Has Ritzenhein broken 4 for the mile?

Hand times don't count. It can only count if there were electronic devices available to capture the exact time of a consecutive 1760 yard stretch. Otherwise Bekele is not in the sub-4 club.[/quote]

Hand times?

Dude, give it up. Look up the video and watch it. It's around a 3:56. It's not even close to being questionable.

Don't be an idiot. I'm glad you know now that a mile is 1760 yards. I'm sure you had to look that up. As they say you learn something every day!

ok..... wrote:

So Ryun never broke 4 then either? All hand times for him.

Electronic timing is the only true way to know a time. There's error in a hand-time, so even a 3:55 could conceivably be a flawed and incorrect measurement. Luckily, none of the current records are hand-timed so we don't have to worry about it.

Has to be official or it never happened in Bekele's case.

otter wrote:

Hand times don't count. It can only count if there were electronic devices available to capture the exact time of a consecutive 1760 yard stretch. Otherwise Bekele is not in the sub-4 club.

Hand times?

Dude, give it up. Look up the video and watch it. It's around a 3:56. It's not even close to being questionable.

Don't be an idiot. I'm glad you know now that a mile is 1760 yards. I'm sure you had to look that up. As they say you learn something every day![/quote]

As has been pointed out many times on this board, video doesn't play true on digital replay.

Watch the video with the OFFICIAL clock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZM0G247gY

here wrote:

Watch the video with the OFFICIAL clock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZM0G247gY

DUDE I'm just saying you've got to be consistent with these things. How are you supposed to know where to start watching the clock? How are you supposed to know the video hasn't been tampered with? How can you know ANYTHING without CONSISTENCY????????

I was talking about Ritz with the 2007 3k, but it looks like i0op was talking about Bekele. Obv KB has done it in splits, which counts for anyone who could possibly care. Ritz has not.

liouifsdj wrote:

here wrote:

Watch the video with the OFFICIAL clock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZM0G247gY

DUDE I'm just saying you've got to be consistent with these things. How are you supposed to know where to start watching the clock? How are you supposed to know the video hasn't been tampered with? How can you know ANYTHING without CONSISTENCY????????

Just stop responding to him people.

liouifsdj wrote:

Has to be official or it never happened in Bekele's case.

It was official. It was an electronically-timed split. And even if it wasn't, how would someone run 3000m in 7:26 without ever breaking sub 4-mile pace for a mile portion of the race? Explain that.

goalposts wrote:

how would someone run 3000m in 7:26 without ever breaking sub 4-mile pace for a mile portion of the race? Explain that.

possible.

For an easy example, imagine he ran 1 second for the first 200m, 3:00 for the next 3 laps, 59 seconds for the middle 200m, 3:00 for the next 3 laps, then 1 second for the final 200m.

No matter how you slice that, no 1609m is faster than 4:00. That gives a 7:01 3k. Adding time would not create any faster intermediate splits. (Put an extra 12.5 sec on the first and last 200s to make it his 7:26).

Realistically, say

25, 60, 60, 60, 36, 60, 60, 60, 25,

run evenly for each split.

THANK YOU! Finally someone with brains on this forum.

And obviously goalposts is a liar. There is no electronically timed split of Bekele running sub-4. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

liouifsdj wrote:

THANK YOU! Finally someone with brains on this forum.

And obviously goalposts is a liar. There is no electronically timed split of Bekele running sub-4. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

No, there are electronic splits from his 2008 5000m of him running sub4 pace for more than a mile. Stop trolling.

liouifsdj wrote:

THANK YOU! Finally someone with brains on this forum.

And obviously goalposts is a liar. There is no electronically timed split of Bekele running sub-4. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

You're an idiot. He's run 3:32 for 1500m which is all that really matters. No one cares about the mile otherwise it would be an Olympic event.

itrollforfree wrote:

Not sure, but having run an 8:11 deuce he certainly was capable.

I suspect that Ritz was capable of it, but not by much, not as much as people may think given his 12:56. Just as I doubt we will ever see him approach the American record in the marathon or Hall's PB on a legitimate course.

Was he one of the 1300 names listed on the 4 min mile list from a few days back? ( can't find it)

I'll also point out that even if en route, it would only be legit if it is the first mile of the race. Running start negates a closing PR.

As someone has already said, Bekele has an electronically measured 3:56 split en route. That counts.

liouifsdj wrote:

otter wrote:

Bekele ran a 7:26 3000. That averages under a 4 minute mile for the entire race.

Yes but was there 1720 yards that were consecutively run in under 4 minutes? Otherwise the answer is no, Bekele has never gone sub-4.

You mean, 'were there 1760 yards that were consecutively run in under 4 minutes?'

Even if the answer to this question was 'yes', unless it was the first 1760 yards it would not qualify since any other portion comes with a running start.

Funny how your thread about Ritzenhein morphed into being primarily a discussion about Bekele. The LetsRunsters have trouble staying on topic.