Kilian Jornet: flat marathon time? He just beat Max King (2:14 PR) by 5 minutes in a Marathon

I've raced Kilian, and I think he could run around 2h20' for a Marathon. He does not have a fluid gait nor a very elastic stride to produce speed. He is built for going up and down and just grinding.

2:00:24

If it is a flat road: 2:22

If it is a trail gaining 3000': 2:18

Jornet is not a flat runner. I think he would really struggle with a flat course. I also think he has no desire to run a flat course

He did a 13 mile uphill run at 6:59/mi but according to Stravas calculation of grade adjustment, it was worth 5:05/mi for 90min

I was in that race also....as was Andy Wacker (13:40 5km guy, 1:04 half).

We got destroyed. Max was climbing really well and nailed the technical descent around mile 14 (it was gnarly). Killian didn't pull away for the win until the final 5km or so (uphill climb on a somewhat rocky trail).

After Everest I honestly didn't think Killian would have the wheels for the first half of the race (more fireroad stuff)....he proved us wrong. I've always lost to him by quite a bit...granted they have always been "mountain races." (aka "The Rut 50km").

Mont blanc 42km had nearly 10,000' of climbing.

Andy pushed the pace early on with some of the downhills...we probably were hitting 4:40-4:50/mile velocity there downhill and Killian was moving really well on the "runnable stuff."

The first big climb starts off with about a 20% uphill grade....after that it is like 15% grade for nearly mile. He is very good at that (more mountain trail climbing) and even better at the technical descents.

He beat 2.09 kenyan marathoner in Sierre Zinal which is a 35k mountain running racer, however I don't think he is that fast on the road, he could be a 2.20 marathoner with a good training.

This guy could have been an awesome cycliste, due to his VO2MAX of 92, morever he is one of the best ski mountainering competitor in the world.

Napoléon wrote:

This guy could have been an awesome cycliste, due to his being on PEDs and morever he is one of the best ski mountainering competitor in the world.

Fixed Your Post.

We here at the letsrun.com message boards have a strong and unilateral knowledge that anyone better (ie, faster) than us at any given distance must be on some type of performance enhancing drugs.

He's a 3:45:45 marathoner. These course corrections for difficult courses are stupid

I love how Sage didn't answer the question.

kh wrote:

I love how Sage didn't answer the question.

Answering the question would take focus away from himself.

Thank you for the insight Sage, hope you got a chance to buy a lot of patisseries, cheeses, meats, beer and wine after the race!

I appreciate your posts, thank you.

S. Douchaday wrote:

kh wrote:

I love how Sage didn't answer the question.

Answering the question would take focus away from himself.

What a lousy thing to say. Sage is a great contributor to this forum.

If you don't like his posts....just leave.

turnip toes wrote:

Thank you for the insight Sage, hope you got a chance to buy a lot of patisseries, cheeses, meats, beer and wine after the race!

I appreciate your posts, thank you.

Why would he buy a lot of patisseries? I think he's focused on his running and social media career, not owning/operating pastry shops in Europe. Given that he's vegan, he probably didn't buy much meat or cheese either.

ps. I like turnips.

He is awesome, so......

sleeeper wrote:

turnip toes wrote:

Thank you for the insight Sage, hope you got a chance to buy a lot of patisseries, cheeses, meats, beer and wine after the race!

I appreciate your posts, thank you.

Why would he buy a lot of patisseries? I think he's focused on his running and social media career, not owning/operating pastry shops in Europe. Given that he's vegan, he probably didn't buy much meat or cheese either.

ps. I like turnips.

I didn't mean the Patisserie shop, but the plural of a patisserie as in the pastry itself. If I was in France I would be at the Patisserie eating a lot of patisseries. (Sorry if my French is a bit wonky).

I was hoping Sage would've appreciated all that good stuff after a marathon. Less cheese, more beer maybe?

Turnips are good man, I tell thee!

Thanks for the serious replies - including you Sage.

So, 2:20-2:22 are a couple of estimates for 6 months of training for a flat marathon.

I would have thought lower - but I understand the view that his gait/stride/running form is built for mountain running instead of flat-road running.

I assume the opposite is also true - flat road runners don't perform as well in the mountains.

Sill, it would be fun to watch Jornet train for and run a flat marathon and watch more flat road marathoners run the mountain races.