in at 20k than at 15k. I can’t imagine how much those athletes calves would be burning after an hour in spikes.

Finally I brought up the turn factor. For someone like Cheptegei running 5k on the track, it’s 12.5 laps, 25 turns in those laps. For Mo Farah, he’s running just over 53 laps, and just about 106 curves. So let’s say each turn costs a runner x seconds due to centrifugal force. Cheptegei only loses 25x seconds, but Mo loses 106x seconds. Now because Mo is running at a slower pace than Cheptegei’s 5k, it would be a little less, maybe 85-90x seconds.

So if you had a flat, straight road course (like Kipchoge ran in Vienna) with good pacing (Pacers almost as accurate as wavelight, or a pacecar), and distance far enough where you are able to establish a good rhythm, with proper footwear for the event it is clear to see that Mo Farah could run 58:40 instead of 59:14

You do realize that only 5 men have gone sub 58:40 in the history of the world.

Farah is nowhere near top 5 in any distance. His best is 12th in the 1500. He is also ranked 16th at 10,000, 37th at 5,000 and 64th at the marathon. He is ranked 94th at the half marathon.

So you are saying that he has finally found his calling in the half marathons? At the age of 37... that took a while.