For Ex: How do I explain to my friend why Bekele doesn't run his world record pace to win the race since there is no one close to his pr? you know?
For Ex: How do I explain to my friend why Bekele doesn't run his world record pace to win the race since there is no one close to his pr? you know?
Really?
Are you sure YOU aren't a non-runner?
Just let him read this:
During the regular season Bekele has hired 'rabbits' he can draft off of to conserve energy early in the race. At some point they drop out and he continues on to run some ungodly time. Part of the reason he can run such ridiculous times has alot to do with those pacers. But during a championship race like the Olympics he's not going to have pacers because A). It's against the rules and B). The others runners want to win the race, not rabbit for another runner.
Since you don't have designated pacers in a championship race the race tends to be slower since no runners want to take the lead and let the other runners draft off of them. You use more energy leading the pack. If Bekele decided to run all out ahead of the pack there would inevitably be a couple of guys (Shihine, Kipchoge, Tariku, etc) who could just tuck in behind him and hang on until the last lap when Bekele would undoubtedyl be more tired than usual and they could just zip on past him in the home stretch. KB knows he could not run a WR time by leading the entire race. So Bekele will not take the lead. It would be too risky.
Usually, the runners who don't have the leg speed for a fast finishing kick will go out and lead since that's really their only chance to be in the mix at the end. They know that if they let the pace go too slow they will get utterly destroyed in the final lap by the runners with more sprint speed. But a beast like KB will let the race go considerably slower than WR pace because he knows he's got the wheels to drop a 52 on the last lap.