I used to be a couple seconds slower than these guys at 800, and I feel like a lot of posters here don't really understand elite 800's.
A few things:
1: There is no worse thing that getting into a shoving match with a bunch of chopped strides in a pack. It takes *soooo* much out of you. You're f@#$@ed. Murphy lost this race in the first 300.
2. Because of (1), there are two positions that give you a good chance: in the front (either leading, directly behind the person who is leading on the rail, or on the leader's shoulder), or in DFL. Being in the middle of the pack is going to force you to weave, to push and shove, to stutter step. You're F$#@#$ed.
You can win from the back. (Assuming lane one opens up and you can pass almost everyone there in the final 500, but it does more than you'd think. You get precisely one move in lane 2 in the last 600 of an 800, and zero in lane 3.). You can win from the front. Otherwise, if you are not on the rail but are in the middle of the pack, you'd better hope you're just way better than everyone else.
Also, I *hated* people who went out like a gun to get to 200 in the lead and then threw on the brakes immediately to run the next 200 in 30. Especially when those people were sub 46 400 guys who you were frankly just not beating to the pole. (Yes, this happened to me more than once). It's a terrible strategy if there is anyone in the race willing and in position to immediately pass you and take it out through 400 hard, but if there's not, it just completely @#$#s up anyone in positions 4-7 (including frequently causing falls). And you have less control of exactly what position you end up in off the first curve than you'd think if you start out in the outer lanes.