Why is Bekele running in Dubai AND London?

Dubai is to test the efficacy of his training with his new coach Canova. London is the big competitive test. I imagine Bekele really wants to win London. $ for both, of course.

Lasse Viren placed 5th in the Olympic Marathon a day after winning the 5000 final. Four days later, he ran a 2 mile race in something like 8:21. Maybe not the smartest move ever, but he did it.

Star wrote:

Didn't Bill Rodgers regularly run 3 marathons a year?

I've seen Kenyans run 3 sub 2:10s in a year.

It's not a crazy thing.

And 4 in 12 months only looks crazy if he does another in May (the next 12 month cycle).

If he ran in April last year instead of May, it would just look like a 3 a year cycle.

Dubai may just be a 26 mile tempo run, anyway.

26 mile tempo run? Bekele obviously wants to win and he's not going to beat Lelisa doing a 26 mile tempo... There's not that much depth in this race compared to Boston-London, but the elites that are in aren't going to let Bekele tempo his way to the win, he'll have to earn it...

Skuj wrote:

May - Paris

Oct - Chicago

Jan - Dubai

Apr - London

So his first 4 will be within a year. Hmmm...I'm starting to worry. Perhaps he knows he will be "done" in 2016.

OR, perhaps he knows more than the rest of us.

Star wrote:

Didn't Bill Rodgers regularly run 3 marathons a year?

1973 Boston Marathon (DNF)

1973 Bay State Marathon (2:28:12) 1st Course Record (CR)

1974 Boston (2:19:34) 14th

1974 New York City Marathon (NYC) (2:36:00) 5th

1974 Philadelphia Marathon (2:21:57) 1st CR

1975 Boston (2:09:55) 1st American Record (AR)

1975 Enschede Marathon, Holland (DNF)

1975 Fukuoka Marathon (2:11:26) 3rd

1976 Olympic Trials (2:11:58) 2nd

1976 Montreal Olympics (2:25:14) 40th

1976 NYC (2:10:10) 1st CR

1976 Sedo Island, Japan (2:08:23) 1st CR (200 meters short)

1976 Maryland (2:14:28) 1st CR

1977 Kyoto, Japan (2:14:25) 1st

1977 Boston (DNF)

1977 Amsterdam, Holland (2:12:46) 1st CR

1977 Waynesboro (2:25:12) 1st

1977 NYC (2:11:28) 1st

1977 Fukuoka (2:10:55) 1st

1978 Boston (2:10:13) 1st

1978 NYC (2:12:12) 1st

1978 Fukuoka (2:12:53) 6th

1979 Boston (2:09:27) 1st AR

1979 Montreal (2:22:12) 15th

1979 NYC (2:11:42) 1st

1980 Boston (2:12:11) 1st

1980 Toronto (2:14:47) 1st

1980 NYC (2:13:20) 5th

1981 Houston-Tennaco (2:12:10) 1st CR

1981 Boston (2:10:34) 3rd

1981 Atlantica-Boavista, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2:14:13) 1st CR

1981 Stockholm, Sweden (2:13:28) 1st

1981 Bank One, Columbus, OH (2:17:34) 7th

1982 Houston (2:14:51) 5th

1982 Tokyo (2:24) 301st

1982 Boston (2:12:38) 4th

1982 Atlantica-Boavista, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (DNF)

1982 Melbourne, Australia (2:11:08) 1st

1983 Orange Bowl, FL (2:15:08) 1st

1983 Boston (2:11:58) 10th

1983 Beijing, China (DNF)

1983 Chicago (2:21:40)

1984 U.S. Olympic Trials (2:13:31) 8th

1985 New Jersey Waterfront (2:14:46) 2nd

1985 NYC (2:15:31) 7th

1986 Boston (2:13:35) 4th

1986 Chicago (2:15:31) 11th

1987 Phoenix (DNF)

1987 Boston (2:18:18) 15th

1987 NYC (2:25:01) 54th

1988 Phoenix (DNF)

1988 Los Angeles ( 2:20:27) 2nd masters

1988 Boston (2:18:17) 2nd masters

1988 NYC (DNF)

So, his Sedo Island one may have been close to 2:09 flat if course was accurate length.

45 completed marathons!

Was Bill done with marathons after 1988?

jjjjj wrote:

Last year, how many marathons did the current world record holder run? How many did he finish?

I don't think the answer is four or more.

One thing nobody seems to be factoring in is how old he is. Allegedly born 13 June 1982, if you accept this he would have run:

2000 13:20.57 Rieti 3 September for 5000m at age 18.

The next year, he ran 7:32 for 3k and nearly led the whole world allegedly at age 18. Also this...

2001 13:13.33 Seville 8 June

He also placed SECOND in the senior short race at WCCC in 2001, which is not unexpected when you nearly lead the world at 3k on the track in the same year. But it is unexpected for an 18 year old to beat all the Seniors in a race dominated by Africans at the height of the EPO era. At those same WCCC he beat Ritzenhein in the Junior race by 52 seconds. In an 8k. Still allegedly only 18 yrs old. Ritzenhein was 18 for certain.

He also placed 9th in the Junior WCCC as early as 1999, again at allegedly just 16 yrs old. Anybody familiar with that race knows that most of the top competitors in the junior race are 20-23 years old and routinely run 13:10-20 and 7:45-45 on the track in the same year. There is no way he could have been up that high at age 16.

Even though he is the best of all-time, this just does not add up.

If you look at the years he was at the top and how he slid EVERY year in the 5k from 2004 until now, you have to surmise that he was about 25 in early 2004 and not just 21 when he ran 12:37. Therefore about 21-22 in 2001 when he nearly won the SENIOR short course race at WCCC after defeating every "junior" in the world (including an 18-yr old Ritz and a 19-yr old Teg) and then going on to run 7:32 and 13:13 allegedly at nearly age 19.

We have to accept that he is not 32. It is possible that he is 34, but more likely he is 35-36. This is what you would expect from the best of all-time at this age, that he would be in decline at age 35. Paul Tergat was just about the same age when he declined for good and Haile pushed a little further but was in decline after age 35.

The only reason I believe Haile's age as given was that if he had age-cheated to win the 5000m and 10,000m races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul, and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships he would have been 37-38 for his marathon WR of 2:03:59.

Change your expectations wrote:

The only reason I believe Haile's age as given was that if he had age-cheated to win the 5000m and 10,000m races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul, and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships he would have been 37-38 for his marathon WR of 2:03:59.

You don't get to choose which Africans you believe cheated or age cheated merely based on what performances "make sense" to you. That's what allows you to be SURE KB did because he couldn't've been 16, but you believe Haile because YOU think a 37-38 year old couldn't run 2:03:59. Both of those are conjecture, and if one is true, the other likely is not.

By the way -- if Meb, who was never in the same ballpark as Haile at any distance at any age, can run 2:08 FTW in Boston a few days before turning 39, then I absolutely believe Geb could've run 2:03:59 in Berlin and also been 37 or 38. Why is that so hard to believe?

You can't pretend you're speaking facts when you're following you're own poor logic.

Change your expectations wrote:

We have to accept that he is not 32.

No we don't, and unless you can come with some proof that he's older than 32, your long spiel is exactly that, a long spiel, totally irrelevant and an exercise in futility.

Change your expectations, you may want to read his bio written by him from:

1. Childhood and early years to 10. 2008- Road to Beijing

on his website.

http://kenenisabekele.merebservices.com/Biography/BiographyManager.php?biography=4329285284

Then contact him and tell him he's a liar.

I did ... here is what I found:

http://kenenisabekele.merebservices.com/Biography/BiographyManager.php?biography=1095633269

"I couldn’t have been older than 14 or 15 when I reached seventh grade."

Well if that isn't spot-on certainty about something that happened just 17 yrs ago, I don't what else I would need to convince me?

If you guys want to believe that he could finish 9th in the WJCCC in his first race away from home at age 16, keep on doing it.

Runners age-cheat, many of them, we have to be used to it by now. Just accept that people cheat, just because he is the best of all-time does not mean he is above it.

He supposedly ran 7:32 at age 18, but before the EPO era and the age-cheat era nobody ran that fast until they were in their mid-20s. In fact nobody ran that fast until Aouita PERIOD. Rono and Foster came close, Moorcroft came close, but they were all older. Even Aouita took until the end of his career.

He supposedly won both the short race and long race at WCCC at age 19, a feat nobody had ever done. I have no problem believing that he could win both races and then repeat, but just not at 19.

If you can't wrap your head around Africans age-cheating, how do you feel about running the second 5k in a championship 10k under 13:00? If you think that is possible without cheating, then sure maybe Bekele is YOUNGER than he says he is and maybe he won those senior titles at age 15 and world records at 18.

Change your expectations wrote:

I did ... here is what I found:

http://kenenisabekele.merebservices.com/Biography/BiographyManager.php?biography=1095633269

"I couldn’t have been older than 14 or 15 when I reached seventh grade."

Well if that isn't spot-on certainty about something that happened just 17 yrs ago, I don't what else I would need to convince me?

You don't have a friggin clue do you?

This is E-T-H-I-O-P-I-A we're discussing not the good ol' US of A, Europe, UK, etc.

I can't be bothered replying to any more of your diatribes but here are a couple of quotes for you, if you want to know any more do your own research:

"Seventh grade is the highest class offered at the Koraro Primary School,... Kahsay Gebneslasie, 14... 14-year-olds still cling to the hope that they will be

able to go to eighth grade"

"Worknesh Wubetu, a 14-year-old and seventh grade student at Kanat school in Farta district of Amhara Region"

He isn't, they "London" need to market it as high as they can. So, they pay KB for lending his name to the marathon list-which he has no intention to run...but suggests that he will. His agent/and he said he needed 4 months to train for Dubai to be in peak form...No way he runs London. Just a syke.

noway wrote:

He isn't, they "London" need to market it as high as they can. So, they pay KB for lending his name to the marathon list-which he has no intention to run...but suggests that he will. His agent/and he said he needed 4 months to train for Dubai to be in peak form...No way he runs London. Just a syke.

I can´t see why Bekele should not run both races. Mr. Canova wrote about the typical training of Moses Mosop. Some very hard long runs (40k), almost races, were bread and butter sessions. E. Mutai said after Kimetto´s record in Berlin, he has to put in some 42k runs for the next time to get in better shape. Considering this, the old and common belief in two Marathons per year with plenty of time in between is wrong.

malmo wrote:

Concerned for bekele wrote:

Why is Bekele running in Dubai in January and London in April (apart from the money), when assumed wisdom is to run two marathons a year, spring / autumn?

Presumably he won't be competitive at both? Will he be competitive at either?

Whose wisdom, yours?

My assumed wisdom based on what I see Kipsang and Kimetto doing.

Change your expectations wrote:

I did ... here is what I found:

http://kenenisabekele.merebservices.com/Biography/BiographyManager.php?biography=1095633269

"I couldn’t have been older than 14 or 15 when I reached seventh grade.".

You may want to revisit 2nd grade and learn some basic arithmetic.

1st grade - 7/8

2nd grade - 8/9

3rd grade - 9/10

4th grade - 10/11

5th grade - 11/12

6th grade - 12/13

7th grade - 13/14

Perhaps he was able to run 7:32 at age 18 because he's the greatest distance runner we've seen so far? Is that so far fetched?

Diagonal Rupture wrote:

Perhaps he was able to run 7:32 at age 18 because he's the greatest distance runner we've seen so far? Is that so far fetched?

No, not when you consider Ryan and Elliot, just to name two, who did similar things way back in the day at a young age and who knows what they would have done if they'd been around 20/30 years later.

He may be that good that he can handle two highly competitive marathons 3 months apart. I think he will be competitive in both. I don't know how he has run the 5K and 10K times that he has, or how he has won world cross country so many times. Just an amazingly talented runner. I hope he does well in these marathons.