Why are elite runners so not tired after a race?

They have a better aerobic engine than you do.

But why are they more or less exhausted than me after a race?

To me it always looks like they could’ve run even faster...

Lydiard Cerutty wrote:

They have a better aerobic engine than you do.

But what kind of fuel is in that aerobic engine?

Not Buying It wrote:

Lydiard Cerutty wrote:

They have a better aerobic engine than you do.

But what kind of fuel is in that aerobic engine?

Sugar and oxygen

I'm far from elite, but I recover really quickly too when I'm really fit. If I'm out of shape and finishing a minute off my PR, it takes a few minutes after the finish to get my breath back. When I'm setting a PR while in great shape, the pain of the race is gone within a few seconds of finishing and I can just take a brief moment to collect myself and then jog off.

Lactate? wrote:

Even when elite runners win, beat the WR or such, they don’t fall to the ground drowling - like I do when I run 5K in 17:59. Why is that?

their training hurts more than their racing

(most of the time) When someone wins a race it means they had a really good day...whenever I've have a good race I don't really feel exhausted at the end. Only in really bad races have I felt truly exhausted in the end.

I'd imagine elites are able to harness that sort of energy more often than most people.

They are more energy efficient. They are using LESS energy than you, not more as everyone else will tell you.

I'm very far from elite, but somewhat "national class" in the marathon and longer.

I assume the OP is mainly talking about track runners and events 10km and below (although the same applies to marathons and longer events).

My guess is that many elites/pros have trained so much over the years that it becomes easier to "manage and mask" the pain. They've done so many grueling workouts and pushed themselves so hard that racing is basically second nature. Races can be "easier" than the workouts in a sense. Being extra fit, one can recover super fast and look relaxed/happy like it was easy (even thought they may have been in quite a bit of pain/fatigue).

So there's that. Then some of them are probably doping so there's that too. Finally like one poster mentioned above that when a top athlete wins it means they were having a "good day" so that usually means things are clicking and there is the sensation of feeling "less pain" for a relative effort. The excitement of breaking the tape first and winning gives one a boost to not crumple at the line.

My best races (13:54 at BU, 23:58 at AL) I finished feeling like a million bucks.

Half of it was that I was tremendously fit, but the other half was mental in that I knew I was having a transcendent performance hearing my splits and feeling great.

Very rarely was I wiped. I was wiped in races that had extreme weather conditions (mostly hot over 80-degrees and humid over 80%), but when I was on, I finished fresh (even though I wasn't) if that makes sense.

the reason wrote:

They are more energy efficient. They are using LESS energy than you, not more as everyone else will tell you.

Hi Jon! But they are using the energy much faster. That's all about the engine, innit?

DOPING

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I think some of these answers are incorrect because this spring when I ran the best race in my life up to this point (a sub 420 1600m) a PR by over 5 seconds. I felt like crap after 2 laps I went through 800 in 209 and didn’t know if I would finish. I did finish and it took about 5 seconds after the race but I collapsed and then puked for about 30 minutes. I was extremely overheated as it was about 85-90 degrees and decently humid but I felt like sh*t for about 45 minutes. But only about 75 minutes after the race I was able to run a 200 800m, but the first 30 minutes after the race was the worst pain or feeling I have ever had in my life and I was the fittest I have ever been.

At the same time you also see pros collapsing with exhaustion after a race. You often see two guys finish with the same time and one looks fresh while the other crumples to the floor. Makes me think it's just a mental thing.

Random runnerrr wrote:

I think some of these answers are incorrect because this spring when I ran the best race in my life up to this point (a sub 420 1600m) a PR by over 5 seconds. I felt like crap after 2 laps I went through 800 in 209 and didn’t know if I would finish. I did finish and it took about 5 seconds after the race but I collapsed and then puked for about 30 minutes. I was extremely overheated as it was about 85-90 degrees and decently humid but I felt like sh*t for about 45 minutes. But only about 75 minutes after the race I was able to run a 200 800m, but the first 30 minutes after the race was the worst pain or feeling I have ever had in my life and I was the fittest I have ever been.

Some faster runners have this experience too.

Roger Bannister collapsed when he broke four minutes for the first time. Maybe this could be explained by this limited training (if he trained like a modern world-class runner, he may have coped with racing better). But then how would you explain Jim Ryun?

I recently ran a 10k PR and felt like I could've ran at that pace for another 10k.

Random runnerrr wrote:

I think some of these answers are incorrect because this spring when I ran the best race in my life up to this point (a sub 420 1600m) a PR by over 5 seconds. I felt like crap after 2 laps I went through 800 in 209 and didn’t know if I would finish. I did finish and it took about 5 seconds after the race but I collapsed and then puked for about 30 minutes. I was extremely overheated as it was about 85-90 degrees and decently humid but I felt like sh*t for about 45 minutes. But only about 75 minutes after the race I was able to run a 200 800m, but the first 30 minutes after the race was the worst pain or feeling I have ever had in my life and I was the fittest I have ever been.

The claim being made isn't that everyone always recovers from hard efforts quickly when they are in good shape. The claim being made is that it happens frequently enough to explain why some pros sometimes look relatively fresh after races.

If you are really good, you don't even have to breath through your mouth the last 200 meters. Watch at 5:50. It is almost like oxygen uptake is not their limiter (for some strange reason. :) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDjDHUNZl4c

Lydiard Cerutty wrote:

They have a better aerobic engine than you do.

Mostly this.

But also elites rarely run all-out for time. They spend the first 5-10 laps of a 5K running at marathon pace and then gradually crank it up past threshold. Probably only the last mile is big effort.

Bet the OP runs hard from the start to do their 17:59 (and note that's about 4-5 mins more running than an elite 5K)