Geoffrey Mutai 2:03:02!!! in Boston Where Does it Rank?

hell yeah wrote:

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2. Moses Mosop KEN 2:03:06

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I don't think the marathon debut record will be going anywhere for a long time now.

The best maratnon in the history of the world. Hands down. I think we have all 10 of ESPNs top plays of the day and of the week.

Unreal. I can't even fathom that last 10k

Moses Mosop should be a DQ as he did not have a BQ!!!

HAHAHAHHAA

That is the new Kenyan way of winning races! The Ethiopians(Tsegay Kebede 29:11 last 10k)started it and now we take the war to their backyard!!! How about that! Gebremariam, a well known sit-and-kick, could not give an answer to that!

I thought world records don't count at Boston. Net elevation drop?

Greatest Ever wrote:

The best maratnon in the history of the world. Hands down. I think we have all 10 of ESPNs top plays of the day and of the week.

Yeah, there was that one time when he ran faster than the person next to him, and the other time he passed that guy going too slow, and then when he crossed the line and stopped running... Oh, man. Those are some exciting highlights to put in the replay reel.

yourendisnear wrote:

I thought world records don't count at Boston. Net elevation drop?

It won't count. It will be called a World Best, not a World Record.

How much time do you think the wind gave them? It has to be a couple of minutes at least.

hell yeah wrote:

The fastest marathon ever run by almost a minute.

Huge tailwind but still 2:03:02!! Mutai should thank Ryan Hall for setting the early pace.

Kenyan XC Champ and Boston marathon champ in the same year.

Name Ctry Time

1. Geoffrey Mutai KEN 2:03:02

2. Moses Mosop KEN 2:03:06

3. Gebregziabher Gebremariam ETH 2:04:53

4. Ryan Hall USA 2:04:58

5. Abreham Cherkos ETH 2:06:13

6. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot KEN 2:06:43

7. Philip Kimutai Sanga KEN 2:07:10

8. Deressa Chimsa ETH 2:07:39

9. Bekana Daba ETH 2:08:03

10. Juan Carlos R. Cardona, Sr. COL 2:12:17

Actually it's the fastest marathon ever run by four seconds...

LETS MF RUN wrote:

Actually it's the fastest marathon ever run by four seconds...

I laughed when I read it, but it's a good point.

The fastest marathon ever run and a guy who had never run one before was only 4 seconds back. Hopefully Renato Canova (coach of second place Mosop) will get on here and post about the wind and what he thought of Mosop's run.

Greatest Ever wrote:

The best marathon in the history of the world. Hands down. I think we have all 10 of ESPNs top plays of the day and of the week.

The races were very, very exciting and Davila's bid for victory was truly special.

That being said, your statements go way to far. The times were amazing but so the tailwind was equally as amazing.

I remember back in college when Obadele Thompson ran 9.69 for 100m in a college meet at UTEP in 1996 back when the world record was 9.85.

No one in their right mind called it the greatest performance in history as the tail-wind was an ridiculous 5.7 mps (the time converts to 9.93 with no wind or 9.95 dependig on who you are talking to).

Well today let's say the winds were roughly 20 mph (i saw 19 with gusts to 33 mph).

What does a 20 mph wind convert to in mps? 8.9408(20 miles x 1609.344 meters / 3600 seconds) . Nearly twice as much as Thompson's.

As we pointed out in our pre-race article, which we entitled "Once In A (Marathon) Lifetime Weather Conditions Forecast For Boston On Monday", that is worth a ton of time. How much? Some like JK might say 3-4 minutes.

If you don't want to believe me, do the following. Go to the wind/conversion site that exists for sprinting.

Input today's performances. Mutai's marathon time today comes out to him running 17.49496883 per 100 meters.

Input 8.9408 for the wind and input 70 meters for altitude (as the race roughly starts at 70m of altitude and finishes at 0) and you end up with an equivalent time of 17.83 seconds per 100 meters if run with zero wind at sea level.

Multiply that by 421.94988 (there are 421.95 100 meter segments in a marathon)to get the total time for the marathon of 7523.36636 seconds or 2:05:24.

Now that's not 3-4 minutes but you get my point. It's worth a lot. When JK actually wakes up from his nap (I think he's been asleep all day), I'll ask him about that sprint/conversion chart. But he was clearly proven to yet again be a genius today.

It sort of reminds me of when I used to run road races. I would only run road races that were certified as I couldn't stand it when there would be clearly a short course and hear people counting it as their PR. If you run 5 road certified road races at 15:10 and then one day run 14:30 on a non-certified course, you shouldn't say your PR is 14:30 as it was likely short.

It's true that Boston cannot count for World Records, but the elevation drop is not the assistance that it would seem. Much of the elevation drop is in the first half of the race. Prior to today, most of the best times at Boston had been run by reverse-splitting. The downhills of the 1st half of the course can kill your legs if you aren't smart. Now the fact that it's point-to-point can be a big assistance on days like today. That being said, it was a spectacular day on the course and will remembered for many years. Guys had broken 2:09 and were just filing down the finish chute system like no big deal. A phenomenal day.

The thing is that by running downhill the first half of the race you are less tired the 2nd half than you normally would be on a flst course. Then throw in the tailwind and yikes. Not to mention the fact that when you are tired and slowing down the wind will push you along and prevent you from slowing down. Huge benefit in many ways.

I don't think anyone's arguing the net downhill is much of a benefit for Boston. It's ALL about the tailwind, as rojo so well wrote.

Well if the wind was similar to 1994, I would say 2 mins. Add another min for the downhill course (and don't whine about beating your legs up and stuff. Weigh 110lbs and have good downhill form and it isn't an issue) and you had a fast race but nothing insane.

DontFeedTheTroll wrote:

How much time do you think the wind gave them? It has to be a couple of minutes at least.

Mutai's 2:03:02 is the equivalent of a 2:04:32 on a fast course under ordinary good conditions.

That's the answer and I'm sticking to it.

LETS MF RUN wrote:

Actually it's the fastest marathon ever run by four seconds...

Well......

For the duration of 4 seconds his time was the fastest ever by almost a minute. But after that 4 seconds was up, it became the fastest ever by only 4 seconds.

I hate to burst your bubble but since wind resistance is exponential you can't use sprint speeds to calculate the difference for marathon speeds.