Zersenay Tadese 58:22 WR

The same people who run great half marathons will be running great marathons. This is the reality of modern marathoning: less focus on total volume, more focus on quality training and superior half marathon capability as the final steppingstone.

Tadesse will be fine in the marathon so long as he does not go out too slow or try to plod to somehow save himself. Basically he runs as fast as he can for as long as he can. I imagine he will be quite comfortable at 2:55/k, more or less a usual training pace for him. Aggressive racing is the best strategy and if he slow he slows.

Personally I'd like to see Tadesse point towards <58 here but it must be difficult to turn down the big marathon payday. A tremendous and well deserved WR today.

running on the balls of his feet

do you know his volume?

OMG COURSE IS NOW BEING SAID IT IS NOT SANCTIONED!!!!

good god playa what pace is thait

ewewe wrote:

to answer myself: they have obviously changed the course in 07 or 08 and is now within the limits.

Only the world top class runners did the legal course measure and they start in a different place All the rest of the runners they start on the Tagus bridge and come down in a illegal record course that does more downhill than admited.

I predict a 2:03:40 or DNF at the london marathon

gotta say if one believes in the Sammy Wanjiru School of Peaking, then either Tadesse is peaked too early and is screwed or will be in shape for a 2:02 marathon in London.

What pace per mile is that?

Greetings from Portugal

Classifications

1.º Zerzenay Tadese (Eritreia), 58.23 minutos

2.º Sammy Kitwara (Quénia), 59.47 m

3.º Emmanuel Mutai (Quénia), 1.00.03 h

4.º Duncan Kibet (Quénia), 1.00.21 h

5.º Gilbert Masai (Quénia), 1.00.28 h

6.º Jaouad Gharib (Marrocos), 1.00.33 h

7.º Gedion Ngatuny (Quénia), 1.01.07 h

8.º Mathew Kisorio (Quénia), 1.01.10 h

9.º Samuel Kosgei (Quénia), 1.01.57 h

10.º Ernest Kebenei (Quénia), 1.02.01 h

rod

wmns

1.ª Peninah Arusei (Quénia), 1.08.38

2.ª Askale Tafa (Etiópia),1.10.46

3.ª Fernanda Ribeiro (Portugal), 1.12.17

4.ª Maria José Pueyo (Espanha), 1.13.21

5.ª Olga Glok (Rússia), 1.14.00

6.ª Ksenia Agafonova (Rússia), 1.14.24

7.ª Elizaveta Grechishnikova (Rússia), 1.14.29

8.ª Mónica Rosa (Portugal), 1.14.35

9ª Constantina Dita (Roménia), 1.14.39

10ª Cruz Silva (Brasil), 1.14.58

London to be a total slugfest?

Entrants:

Wanjiru - course records in Fukuoka, Beijing, London, Chicago

Tsegaye Kebede - most underrated marathon guy in the world, absolutely rocked Fukuoka '09

Martin Lel - making comeback? best on the planet 15 months ago

Tadese - 58:23 WR - best on the planet right now?

not to mention

09 World Champ Abel Kirui (2:05:07)

Duncan Kibet (I think he's washed up but a year ago 2:04 guy)

Jaouad Gharib

http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/news-and-media/news-and-media/champions-return-defend/

UNSANCTIONED COURSE!

HAHAHAHAH!

NO WORLD RECORD FOR THE DOPING CHEATER!

Nice run for Ribeiro, now age 40.

Fernanda Ribeiro (Portugal), 1.12.17

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernanda_Ribeiro

dsrunner has the day off wrote:

The same people who run great half marathons will be running great marathons. This is the reality of modern marathoning: less focus on total volume, more focus on quality training and superior half marathon capability as the final steppingstone.

People have been saying stuff like this for a very long time (except that they used to talk about people who run great track times, not people who run great half-marathons, because the half-marathon was a bastard event that was rarely run).

Some great half-marathoners never become great marathoners, despite repeated attempts. The wheels just seem to come off at some point during the last 10k. We'll just have to see if Tadese can cross over. A few years ago, I thought that he might be the next great marathoner. I'm less confident of that now. He's a beast of a runner, but I just don't know whether he can push all the way through a marathon the way he can in a half-marathon. I'd like to see him break through, though.

I don't know whether the best marathoners are doing more or less volume than the best were doing twenty-five years ago. And I wouldn't trust self-reported volume, since many of the best runners underreport their training volume.

Avocados Number wrote:

We'll just have to see if Tadese can cross over. A few years ago, I thought that he might be the next great marathoner. I'm less confident of that now.

Why on earth would you be LESS confident of him becoming a great marathoner now compared to a few years ago?? Just because he had that DNF in london last year?? But then he follows that up with superb runs on the track, and a mind-boggling 1/2 marathon. So c'mon, there is no reason to doubt he will run a fantastic marathon. You don't run 58:22 and not be able to run low 2:04's.

First, my congratulations to Zer man Tadese. He is a hard worker and every time he steps on the line to compete, he does not disappoint.

Second, Tadese's performance today should spur Wanjiru to action(that is if there is anything still left in him). I think he went up too quickly when he still had a chance to improve on the shorter distances like 10k track and 10k road upto the half marathon. Apart from February 2008, Wanjiru has not run any sub 60 minute half. It would have been interesting to see Tadese in his current form and the 2007 Wanjiru. These two guys would have made a 57 minute half marathon look easy. It is not too late for Wanjiru to return to half and give a try.

Last, I think Wanjiru is pulling out of this years London. Lets wait and see. I know he doesn't like defeat and what Tadese has done to his record got to be demoralising. We pray for the man.

Rush OBeckity wrote:

[quote]Avocados Number wrote:

Why on earth would you be LESS confident of him becoming a great marathoner now compared to a few years ago?? Just because he had that DNF in london last year?? But then he follows that up with superb runs on the track, and a mind-boggling 1/2 marathon. So c'mon, there is no reason to doubt he will run a fantastic marathon. You don't run 58:22 and not be able to run low 2:04's.

I said "the next great marathoner," not "a great marathoner." His London performance last year is certainly one reason to be less confident that he will be "the next great marathoner." He didn't just DNF; he seemed to get ground down by the distance. Another reason is the rise of runners like Wanjiru in the intervening years; it's hard to be "the next great marathoner" if younger guys are already at the top. A third reason is that, although Tadese is running superbly, his performance trajectory from approximately 2003 to perhaps early 2007 (just to include Mombasa) was sharply upward (I think he went from something like 27:30 in 2003 and around 27:20 in 2004 to something like 26:37 in 2006, followed by an X-C world championship the next spring); his overall performance level has remainly impressively high, but has not continued to improve dramatically, if at all (despite his performance in Lisbon today). Finally, I simply wonder if his running style is better suited to the half-marathon. He's not the classic marathon floater or glider; he pushes and pulls his hunched-over body along, and that may give him problems late in a marathon. None of those reasons suggests that he can't run a superfast marathon, but I just don't have quite the same sense of anticipation about his marathoning career as I did a few years ago.

4:28 pace