Journey to Elite wrote:
The machine said he will be racing the 2018 London Marathon and see's Mo Farah as a challenge to take on very seriously.
Obviously Kipchoge is the hot favourite but now he'll probably try to drop Mo Farah as soon as possible to prevent any trouble late in the race.
This is a weird post in a couple of ways.
One, how would you expect Kipchoge to respond to such news? He could say "I respect him" whether he does or doesn't see Farah as a real threat, and move on, having lost nothing. Or he could say, "Farah's no player in the marathon" and invite limitless controversy.
Two, how does this really affect Kipchoge's likely strategy in a race lasting over two hours? The need to drop known kickers is not the imperative it is in the marathon the way it is in a championship track race. London will have pacers assigned to go out in 2:02-whatever, and Kipchoge will go with them whether Farah does or not. Farah will last for 40K at Kipchoge's pace (assuming, obviously, that Kipchoge is as fit as he's always proven to be) or he will not. These guys are not going to run in a pack at 2:08 or 2:08 or even 2:06 pace through 20 miles.
Perhaps Farah will win the race. If so, it won't be because he changed the structure of the game.