Official 2016 World Half Marathon Discussion Thread

Interesting points, Ghost. Folks in China seem to measure success using single scales. They then do everything they can to cheat on those measurements, because the results of the test is all that matters.

Other Asian societies are starting to recognize these problems. I was visited by the Singapore Ministry of Sport and Culture who were looking to add ways to keep youth engaged, especially ones who got dropped by standardized tests.

We're kind of off-topic on this thread, but would be interested in discussing further.

One last question.

Anyone know what Kamworor's last mile was? If not, guesses?

I would guess Kamworor's last mile was in the 4.30 - 4.40 range. Remember, strong wind and rain, in his face, which did not make things easy. Also, he had been running fairly hard from the gun.

I think the course was not fast, based on the times of many other athletes, who seemed to be 1-3 minutes slower than their 'normal' half marathon times. This makes Paul Pollock's (Ireland) performance (62:46), all the more impressive. First non African in the race, just ahead of Callum Hawkins (62:51) the Brit, who is improving as well. That kind of half marathon time points to a 2:10 -2:12 in the not too distant future.

Both Ayad Lamdassem (63:29) -18th, and Chahdi (63:30) the French champion, showed what a great run Pollock and Hawkins had, as both were better on paper coming in.

I suspect Japan only sent their B team to the World Championships, because their first runner - Kudo (22nd - 63:41) and their second man Oishi (28th - 64:11) are good, solid runners, but there are many Japanese who might have run a couple of minutes faster, at least. This is an Olympic year, and the Japanese contenders for the Olympic team are probably raking in the miles somewhere, like Kunming, in Yunnan Province, China.

Same goes for the South Africans - superb run by Mokoka (10th - 61:27) but his teammates were a lot further down than one would have expected - Ngxazozo (37th - 64:51), Tshoba (61st - 66:55), Mzazi - 79th - 71:49).

The Peruvians, trained by iconic former Mexican Champion - Rudolfo Gomez - also disappointed, but the list goes on and on. Surprising and pleasant result, though, by Mariano Mastromarino (Argentina) - 33rd - 64:35 - which augurs well for the future. Argentina is not a country with a heavy distance running tradition, and is normally easily supplanted by Brazil, which has had quite a few champions in the past.

Back to the performance, of tall, lanky Simon Cheprot (Kenya) - 6th in 60:12 - I was trying to find out his height/weight stats, because he really towers over people like Farah and company - but could not find any on the IAAF website, but from a visual impression - I would guess - 1.85 - 1.88 cent. and around 65kg in weight - somewhat similar in height and weight to Bob Tahri, France.

Ghost in China

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Ghost1 wrote:One interesting thing struck me during the race, the number of 'taller elites' coming through in distance running now. While most world records in distance events are held by shorter people, around 1.70 or lower in height, there are many elite distance guys from Kenya and Ethiopia now who are around 1.80 or taller and this is surprising, as taller means more weight and less efficiency in the power to weight ratio department

power/weight ratio is a trivial factor

far more important is that taller bigger guys have much more strength meaning longer stride from greater height/strength

this will make you generally faster than runts

proof is top M guys : kimmetto, kipsang, makau are all good sized guys, kipsang a giant

the mutai's are no midgets either - geoffrey is hugely powerful for a M'er

Power to weight ratio is not a trivial factor. Kenny Bekele, Geb, and others have shown that.

Physiologists may want to comment on this. Long levers also cost more to move, in the running economy movement - a factor in long road events.

Physiology 101 - re visited.

Ghost in China

www.omeida.com

So what's the official LR number of seconds to add to any times achieved at Cardiff on Saturday? I ran it (just scraping my first 70+ WAVA half marathon) but was hoping for a little better. In terms of conditions, contrary to what you were heading on the tv feed, it was in our faces for the first 5k, on our backs across the barrage up to about 10k and then swirly and blustery from all directions in the last 10+ k.

In terms of that rain, it suddenly descended and was horrendous. It was noticeable how the elites paces dropped, and for the mere hobby joggers amongst the mass race it felt like I was carrying an few more kilos and the wind resistance of clothing was increased significantly so the effort had to go up at that point.

So how many seconds faster was I really? Surely someone on here must have an answer!!

I thought small frames are supposed to be the best for the marathon due to better heat management? That is the Noakes claim at least, in his book.

Looking at the times, of the elites - few ran pbs, (Ayele and Tola both ran pbs), and most athletes ran season best times, but not pbs. I would guess, that the elites were 30 seconds to 60 seconds outside their bests, and further down the field, more time was lost.

The slower the runners, the more they lost. For the hobby joggers, that could be 2 minutes or more.

Interesting that the women, I feel, acquitted themselves better than the guys, and it has to be mentioned, that their earlier starting time helped, because the really inclement conditions happened in the men's race towards the end of the race, once the elite women had finished.

In the women's race - superb performances by Gladys Tejeda (Peru) 70:14, trained by Rodolfo Gomez (Mexican star of the late 70s and early 80s), Bawcom (USA), and Wellings (Australia) all under 71:00 minutes. But some females had disappointing runs - like Souad Ait Salem, the famous Algerian runner.

Once again, the Chinese showed the pitiful level in China at present - with Wangmu Nuzeng (69th - 77:35), and Jila Dawa ((70th - 77:52). But overall, at the front, the women seemed to cope quite well with the conditions.

Ghost in China

www.omeida.com

Trolling for dollars wrote:

Think of it this way (for dramatization), V3...A 50 lb boy will more easily be blown off his feet by a strong wind than will a 200 lb man. Likewise, it will be more difficult for the smaller man to advance in a forward direction than the larger man.

But the 200 lb man has to exert more newtons to move at all, which needs to be taken into account :)

hardy har har har wrote:

Trolling for dollars wrote:

Think of it this way (for dramatization), V3...A 50 lb boy will more easily be blown off his feet by a strong wind than will a 200 lb man. Likewise, it will be more difficult for the smaller man to advance in a forward direction than the larger man.

But the 200 lb man has to exert more newtons to move at all, which needs to be taken into account :)

But what if he was wearing Hoka's instead of Newtons?

Trolling for dollars wrote:Think of it this way (for dramatization), V3...A 50 lb boy will more easily be blown off his feet by a strong wind than will a 200 lb ma

utter nonsense

Kamwo got nearly blown over at near-end of race !!!

it was absurd the wind !!!

how strong do you think that wind was ???

what 50lb guys are chasing win in major ???

Likewise, it will be more difficult for the smaller man to advance in a forward direction than the larger man

what 50 - 100lb men were on start chasing win ???

nonsense

it was home meet with a serious major at win

he trained his asss off for it

he trained as hard for it as he coud for rio

utter nonsense

they focusing on 10k/5k

it just happens they have superb 1/2M ability

if you had clue about sport, you wouda known Kamwo was in

58-flat

shape in RAK-'13

over 3y ago !!!

go look up 1st page

no

not more than anyone

then why post nonsense ??

that's how they like it with no oval tracks making it difficult to pass

clueless

being a runt doesn't help

what are heights of kimmeto / kipsang / mutai / makau ???

you offer

nothing

Ghost1 wrote:Power to weight ratio is not a trivial factor. Kenny Bekele, Geb, and others have shown that.

utter nonsense

kimetto / mutai / kipsang / makau

are no runts

you have no clue to comprehend that if the M world record holders are huge compared to runts of geb/kennster, that the 5k/10k is p!ss weak & the best 5k/10k guys are running road

does your neurone thinks 5'4 is better for track than 5'10 - 6'2 ???

Physiologists may want to comment on this

I am

your nonsense runt thinking may only work for ultra-Ms

upto M, height & bigger power means everything

Long levers also cost more to move, in the running economy movement

not when the levers are attached to huge engines

a factor in long road events

trivial for upto M

Physiology 101 - re visited

where ???

where is engine/output/lactate ???

Ghost in China

chump from where ?

don't insult far east with your nonsense