Mo Farah told us today he thinks he could have run 12:45 in his prime.... Agree or disagree?

well, what was stopping him

Then why didn't he?

Here is the all-time list. 12:45 would place him #4 all time.

1 12:37.35 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 13.06.82 1 Hengelo 31.05.2004

2 12:39.36 Haile Gebrselassie ETH 18.04.73 1 Helsinki 13.06.1998

3 12:39.74 Daniel Komen KEN 17.05.76 1 Bruxelles 22.08.1997

4 12:46.53 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Roma 02.07.2004

5 12:46.81 Dejen Gebremeskel ETH 24.11.89 1 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

6 12:47.04 Sileshi Sihine ETH 29.01.83 2 Roma 02.07.2004

7 12:47.53 Hagos Gebrhiwet ETH 11.05.94 2 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

8 12:48.64 Isiah Koech KEN 19.12.93 3 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

9 12:48.66 Issac Songok KEN 25.04.84 2 Zürich 18.08.2006

10 12:48.77 Yenew Alamirew ETH 27.05.90 4 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

Yes I think so. If he can run 12:50s with a blazing last lap, he could run faster with more even pacing.

Seems like he's had too much success to strive for the Pre "woulda coulda shoulda" award.

Probably pretty close. He certainly beat a heap of folks with faster PR's than him.

famous american clock cleaner wrote:

well, what was stopping him

Well I think there is a tradeoff. It's hard to chase times and peak perfectly for the champs.

People always say that Geb didn't win as many track medals as Farah. And my reply is , "Well there used to be heats in the 10k." Plus I'm not sure he wanted to wreck himself in the 5000 after the 10,000. He wanted to chase times in Europe.

For example in 1997, Geb won the 10k in Worlds on August 6th after running the prelim on August 3rd. The fact that he didn't double back in the 5k makes a lot of sense to me. For starters, it was a lot harder then than now because the 5k final was just 4 days after the 10k (on August 10th) and versus the 8 days that Farah had to recover (prelim was just 2 days after 10k final). And he would have had to race Daniel Komen in the 5k.

So instead of racing the 5k on August 8 and 10th, he instead ran the 5k in Zurich on August 13th and set the world record of 12:41.86.

So right there you have a great example of why I think Geb is greater than Farah. People always say Farah doubled so many times. So what?" Do you not think that Geb's 1997 World 10k gold (after running a trial) and 5k world record in the span of 7 days is better than Farah winning a 10k and 5k (without 10k heats)?

famous american clock cleaner wrote:

well, what was stopping him

Why would he? Where is the motivation?

Run your best all out, miss the world record by at least 8 seconds when most of the mainstream media will expect you to break it? Literally no point at all. Nobody would offer him money for that kind of attempt.

What's more, 12:45 isn't fast enough to run away from a decent field that could pace him there. So, like Kiprop lost in 2015 (?) at Monaco to Kiplagat after billing a WR attempt, the same could happen to Farah. Someone could sit on him for 12 laps then pass for the win.

Listen, only hobby joggers care about improving their PBs to the absolute limit. Farah has run 3:2x, 12:5x, 26:4x and 59:xx. They are good PBs. He has many titles to back up his career. He really doesn't need to prove anything.

But for Farah, he wanted the global championships and for good reason. In a non-third world country, people are going to be paying big attention and big bucks for the championships. For an African runner like Geb, there might be more money in the WRs.

But it's hard to run 12:46 in early July and then be ready to roll at Worlds. And it's hard to double at Worlds and have anything psychologically or mentally left for a WR.

I think people are crazy if they don't think Farah could have run faster at 5000. I certainly do. But since he didn't, I'm going to hold it against him in the GOAT debates. Nothing was stopping him from doing in in 2014 except a huge London payday.

I could run a 12.45 for the 200 even when I was 30 pounds overweight

😂

I think he is right on. It explains why he didn't got for a faster time...it would only highlight how far Bekele had put the WR out of reach. Better to amass a pile of medals against a bunch of other 12:4x guys who don't have 3:28 1500 PBs.

trolly mctrollerson wrote:

Then why didn't he?

Because Gebremeskel and Gebrhiwet never made it necessary. The onus was on them.

LetsRun.com wrote:

Here is the all-time list. 12:45 would place him #4 all time.

1 12:37.35 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 13.06.82 1 Hengelo 31.05.2004

2 12:39.36 Haile Gebrselassie ETH 18.04.73 1 Helsinki 13.06.1998

3 12:39.74 Daniel Komen KEN 17.05.76 1 Bruxelles 22.08.1997

4 12:46.53 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Roma 02.07.2004

5 12:46.81 Dejen Gebremeskel ETH 24.11.89 1 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

6 12:47.04 Sileshi Sihine ETH 29.01.83 2 Roma 02.07.2004

7 12:47.53 Hagos Gebrhiwet ETH 11.05.94 2 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

8 12:48.64 Isiah Koech KEN 19.12.93 3 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

9 12:48.66 Issac Songok KEN 25.04.84 2 Zürich 18.08.2006

10 12:48.77 Yenew Alamirew ETH 27.05.90 4 Saint-Denis 06.07.2012

1. He didn't

2. He obviously could've run faster than his PR

2a. Just about every runner could have run faster

3. He won more medals than everyone else, which shows that he made the right racing decisions, and moreover that he made the right business decisions.

Hate on him all you want, he is probably the most famous distance runner ever, way more random people know of him than KB or Geb or Viren or Nurmi, maybe Ryun and Bannister are/were close, but they were also in the glory event, not some random jogging in circles event with commercial and field event breaks. Mo is more famous than most previous 100m WR holders, he's on the level of ridiculous WR smashers like Bolt and Michael Johnson.

Should've Could've Would've...

Of course Mo obviously could have run faster than 12:53. But he never even made the effort to try. It his fault he tarnished his legacy like that. No excuse. Mo is not the GOAT

rojo wrote:

But for Farah, he wanted the global championships and for good reason. In a non-third world country, people are going to be paying big attention and big bucks for the championships. For an African runner like Geb, there might be more money in the WRs.

But it's hard to run 12:46 in early July and then be ready to roll at Worlds. And it's hard to double at Worlds and have anything psychologically or mentally left for a WR.

I think people are crazy if they don't think Farah could have run faster at 5000. I certainly do. But since he didn't, I'm going to hold it against him in the GOAT debates. Nothing was stopping him from doing in in 2014 except a huge London payday.

yeah, it's harder to run a fast time and also win worlds...But Bekele ran a lot of fast times in Golden league and still won Worlds (and x-country)...yeah, he didn't double in 2005/2007 but in 08 he ran that fast 10,000m at Pre classic before doubling up at Olympics (in dominating fashion)

No, he could only run 12:46 low in his prime because that's all it would have taken to beat his contemporaries on their best day. And he would have.

Anti aging wrote:

Yes I think so. If he can run 12:50s with a blazing last lap, he could run faster with more even pacing.

I think it was 2006 golden league 5,000m that Bekele did a 12:48 with a 53:0 last lap...i recall a couple really slow laps like 66-68 thrown in that race as well.

So on that day Bekele could of perhaps come close to his own WR with that type of fitness....but didn't.

Just like Farah...there were times he could of gone faster...but didn't. now unless his race tomorrow is fast, we'll never know

So, you are saying that chasing fast times in time trial type races, and dodging tough competition(see Komen comment above) is better that all those Olympic and WC gold medals.

OK.

rojo wrote:

So right there you have a great example of why I think Geb is greater than Farah. People always say Farah doubled so many times. So what?" Do you not think that Geb's 1997 World 10k gold (after running a trial) and 5k world record in the span of 7 days is better than Farah winning a 10k and 5k (without 10k heats)?

No running 1 heat, 1 race, and a time trial isn't better than running and wining 2 races against the best runners in the world. And for what is worth early on Geb used to say he was doubling every championship and then dropped the 5k because his legs were sore.

Mo running 12:45? Seems reasonable. Mo running sub 12:40 and actually threatening the record? I doubt it. If he was remotely in WR shape, I am sure he would have taken a shot. He didn't and idea of running a 12:47 or something just wasn't appealing enough.