Mo Farah marathon

Might want to check with Steve Cram about Mo having all British records. Last time I looked 3.46.32 was still top of the list

What about the appearance fee structure? I bet if you had a pot of money for this I could see 50-60% of it going to Mo. It is a business and thats what the British fans want to see. Doesn't leave much for high quality competition. Agree with your tactical thon scenario though.

To be fair Bekele has beaten Kipchoge more times than he has lost and still has a faster legit marathon time.

I don't get what makes people think Farah can run fast.Here's the thing: his 5K best is 15 seconds slower than WR, and his 10K best is 30 second slower. We should expect him to run marathons 2 minutes slower than the WR, and not faster.Nothing suggests that, having missed all opportunities to run 5K and 10K faster, that he will now run marathons faster.On the contrary, his 3:28.9 1500m times suggest he was always more of a miler, that managed to develop his endurance (while neglecting his innate speed until late in his career), allowing him to sit and kick his way to tactical victories. This will not work in marathons.I will be impressed if Farah ever manages to run sub-2:06.He will be much better at road 10Ks and semis.

Tortiose wrote:

Now that Berlin is over time to move focus to London,how fast mo farah complete London. I have him down at 2:04/2:03 but if Farah wants to shut bekele up he has to go for the world record

I think the world's moved on from 1 mile records being important, admirable though it is.

If Mo were to hold the Olympic distances national records of 1500m, 5000m, 10000m and marathon that would be impressive.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

middleagedrunner wrote:

The better question to ask is "will he win London"?

My gut feel (as a Mo fan-boy) - no he won't. The pace will be too hot, but he'll give it a good go and go at least 2:06:XX to take the British record.

Now, if he was in a tactical Olympic or World's marathon - I think he could win one of those.

He will definitely run London as that's where the money is for him.

I asked "will he win" not "will he run". He's said he would run. He probably won't win!

adambeston wrote:

What about the appearance fee structure? I bet if you had a pot of money for this I could see 50-60% of it going to Mo. It is a business and thats what the British fans want to see. Doesn't leave much for high quality competition. Agree with your tactical thon scenario though.

They dealt with this in 2014 and managed to get a fairly stella field as well as paying Mo handsomely (I presume) as an appearance fee. Also don't underestimate how much he wants to do it for himself - I get the impression that to a degree he would run even if he was paid a pittance for it as the emotional attachment to running on the streets of his home town seems to be important to him (understandably).

Mo have not won anything in his career

Not sure why many think he will be successful running Marathons

Ironically, you are going to end up being the only reason why we'll be interested in Farah's next marathon. We know we'll get a quiet week after it.

It's going to be tough for him to start out at the very back of the pack and still post a good time. He's going to have to weave around all the 4+ hour run/walkers and the people in costumes taking selfies. I don't think his usual strategy is going to work this time.

If he can stay in the race he will probably run 4-15 seconds faster than 2nd place. 2:07 or 2:15 just depends on the rest of the field. Mo will run just fast enough to win.

I doubt he will ever face the guys that did well in Berlin.

Stp hating on the GOAT , u piece of shit

It's always a pleasure to have a conversation with you.

I would say at most he may run 2:06 high. His form is just so far from being efficient over the marathon distance

rekrunner wrote:

I don't get what makes people think Farah can run fast.

Here's the thing: his 5K best is 15 seconds slower than WR, and his 10K best is 30 second slower. We should expect him to run marathons 2 minutes slower than the WR, and not faster.

Nothing suggests that, having missed all opportunities to run 5K and 10K faster, that he will now run marathons faster.

On the contrary, his 3:28.9 1500m times suggest he was always more of a miler, that managed to develop his endurance (while neglecting his innate speed until late in his career), allowing him to sit and kick his way to tactical victories. This will not work in marathons.

I will be impressed if Farah ever manages to run sub-2:06.

He will be much better at road 10Ks and semis.

Also a minute down at the half. However I disagree with 'Nothing suggests that, having missed all opportunities to run 5K and 10K faster, that he will now run marathons faster.' What does that even mean? You saw him getting dropped in a faster race by someone? Or couldn't get the pacers together/properly organised? Or just couldn't find the right race at the right time of the season given the dearth of track 10ks especially?

There is one big difference at the marathon. He shouldn't have the problems finding people pacing him or even racing at faster than his target race pace. So if he changes his training and doesn't get bored with it like Kenny has, there is everything to shoot for.

It is interesting to compare his pbs with Kamworor his great rival. He starts to fall behind by the HM distance but Kam's first full m was NYC 2.10. Not sure how that compares with 2.08 at London, about the same maybe? Kam then knocked 4min off at his next attempt but has plateaued there.

Yes -- I also saw that for the half, which is inline with a 2 minute slower than world record marathon best.I'm puzzled you can disagree with my statement, but then ask what it means.When I say "nothing suggests" he can run fast times, I mean by looking at any and all of his previous performances, and trying to predict what is an equivalent performance for the marathon. There are many equivalency tools, but my favorite is Purdy. Plugging 59:21.8 for the half into Purdy, gives 26:46.64 for the 10K, a pretty good match, and a 2:04:33.3 for the marathon. All of his actual real lifetime performances suggest that that is about what he is capable of, assuming that he possesses the endurance to run marathons at an equivalent level. This puts him at about 1.5 minutes slower than today's world record. None of his previous performances suggest he possesses the kind of endurance that would be required to run below 2:04:30. That's what that even means.I'm inclined to think that his real world performances suggests the contrary. His 3:28.9 1500m performances, and his indoor 2-mile world record suggests he is more miler, than marathoner, especially when compared to athletes like Geb and Bekele. I will be genuinely impressed if he manages to run sub-2:06, not to mention sub-2:05 or the Purdy equivalent 2:04:33.3.

Two athletes who lost to Mo on the track just won the last two major marathons. I thought Mo could not be successful at the marathon and he has only dominated track in a weak era when all the best athletes moved straight to the marathon?

Remember the last (and first also) time he ran a marathon? Everyone and their mother were hyping/promoting it as a certain British record. Everyone was sure that Steve Jones record would be eclipsed. Of course I understand that Farah couldn't control the hype surrounding him but still what was the actual result?

He finished about a minute from Jones record and ran a very nice 2:08 low.

The point I'm trying to make is that a great 10km/half isn't always successfully translated to the 42km distance. Even more if the other data points towards a fantastic miler who never really took advantage of it in the actual distance. Instead the guy made a great gamble by maximizing aerobic ability and coupled it with a ferocious natural long kick. The result is the 10+ medals in global championships.

2:06:xx is possible but I won't put money on it.