Daniel Komen appreciation thread - 3000m GOAT

Aouita record was done from a mighty runner called Henri Rono and that was 11 years old.

Ohhh my goood I'm KOMEN!

“Sports psychology” seems like mind control.

It’s not that popular internationally, but still an excellent world record.

There is no Dream 3000m for example, but there is a “Dream Mile” (in Oslo).

Daniel Komen was the best ever at this distance. Ultra unique combination of a sub 3.47 miler and sub 12.40 5000m guy - never been one before and never been one since.

But 3/4 sec a lap faster? For 7.5 laps? At that speed somewhere between 5 and 5.5 meters a lap quicker? Not a chance.

How much benefit is Komen getting in terms of impact fatigue reduction over 3000m? Probably minimal and whatever it is would be offset by the slight reduction in his peak ground force. Zero sum for me. Now, in terms of his training and recovery from racing - well I know for a fact DK never wore spikes in workouts (old school "super spikes" theory) so if he had maybe his workouts might have been fractionally quicker but that also doesn't simply correlate to higher ultimate potential. Who knows - The spikes he was wearing back then (the Jasaris - still the best racing spike ever in my opinion) were pretty darn good.

Now wavelight? Different story. Komen the ultimate speed metronome - had they set the lights to 58.5 (0.25 seconds faster a lap than he averaged), I could see him latching on to that and taking it pretty far - in fact funnily enough when you extrapolate that 1/4 second a lap over 7.5 of them it totals right around 1.75 seconds (1.875 to be exact) which funnily enough is right about what I think we would have run in todays environment 7.19.0 +/- a tenth of a second either side.

But 7.15? Pump the brakes Jimmy.

I have always been sort of mentally torn over whether I think Komen's 3K/2mile records or El G's 2K records is the most superior. If I watch Komen's 3K or 2mile I come away thinking..."Has to be one of the greatest track performances of modern history. Just sick to watch someone run back to back sub 4minute miles." But then I watch El G's 2K where he comes through 1600m in like 3:50.8...then kicks a 54sec last 400m. I think, "He ran it like it's just a workout I've got to finish...oh, okay coach, keep going? You want a 54 after a 3:50? No problem. Here I go." But for the sake of this short thread, soon to be lost in the annals of LetsRun storage servers...I'll say Komen...for now.

Sure Komen was gacked to the gills on chipmunk gonad extract but he did run those times and that's the main thing.

Komens is better. The 2000 is an extremely rarely-run event. 3:50.8 and then kicking in 54 sounds good don’t get me wrong, but El Guerrouj’s better records are the 1500 and mile.

Does he have a concept of time these days?

It's scarcely credible is it, that Komen runs just under 10 seconds faster than Aouita only a decade later. As you say, Rono's record had stood for 11 years, and Aouita breaking it was considered at the time one of his greatest achievements, arguably greater even than his 1500m WR.

I think the more impressive record is that Kenyans accounted for 40% of the sports doping positives last year. World leading. That could stand as long as Komen's record.

I'm with you, starting with this mile guy that was flying end of 1992.

Look at this. Aouita closed this race in 52 sec 94:

Something happened in the training methods.
An Aouita of 1985/1987 would eat someone like Morceli in terms of final speed.