Max King 8th at Comrades Marathon in 5:37:27

Thanks for the post. Just FYI the date of the race has changed a number of times over the years. In 1995 the date was changed to Youth Day on June 16, so there was actually less than 2 weeks between Commrades and WS.

And you're right that Ann did have some DNFs, especially early in her career. But she won WS 14 times and set a number of world records - we just don't hear much about her any more.

Dretch wrote:

Eh, gotta draw the line somewhere or you might as well be Dean K. shuffling along some highway for 2 days straight so you can tell Runners World that you broke some made up record.

I´m pretty sure Bolt says the same about 10000 runners.

Jaguar1,as far as I know the course is measured every year.

Yep!! wrote:

Dretch wrote:

Eh, gotta draw the line somewhere or you might as well be Dean K. shuffling along some highway for 2 days straight so you can tell Runners World that you broke some made up record.

I´m pretty sure Bolt says the same about 10000 runners.

On Kenenisa Bekele:

"He is a really wonderful athlete but the problem is that everyone these days concentrates on the shorter distances and Bekele just doesn't get the recognition he deserves."

edward teach wrote:

This was a down year. Salazar's victory was in an up year and is a superior performance by time.

Salazar ran 86.7 km. People this year ran 89.1 km. King's is the superior performance by time.

chuck barkley wrote:

Thanks for the post. Just FYI the date of the race has changed a number of times over the years. In 1995 the date was changed to Youth Day on June 16, so there was actually less than 2 weeks between Commrades and WS.

And you're right that Ann did have some DNFs, especially early in her career. But she won WS 14 times and set a number of world records - we just don't hear much about her any more.

Thanks for piquing my interest to do some history reading!

1995 (down) it was moved to June 16th-- Ann DNFed this yr due to illness and came back to win Western States. 1996 was an up year (bit easier to recover from than the down!)-- the Western States website seems to indicate she did indeed pull off the double 12 days apart. Now that's an inspiring feat! Not sure if 1997 was 2 weeks apart, but Ann won both races agin. Ellie G did the double in 2012, four wks apart (2nd at Comrades- barely, 1st and CR at WS). The competition has improved exponentially at Western States, making it tougher to pull off the double, let alone win both.

The Comrades course may be measured every year, but because it's not a standardized distance it may not be the same distance from year-to-year, as shown by last year (and of course different distances on up vs down). This makes it tougher to compare times.

Also, they introduced prize money in 1995-- not sure how legit drug testing was back then (although Wikipedia indicates in 1992 Charl Mattheus tested positive for something in cold medicine). EPO testing didn't come about until the past 10-15 yrs. Maria Bak, who won in 1995 when prize money was introduced and ran 6:00 in 1997 (beaten by Ann in both 1996 and 1997), tested positive for a steroid at the 100K WC in Winschoten in 1997. After serving her doping ban she was invited back to Comrades from 2000-2008, winning a total of 6 times. The race has been heavily loaded with Russians over the yrs, adding to some skepticism over their times and the efficacy of drug testing (~Maria Bak didn't test positive at Comrades in 1997 but tested positive at the 100K WC a few months later).

Regardless of times this year, it definitely appears there's a resurgence in national pride amongst the South African women since Caroline won last year. It's really great to see so many women placing well!

Cool story, bro wrote:

Yep!! wrote:

I´m pretty sure Bolt says the same about 10000 runners.

On Kenenisa Bekele:

"He is a really wonderful athlete but the problem is that everyone these days concentrates on the shorter distances and Bekele just doesn't get the recognition he deserves."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/6117774/Kenenisa-Bekele-is-the-Usain-Bolt-of-distance-running.html

Of course he doesn´t say that in public, idiot.

The trail itself could change from year to year. It has slight variances that occur due to use. That add up over the course of an ultra

Yep!! wrote:

Dretch wrote:

Eh, gotta draw the line somewhere or you might as well be Dean K. shuffling along some highway for 2 days straight so you can tell Runners World that you broke some made up record.

I´m pretty sure Bolt says the same about 10000 runners.

I am pretty sure fat ppl who fart a lot say the same about ppl who go walking to the park.

It is really personal.. who is to say what is the perfect distance and based on what.

ctrlaltdel wrote:

Interesting that the winner's time of 6:25 was considerably slower than Trason's downhill time of 5:58 back in 1997. Trason also set the a course record at the time of 6:13 on the uphill course in 1996. In both of these years she won WS 2 weeks later. I think a lot of younger readers here may not know how good Ann Trason was.

Ann Trason was awesome.

I think her knees gave out, maybe from pounding down hills.

I'm curious if she runs anymore.

Hats off to Max, Sarah, and Colleen for their performances. It can be a fun pastime to compare times and ask "what if" for how runners in different races would compare if they had raced head to head. I think one thing that makes longer distances interesting is their complexity. So, I like to celebrate the performances on the given day: how well they handled the race conditions; how well they countered the race strategies and tactics of their competitors; how well they deployed and adapted their own. Max, Sarah, and Colleen showed their racing mastery.

BTW, Ann (Trasonrunning) is back in the running scene. She's coaching runners and putting on the Overlook 50K/30K trail race on the Western States/Tevis trails in the Auburn, CA area. She also writes an Ask Ann column for Ultrarunning Magazine some of which can be read online.

Her 1997 Comrades/Western States double 12 days apart was even more notable given that she was still recovering from major tendon surgery she underwent seven months before the races. As she wrote in an Ultrarunning Magazine account of her 1997 Comrades race: "only seven months before, during exploratory surgery, Dr. Steven Isono discovered that 90 percent of my biceps femoris tendon was detached from its site of insertion, the head of the fibula." She must have lots of stories she could tell about her running.

It was 55.3 miles with 6400 ft total descent and 4400 ft total ascent. If you can do better, sign up. That, or shut up.

My favorite Max King story ...

when he showed up to a race/starting line with his bib pinned to his bare skin.

How bad a$$ is that?!

Also,

did you know Max King has been living in Australia building his own primitive colony?

See video(s):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P73REgj-3UE

For his next feat, he uses twigs, bark, sand and clay to build an iPhone so he can text his buddies.