Bernard Lagat Making His Half Marathon Debut at NYC Half

He has said that he has upped his mileage and endurance work this winter. Watch out.

I don't get it - in a WC year - probably his last WC year - he wants to go experimenting? WTH? He should wait til next yr - no Olys, no WC...he should compete at world indoors and then do a bloody half marathon, just to see. Then if he gets thrashed he has months to recover.

Now he is going to do a half, then take a week off, then build for USAs? I think this is nuts.

Or he just runs a relaxed 61:30 and calls it a day - without thrashing himself. he is a 15/5k guy, not a long distance runner - I don't expect much here.

Personally I've never found the hills in the park to be that bad. It helps a lot that they are in the first half of the race. Up front, the elites will probably pack together and keep the pace modest because no one will want to push over the more difficult section of the course. All the real racing will be done on the flats, which will likely benefit Lagat.

might be wejo wrote:

coach d wrote:

Lagat takes a short break after the indoor comp phase, but given that there's no indoors this year, the half actually might fit into his training style.

Huh? Lagat just ran an AR at two miles.

The course does a big loop of the park and then goes along the Hudson all the way to the finish pretty much. The first half is rolling and the second half is pancake flat/slightly downhill. The net is downhill (~70 ft). I believe the year Rupp ran it there was a nice tailwind, although that might not hold true for other years. In general the course is on the easier side of things.

I meant no WORLD Indoor Championships this year (and many elites aren't even competing now because of that). In a normal year, Lagat would be doing the WIC, not the NYC Half.

A 7:30 3000m runner will run comfortably at 3'/km (and for many miles) whatever the weekly mileage.

might be wejo wrote:

Personally I've never found the hills in the park to be that bad. It helps a lot that they are in the first half of the race. Up front, the elites will probably pack together and keep the pace modest because no one will want to push over the more difficult section of the course. All the real racing will be done on the flats, which will likely benefit Lagat.

last yr two africans went out at 4:30 pace for the first 6m - not sure why it would be different this yr.

I was under the impression that around 13 miles in 70-72 minutes was a regular (dare I say weekly when not racing) occurrence.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/sports/othersports/25runner.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444032404578006274010745406.htmlhttp://www.browndailyherald.com/2011/02/16/qa-with-bernard-lagat/http://preview.universalsports.com/news-blogs/article/newsid=401582.html

coach d wrote:

A couple of things to keep in mind here:

(1) Lagat DOES run that far. He just doesn't do it often. I recall him doing 14 miles in 75 minutes after his fall break in 2011. And that's about as "slow" as he ever goes.

(2) Lagat does two annual 10-week cycles, each of which start with longer stuff and end with shorter stuff, and then comp for a while. Many of his longer intervals are NOT done on a track. So it actually wouldn't be that on usual for him to do a long, hard run on the roads sometime in March.

Lagat takes a short break after the indoor comp phase, but given that there's no indoors this year, the half actually might fit into his training style.

No doubt he'll get a pile of money to run.

wejo wrote:

He was a 2 time all-american in XC. 11 times in track and XC.

1997i 4th 4:02.21 mile

1997o 4th 3:42.12

1997xc 4th

1998i 2nd 7:46.45 3000m

1998o 8th 3:46.88 1500m

1998o 16th 14:12.38 5000m (16th place in the 5000 is All-America?)

1998xc 7th

1999i 1st 3:55.65 mile

1999i 1st 7:54.92 3000

1999o 4th 3:48.88 1500m

1999o 1st 14:01.09 5000m

* wrote:

statingtheo wrote:

I hear he is only going to run the first half. Scouting the course to be ready for the full distance NEXT YEAR!

So he'll do a half half marathon this year and a full half marathon next year?

No, he's going to do a 1/2 of a 1/2 marathon this year, and a full 1/2 of a marathon next year.

I did a 12 mile training run with Lagat at 5:40 pace at 4000 ft. once, and he didn't make it seem like it was anything out of the norm for him. Granted, that is much slower than 1:00 pace, but he wasn't struggling by any means (I was).

agip wrote:

last yr two africans went out at 4:30 pace for the first 6m - not sure why it would be different this yr.

In 2011, the pack was tight exiting the park. Last year Deriba Merga, known to be very aggressive, pushed the pace from the gun. Unless a guy like Merga is in the field this year, I think the race will play out like it did in 2011 because first half surges are not the norm in road races. That being said, they have become more popular as of late.

tom waits wrote:

11 time All-American in XC?

Don't you have to be an American in order to be an All-American?

Huh??? wrote:

Don't you have to be an American in order to be an All-American?

Not to quibble, but no. In cross-country the top 40 regardless of nationality are All-America selections and in track it's the top 8 PLUS any lower finishers who are still among the top 8 Americans. So, give it a few years and there will be 16 All-America selections in NCAA distance finals that have that many entrants, probably an average of 5 from Africa 1 from Canada, 1 from Great Britain, 3 from California, 1 from NY State, 1 from Texas, 1 from a Great Lakes state, 1 from Florida and one from metro DC.

Also, Lagat is probably no longer counting on dodging the testers in Europe and probably wants to make bank on the roads before some invented malady or another forces him to "regrettably" withdraw from the World Champs after blitzing the U.S. 5,000 in 12:59 off an 8:01 opening 3K.

Huh??? wrote:

tom waits wrote:

11 time All-American in XC?

Don't you have to be an American in order to be an All-American?

No.

Don't you have to have an IQ above 27 to post here?

Well, I guess you've proven that the answer to this is 'no' as well.

The real question is, will Lagat go all Rupp and wear a black mask?

wejo wrote:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Lagat has never run anything over 5,000m on the track.

Technically you're wrong. He paced Meb through 6K in his American Record attempt at 10000 in the 2004 Cardinal Invite:

postulatore wrote:

How much is he getting paid? That is all that matters.

Hah. Probably more than any previous race in his career...

Time predictions won't matter in this case, as Lagat will just sit on the leaders and kick. That's his style, and he won't run any faster than he has to.

coach bigfoot wrote:

Time predictions won't matter in this case, as Lagat will just sit on the leaders and kick. That's his style, and he won't run any faster than he has to.

If only distance running were that easy...