reality coat check wrote:no, i don't consider him that at all. i think he said his max 400m speed was 52-53 -- not fast for a guy at that level. 12:55 seems total max effort for him, considering how much he was training/pushing his body to the red line. and the 4th k usually slows because it's very very difficult to "gun it from the gun" and that rarely happens. easier said than done, you know?
it is obvious you never saw his 3 sub-13's on tv or if you did, you didn't watch properly
each time, chances of a clocking under 12'50 were destroyed by jogging from 3k - bell
sol back then had 52s speed as said, but his 10k was more like 26'45/26'50
his 26'59 race was still a proverbial jog until 800 out, with a target pace of only the AR which at time was a paltry 27'13 by meb
chasing only 27'13 pace until last coupla laps severely limits your final time
even a peak kennster woudn't have gone much better than maybe 26'55 if he'd been in that race & kicked with sol from 800 out
a coupla prelim line of fit for sol in '10 were
52 / 26'50 ->3'34.1 , 7'28.3 , 12'51.7
52 / 26'45 ->3'33.8 , 7'27.3 , 12'49.7
a ~ 12'50 back then was very likely if the 5k had been gunned from start'to'tape