Great races won by running from the front from the start

Aside from the pros, cons, and specifics of all the examples cited in this thread, what's the common theme that runs through almost all of them?

Yes, there are a few exceptions, but:

The overwhelming majority of the races mentioned are not at all recent.

There are quite simply very few mid-distance, and almost no distance, runners with any real courage anymore. It's all just sit-and-kick. And it very often reaches the point of absurdity when a high caliber field in a big race goes out slower than your average high school race. Maybe they pick it up some in the middle, maybe not. But the "race" doesn't start until usually the last 800 to 400. It's a waste, not to mention a sad commentary.

And, as has been discussed here and elsewhere before, this is one of the more significant reasons why our sport doesn't appeal more to a broad audience. As I've heard many times, what's the point of running or watching a 1500 or mile race, much less a 5000 or 10,000, that goes out idiotically slow and doesn't really become a race until the last 400 meters?

Jim Ryun's 3:51.1 WR mile in 1967

Ron Clarke's 10k WR

Filbert Bayi's 1500 and mile WRs in 1974 and 1975

Steve Prefontaine LA Times indoor mile

Dave Moorcroft WR 5k

Tom Byers mile beating Ovett and others

Frank Shorter's marathon in Munich

Joan Benoit's marathon in LA

va coach wrote:

There are quite simply very few mid-distance, and almost no distance, runners with any real courage anymore. It's all just sit-and-kick.

I think the fact that fewer races unfold this way these days has a lot more to do more with today's unprecedented depth across the board than it does with a lack of courage. Back in the days when Africans weren't on the scene, there were usually a small handful of guys capable of running within, say, 10-15 seconds of the 5K record at the time. Now in any Grand Prix meet you have five or ten men capable of going under 13:00. Running away has simply become a senseless tactic because it simply doesn't work. You won't string out a field that way, you'll just have a whole back working together -- by accident or by design -- that in all likelihood will mow you down.

va coach wrote:

There are quite simply very few mid-distance, and almost no distance, runners with any real courage anymore.

This is simply not true. There are many. However, it is a DUMB strategy in a world class race and the people that try are spit out the back of the pack never to be remembered. This is the reason it is not tried often.

Dylan Wykes in the 2010 Cal International Marathon!

Yeah the 1972 Mens 5K--waiiittt....

wilson kipketer at the 1997 indoor world championships. ran a 1:42.xx (still the current indoor world record) one of the greatest races against the clock in history. he also won outdoors that year in similar fashion. what a shame the poor guy never tasted olympic glory

Uh....almost every race won by Steve Prefontaine?

Rudisha 2012 Olympics.

Dingler wrote:

Kip Keino 1968 Olypic 1500m

WRONG

keino had his teammate ben jipcho take the pace out hard and sacrifice his race (something he later apologized for to ryun)

ME winning the Children's Museum 5k in 2008! Bam!

can anyone confirm if Bekele's 2008 Olympic 5000m run was entirely from the front? (missing footage of the first half)

even if it wasn't, he turned an already relatively decent pace into a burning final 2k.

there was some 800m last year where the guy went out from the gun and held on to win. I think he may have broken the WR too.

Tom Byers, winning rabbit, has to be the greatest race won by running from the front from the start.

He was perfectly ignored.

And he created the perfect gap that just couldn't be made up by Ovett and the others.

Any other example is an athlete being the class of the field and out running them.

This was a case of disrespect to a lower athlete who showed them up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28_WpclPgTo

Glenn Randall winning the Patriot's Day Hopkinton to Framingham 10K in 2012. For such an unknown to stomp a world class field was truly impressive.

Seriously, Glenn Randall winning the Pikes Peak Ascent in 2011.

I'm sorry, but the discussion should be about the second greatest example of front-running.

The greatest has to be the 1974 Commonwealth Games men's 1500m. Filbert Bayi went out solo in 54 seconds and 1:51 and had 10-15m on the field from the start. He broke a 7-year-old world record to win a major championship -- and the second place runner (John Walker) also broke the world record, and the third place runner (Ben Jipcho) essentially equalled the old world record (rounding from hundredths down to tenths).

You can see the effect of it in Kenny Moore's long Sports Illustrated article on Walker and Bayi, written in the run-up to the Montreal Games when they were expected to meet again. Walker assumed Bayi would go out in 53, 1:50, and 2:48, and he would have to find a way to hold on. The fact this race never happened at the Olympics is one of the sport's great losses ( . . . Walker, of course, won but in a slow time as without Bayi the field went through 800m in about 2:04).

Lisa Martin once won NYC from the front

david rudisha's wr at the 2012 Olympics