Peak Marathon Age - Paula vs Ryan

How about just letting the runner race the event he/she enjoys the most?

1. I think you mean Wanjiru, not Wanjuri. I think you also mean Lopes, not Lopez.

2. I would imagine the age varies depending on the individual.

3. Lopes may be an example (though nobody would ever know what he could have run in the marathon if he had tried it at a younger age) but certainly anecdotal evidence could never be used successfully as proof of any general concept.

4. I doubt that either Wanjiru or Hall are necessarily as concerned with the lengths of their careers are they are with the heights of their careers.

Classic Let's Run - reasonable question followed by flames! Reliable as ever!

Classic cross-over poster, would consider that to be a "reasonable question." Go back to RWOL.

Paula probably could have gotten the bronze in 2000, behind Takahashi and Lidia Simon

You make some interesting, oft debated points here, but I see right off a flaw in your premise- that Paula's "gift" was exclusively in the marathon. The counter to that is that Paula's 2 best times in the 10,000 were run in 2002 and 2004- AFTER she had been training for the marathon. And not only were they her PB's, they placed her in the top 5 performances of all time (and that includes 2 of the suspect Chinese times).

So one must ask- was there something wrong with her 10k training before 2000? or was she just missing that 1-2% of optimum aerobic base she neede to push to the top of the 10 list?

In response I'd say that Paula's 10K times, while clearly world class weren't nearly AS good as her marathon time relatively. Her was not exclusively to the marathon, but primarily.

Also, I think her amazing marathon ability may well be due, in part, to slow twitch fibers that detract from her ability to finish fast enough to be competitive over 10,000m at a major championship. In Sydney she ran a good fast even pace only to be outkicked. I don't see what more she could have done. By 2000 the event had just moved beyond her.

One thing to think about is that Wanjiru will most likely have hung them up by the time he hits peak marathon age. He's already got gold at 21, will likely put the world record out of reach for anyone other than possibly bekele by the time he is 22. I really don't see him running much past 30 if he accomplishes this much. Reason being is that he wont get better, if he is running 2:02 at 23 he will be back to running 2:05 again by his early 30's.

Neither has peaked, Paula does not need a god medal after winning London twice.

I thought Wanjiru only started running at 15. Did he do something similar to the Geb thing of running 10K to and back from school when he was younger? If he truly started running at 15, then the guy's just a genetic freak to have that much endurance six years later.

Careful there. When they say so and so only started running at such and such an age- they mean in an organized or competitive way. There' no doubt Wanjiru was doing the Kenyan 6 kilos back and forth from school every day since age 6 or whatever- as well as the occasional soccer game.

genetics wrote:

I thought Wanjiru only started running at 15. Did he do something similar to the Geb thing of running 10K to and back from school when he was younger? If he truly started running at 15, then the guy's just a genetic freak to have that much endurance six years later.

It shouldn't take 6 years to run a 2:06 in the marathon, the fact that it takes so many people so long is obviously lack of determination.

Didn't Paula's track times go down also after she started the marathon training?

This isn't the case for Hall, right?

How much has Hall run on the track since going to marathon training? Not even one full season.