Geoffrey Mutai - 2011 NYC CR - 2:05:05. Just how good was that?

yes.

nobody will come close to this course record.

5K - 15:34 . Up the Verrazano Bridge 1k at 4%, then down into a flat section.

10K - 30:24 ( 14:50 ) . Onto the Fourth Avenue. Gently undulating course, slight up and down sections, 1-2% incline.

15K - 45:13 ( 14:49 ) . Starting with a flat section then onto Lafayette Avenue with a small incline, 600m at 2%.

20K - 1:00:04 ( 14:51 ) . Relatively flat section

25K - 1:15:07 ( 15:03 ) . Uphill on Pulaski bridge, 400m at 3%, followed by the Queensboro bridge, 1200m at 3% incline.

30K - 1:29:47 ( 14:40 ) . Down the Queensboro bridge, flat afterwards.

35K - 1:44:18 ( 14:31 ) . Geoffrey throwing down the gauntlet at 32K, relatively flat section with the small Willis bridge and 138th St bridge

40K - 1:58:44 ( 14:26! ) . Onto Fifth Avenue, undulating road, uphill 1K at 2%. The gap getting huge, 55''.

42.2K - 2:05:05 ( 6:19 ) . Into the hills of Central Park, with small steeper ones. 200m at 5% and the uphill run-in to the finish 100m at 4%.

Note : He ran the last 17K at 2:02:30 pace, with the undulating uphill section between 35-40K at 2:01:40 pace. Just incredible. Breaking the 10 years old CR by 2'38".

The second greatest marathon ever run behind Kip’s 2:00:25.

What was the half split? It had to be a negative split if he was 1:00:04 at 20K. That would make sense, considering there is only one significant climb at mile 23 after they come off the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan during mile 16.

First half split - 1:03:18. Second half - 1:01:47

security clearance wrote:

yes.

nobody will come close to this course record.

Eventually all records go, Who knows Maybe Rupp will run it in the next 5 years and bring de-facto pacers, even for him it will be hard though, that is a very strong Course Record.

Training - Sundays off

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/04/13/how-geoffrey-mutai-trains-for-boston-marathon/ly49j27nrUdW4DW4lvCzUJ/story.html

Do you think this training schedule is true?

I would like to see Bekele go for the course record here and brake 2:05. He won't do it now because he wants the wr on a fast course but maybe after the wr he could run New York. Geb done the same after his wr. Bekele would be suited to the hills as we all know from his epic 10 miller in Bern, Great North Run and 2 Great Ireland Runs and XC.

Banana Bread wrote:

I would like to see Bekele go for the course record here and brake 2:05. He won't do it now because he wants the wr on a fast course but maybe after the wr he could run New York. Geb done the same after his wr. Bekele would be suited to the hills as we all know from his epic 10 miller in Bern, Great North Run and 2 Great Ireland Runs and XC.

Bekele's strong quads are suited for hilly races more than others. However, it's hard to comprehend the G.Mutai show that was displayed that day. He was running at WR pace for nearly 50-55 minutes at the end of the race, taking it hill after hill.

If Bekele would show up in Berlin 2016 shape, he might have a stab at it, although i would say he wouldn't unless perfect race conditions.

However, given recent outings, and considering he is easily running out of father time, his chances are almost zero.

He could challenge for the win if he went for it this year, and maybe a 2:08 or so, but next year i'm afraid Bekele won't be able to win it, let alone get a very good time. Let's say it bluntly, Bekele cannot defeat Kamworor at the moment in any distance race.

Whenever greatest marathons come up I always throw this one out there as having to be a contender. Not much was on the line, but it might be one of the best individual performances out there. The bridges on that course provide hills that can be very jarring on your legs. The pavement in MOST places throughout the entire course is uneven. Once you're on the avenues you are basically hopping between patchworks of pavement that have been spotfixed over the years. The course record for it has traditionally been the slowest of the major marathons. Then G. Mutai went out there and crushed it in a solo effort. It's far superior to his Boston tailwind run where he at least had Mosop to motivate him (and states he ran for the win, not time, and still felt good after the race ended). That run is at least as good as any paced effort in Berlin, but I don't know that we can say Mutai would have necessarily run the world record with that level of fitness. Mutai always seemed to improve as the races went on. I'm not sure he would run an even race from the start and asking him to negative split much faster than WR pace could be asking for a lot. I definitely think he's one of the greatest marathoners ever, though, and I hope years from now when people look at those course records they bother to learn about him.

Such an amazing run in NYC, crushing the CR by a couple minutes on a legit course. Mutai was on another level in 2011. He ran 2:03 at Boston and many questioned the legitimacy of that wind-aided/downhill run. Then he takes what has to have been similar fitness to NY and drops a 2:05-flat. What's wild is that he was left off the Kenyan marathon squad for the 2012 Olympics due to his DNF in Boston in the heat in 2012. Even after not being chosen he had some good results, taking Berlin in 2012 to burn off the anger for missing the Olympic team, albeit in a strange finish where it looked like Kimetto had more left but stayed behind him. He also won NYC in 2:08 in 2013.

What I will add is that Boston/NYC are both good races because there are no pacers, but also that those races are fun when people push the pace. Kam winning NYC last year in 2:10 or whatever isn't that exciting to me. Those races are more fun when someone pushes through halfway because we know how the courses are laid out. It's fun to see Boston go out hot and watch people battle it out on the Newton Hills. It's fun to watch NYC go out hot and see who has the most left in Central Park. Mutai was fun to watch because he went for it in those races.

I would put the 2011 version of G. Mutai as competitive with any marathoner ever. The dude was one fire. It was a shame that they left him off the 2012 Olympic team, but maybe there were linging effects from the Boston debacle. Although I'm more likely to believe it was classic Athletics Kenya incompetence.

I'm sure he had a WR in him that day, only 1'30" off the WR at the time. Those small hills and bridges make it hard for the legs. Pace was pretty hot from the start at the other bar Geoffrey just imploded in Central Park.

He used to get better as km's ticked by, however the guy had more than enough speed. He blistered a 58:58 half and several other 59:xx halfs. He went out very fast in Berlin, Rotterdam too. Also he recorded a 27:19 in the BAA 10K, winning by almost a minute. He definitely wasn't afraid or put off by going out hard from the gun.

Lemon Lime 5000 metre runner wrote:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/04/13/how-geoffrey-mutai-trains-for-boston-marathon/ly49j27nrUdW4DW4lvCzUJ/story.html

Very interesting reading about his training. He does two "speed" workouts a week plus one hard, hilly 25 mile long run. If you look at the paces though, these are all about aerobic strength. The "speed" workouts consisted of 12x1km at 4:50 mile pace, i.e. slower than MP for him, and 20x2min at 5:00 mile pace, i.e. another notch even slower than MP. The long run was very hilly at high altitude but started at 7:15 mile pace and progressed to 5:35 mile pace.

None of that is over his lactic threshold. The speed workouts are essentially steady-state/tempo/MP speeds.

This is exactly what Arthur Lydiard had his athletes do during their Marathon Training, i.e. base training, phase. Sub-Threshold stuff, and is explained in the book Healthy Intelligent Training by Keith Livingstone. The idea is to raise your lactate threshold by running for lengthy periods of time at sub-threshold paces, i.e. MP. Arthur's athletes did two 10 mile steady state runs each week at MP effort. Mutai broke his up into "intervals" with periods of rest, but it's essentially the same type of work, just with short, 1 minute breaks.

Over the last year I've come to the realization that this is the correct way to train for the Half and Full Marathon. It's not about speed and hard anaerobic intervals. It's about raising your lactate threshold using sub-threshold, MP running and leaving the hard anaerobic intervals for the 5/10k guys.

It's all very true and a bit different than many european and american athletes train. However this is Mutai's base phase only training. There's more in it, i'm sure.

I will get in touch with Gianni Demadonna who was his agent at the time to see if i can get some insight in his training before New York.

Mzungu in Iten wrote:

It's all very true and a bit different than many european and american athletes train. However this is Mutai's base phase only training. There's more in it, i'm sure.

I will get in touch with Gianni Demadonna who was his agent at the time to see if i can get some insight in his training before New York.

changing up your name el k?