Why is Craig Engels so happy with running a 13.36 5k?

John Wesley Harding wrote:

^ wrote:

If I have to explain it to you ... you are probably a numb skull. 1982 vs 2021 .. lol. Here’s another .. Ron Clarke ran 13:16.6 and 27:39.89 on dirt in 1965. Learn the sport ...

I’ve seen this recently (probably from you), but I don’t buy it until someone is able to provide evidence that Oslo (1965) and Stockholm (1966) still had dirt tracks. My understanding is that those Scandinavian spots had some of the fastest, most modernized tracks in the world and were likely synthetic by the mid-60s, and almost certainly not dirt.

Clarke’s WRs of 27:39.89 (Oslo 7/14/65) & 12:52.4 (3 mi / ~ 13:21 equivalent; London 7/10/65) were run on dirt/cinders...only 4 days apart... imagine that ..?!

You may have a point about the 1966 -13:16.6 5000 being run on a ‘modern’ track. I’ll continue to dig around for the track surface. Many knowledgeable track surface experts believe that the cinder/clay tracks were 1.5% slow. They certainly were not faster and the longer the event possibly they could degrade further ..depending.

Before u start saying they can’t run fast at 800 and 5000 remember that is not their distance and the number of times they ran that distance was minimal. If they were in time trial type races certainly they would have faster PRs

It is a little bit surprising becasue he was pretty good at XC and the 2-mile in high school. I also think he ran around a 7:50 3K; it's not like racing over a mile is unfamiliar. I think it's probably becasue he saw himself as a 800/mile type; I think he even ran on some 4x4s in high school and college. Btw, he didn't looked stressed for most of that 5K, in the right race I think he can run much faster.

This thread is interesting. It shows you why Matthew Centrowitz has an Olympic gold medal and Craig Engels has never been to the Olympics. Centrowitz's combination of natural speed and endurance is insane.

Cetnro is just as fast at Engels - Centro has a slightly better PR 1:44.62 versus 1:44.68 - but his endurance is WAY better. 13:00 vs 13:36. Throw in good tactics and you see why Centro won Olympic gold.

Engels has a good combo of the two - i mean he was a rare athelte that went sub 150, sub 410 and sub 900 in HS but Centro is at another level.

rojo wrote:

This thread is interesting. It shows you why Matthew Centrowitz has an Olympic gold medal and Craig Engels has never been to the Olympics. Centrowitz's combination of natural speed and endurance is insane.

Cetnro is just as fast at Engels - Centro has a slightly better PR 1:44.62 versus 1:44.68 - but his endurance is WAY better. 13:00 vs 13:36. Throw in good tactics and you see why Centro won Olympic gold.

Engels has a good combo of the two - i mean he was a rare athelte that went sub 150, sub 410 and sub 900 in HS but Centro is at another level.

Certainly Lopez Lomong has an impressive combo also but no medals. Lopez has 1:45.58, 12:58 and 27:04. It is obvious that Centro is superior to Engels by a large margin, 3:30.40 to 3:34.04, meaning 3.64 seconds which is huge at 1500m, and as you noticed, it is largely due to more endurance. Engels probably would do 28:30ish for 10000m while Centro would easily be in the 27:30ish range.

A kid in the Southland Conference ran just as fast (13:40) as well running two mile races and one 3K.

Centro had a 13:20 PR with his next best time being 13:47 before his 13:00. He had the benefit of being paced by Ahmed for that race too. Engels ran a race and as he said he went for the win, I think that Craig could run way faster in a time trial setting with a 12:47 guy pacing him for 4000+ meters

Centro's 13:20 was also a 9th place finish behind Ben True's 13:02, so clearly he got the best comp he could have that day