We asked John Capriotti to organise the attempt for the WR on track on 25k and 30k, after I saw the recovery of Moses Mosop after Boston Marathon. The WR was 30 years old, and not too difficult to better. My idea was to bring Abel Kirui, now at the beginning of his specific preparation for defending his title of World Marathon Champion, at the record of 25k, and after to increase the pace with Moses, at the moment faster than Abel in every distance we use.
For those reasons, I prepared a schedule looking at 1:13’40” for 25 km, and 1:28’ for 30 km.
I was interested in two things : to control the level of Moses and Abel in long run at the moment, and to better the records, but not in running at their max speed. This attempt must not be a “finalized” record, but a record coming during a phase of preparation without specific focus. The reason was : if we use sometimes sessions of 30 km fast like the WR on track, why don’t try one time to do this on track in official way, so the athlete becomes owner of one official WR ?
But, during last week before the attempt, Abel had a problem in one foot : during a session with the bike (sometimes we use with the goal to increase the frequency of the action), pedaling barefoot, he burnt the skin of one foot because of the friction with the belt of the pedale, and this provoked a little infection, so his left foot became painful and swollen. Consequentely, he had some problem in running fast for 25 km.
During the race, the fact Joel Kimurer tried to stay with Moses like a competitor, not like somebody for helping the pace, changed the plan. Moses decided to increase the speed for going alone, after realizing that Abel could not stay with Kimurer till 25 km, so there was no more reason to wait, but could run faster than the plan.
He went for two following laps in 63”2 and 65”2, covering the km between 17600 and 18600 in 2’42”, and when was alone put himself at a pace of 2’52” per km in comfortable way.
To try a record on track (75 laps !) is something very, very difficult. While during a road race you can organize good pacers till 30 km and you don’t need too much concentration (this what happened with Haile during his WR in Berlin), on track you can have a little aid only, and you have to go alone for the most part of the race, using the maximum level of concentration for long time. For this reason, an athlete like Haile, collector of WR, never tried the record of 25k and 30k on track (for him very easy to better), because this attempt requests a lot of nervous energies, and is not possible to try too close to an important competition.
What Moses showed was absolutely impressive, and this is the reason because I think possible, in one year time, to try to run a marathon at an even pace of 29’ every 10 km (29’ / 58’ / 1:27’ / 1:56’), giving a final time under 2:02’30” in the marathon.
At the moment, we don’t have any specific training for fast and long endurance, so his time can be considered a “basic” value at the beginning of a preparation. Moses is now stronger than in Boston, because, after a top performance, every athlete can start again from a higher level, if doesn’t spend too much time relaxing, LOSING WHAT ALREADY HE HAD.
He can run a full marathon, still without specific preparation, under 2:05:00 at the moment, without many problems. During the attempt, he could arrive till 35 km adding another 5 km in 14’43”, for a total of 1:41’, so the goal of 4x10 km in 29’ in the race is not very far, already before starting the special period.
Here there are his split for km :
1k : 2’57”6 2’57”6
2k : 5’53” 2’55”4
3k : 8’49”8 2’56”8
4k : 11’44”8 2’55”
5k : 14’40”8 2’56”
6k : 17’34”6 2’53”8
7k : 20’28”4 2’53”8
8k : 23’25”2 2’56”8
9k : 26’21” 2’55”8
10k : 29’19”6 2’58”6
11k : 32’15”2 2’55”6
12k : 35’10”8 2’55”6
13k : 38’06”6 2’55”8
14k : 41’01”8 2’55”2
15k : 43’54”2 2’52”4
16k : 46’46”8 2’52”6
17k : 49’39” 2’52”2
18k : 52’24”4 2’45”4 (with one lap in 63”2)
19k : 55’11”2 2’46”8
20k : 58’02” 2’50”8
21k : 1:00’53”7 2’51”7
22k : 1:03’46”4 2’52”7
23k : 1:06’38”8 2’52”4
24k : 1:09’31”8 2’53”
25k : 1:12’25”2 WR 2’53”4
26k : 1:15’17” 2’51”8
27k : 1:18’12”5 2’55”5
28k : 1:21’07”2 2’54”7
29k : 1:24’00”2 2’53”
30k : 1:26’47”4 WR 2’47”2
For fractions of 5 km :
14’40”8 + 14’38”8 + 14’34”6 + 14’07”8 + 14’23”2 + 14’22”2
For fractions of 10 km :
29’19”6 + 28’42”4 + 28’45”4
For fractions of 15 km :
43’54”2 + 42’53”2