I would love to know how much London pays in appearance fees -
Kipchoge, Bekele, Farah, Adola, among the other names - that had to be a lot of money right there. At least a million, right? Kipchoge must be able to get 350+, with more incentives if he breaks the records.
All that money spent to create a field that could chase the world record.
And yet - all of it wasted because the pacers go out so hard at the start. Neither of the races were exciting. There was no lead pack that lasted more than what, 1/2 the race? The biggest news from the day will be that Keitany crashed, Farah held on to a suicidal first half to break the national record, and that's about it. Kipchoge winning is great. but it wasn't in any special kind of time for him, and it was the expected result.
Maybe one day we'll see the WR broken. But I much more enjoy seeing NY, Chicago, Boston, and the other races that focus on the competition itself.