Official INEOS 159 Challenge Discussion Thread

I agree they had great coverage and it does look like INEOS was actually trying to break 2. There was no wheelchair, no women’s race, no break stories about his training. They didn’t take away the clock at the end like Monza. Great to see the people lining up the streets to cheer on Kipchoge! Watching the National Geographic documentary, it didn’t seem like they were trying to break2, but more trying to help the athletes train. When will National Geographic make a documentary about INEOS 159 challenge?

Would there be anything illegal about certified marathons using that same configuration for their 30km pacers?

Granted there's probably nobody who can hold that pace 30km, but if they do it in two stages, with some pacers to 21k in front of the 30k guys, it could be done. Then behind the 30k guys is the ultimate Kipchoge/Bekele showdown.

Kipchoge spent half his time on the right side of that Y formation, not even getting the full effect of it.

This has already happened at the marathon distance and BB lost big time!!! I can’t understand why he and his brother lost in London in 2012 they looked so washed up and then he keeps getting better and better but the Goat line up will never take place they are all too old now!!!!

Have Kipchoge's splits been posted anywhere?

Bad Wigins wrote:

Would there be anything illegal about certified marathons using that same configuration for their 30km pacers?

Granted there's probably nobody who can hold that pace 30km, but if they do it in two stages, with some pacers to 21k in front of the 30k guys, it could be done. Then behind the 30k guys is the ultimate Kipchoge/Bekele showdown.

Kipchoge spent half his time on the right side of that Y formation, not even getting the full effect of it.

IAAF gold label races are limited to 3 pacers per pacing group, and of course those three have to support all the racers in that group, not just one.

yes, but odds are there will only be one or two racers in the 1:59 group. The real issue is finding the 59.XX HM guys to do the pacing.

and so Kosgei today also wore the magic shoes... evidence on their performance enhancement hard to ignore.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

I honestly believe on a perfect day that kipchoge might be able to break 2 at Berlin.

He likely could have went a good bit under 1:59 here if paced to do so.

I had the feeling he was running on the edge . Definitely could not have gone 40 seconds faster.

Charlesvdw wrote:

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

I honestly believe on a perfect day that kipchoge might be able to break 2 at Berlin.

He likely could have went a good bit under 1:59 here if paced to do so.

I had the feeling he was running on the edge . Definitely could not have gone 40 seconds faster.

I agree. And did you see him lose touch with Centro for a bit? That was worrying.

Why is the official time 1:59:40.2? Aren't fractions of seconds rounded up in road races? Or is this another rule INEOS has ignored?

The official time is 1:59:40 but as they are science nerds, they recorded the time with a decimal.

Kipchoge's 11 First Place finishes out of 12 Marathons is impressive.

Kipchoge Having Five Sub 2:04 Finishes in an OFFICIAL marathon is impressive.

I was not really into the nike breaking 2 project & was not in awe when he ran 2:00:25. Same is true with the INEOS 1:59 project. While the event displayed his great speed, endurance & running economy, It was done in a controlled environment with aided tactics not allowed in an official marathon.

I was in awe & really impressed when he broke the marathon record (2:01:39) in the Berlin Marathon. It was done in an OFFICIAL Marathon without the aided tactics to enhance performance used in nike breaking 2 & INEOS 1:59.

From the beginning of the INEOS challenge, they already stated that the attempt will NOT be eligible for World Record because of the race tactics that they are going to employ such as:

1. Interchanging pacers that doubles as wind breakers that switches every 4 Kilometers

2. Handing over hydration at any point in the race

Also, it's not record eligible since the 26.2 Miles (42.195 Km) run only consists of only one competitor (kipchoge) and the course itself is NOT a marathon course and the distance is not officially measured as 42.195 Km (26.2 Miles) . They only made claims that the total area that will be covered is 42.195 Km (26.2 Miles)

Come to think of it, since they already said that INEOS 1:59 is NOT an official attempt:

1. No Official body or any party will be interested to actually go and measure the distance of the course & the claimed number of rotations that will be done during kipchoge's run on the course since it's NOT going to be record eligible anyway.

2. Telecasts / Live streams of international & world marathon majors usually show onscreen the elapsed time & distance covered in realtime so we have a detailed idea about the race. During the INEOS's live stream, only a timer was shown and they were NOT even able to show a realtime Per Kilometer / 5K / 10K / half-marathon split & was only telling estimates. The 5K Splits was only released long after the event.

Some people have noticed the way the commentators are talking before halfway of the run. It looks like INEOS has already guaranteed 200% that he is going to finish Sub2. The Question is, did they really cover 26.2 Miles during the run? (I did NOT watch the live telecast because of lack of interest)

The thing that INEOS did was to hype-up a staged, environmentally controlled 26.2 (42.195) Mile Run, claim it to be historically important as the moon-landing, roger bannisters sub 4 minute mile & even say that it is equivalent to Usain Bolt's 2009 World championship world record of 9.58.

They should be comparing this event to Justin Gatlin's Industrial fan Wind-Assisted 9.45 second sprint because of illegal tactics employed instead of Usain Bolt's 9.58 World championship World record. What's disturbing is that, there is clearly an intent by INEOS and all the parties involved to deceive people especially those NOT into athletics that this is a major landmark in human history & athletics & the run itself is record eligible.

Even using the tagline (The Final Barrier In Athletics) is absurd. There are a lot of barriers in athletics that can still be achieved, not only 1:59.

I am an admirer of the Eliud Kipchoge. He is one of the all-time greats in athletics but this INEOS, claimed-history & for humanity claims thing is something I am not really into.

Oh yeah, this is the tweet you are talking about:

it's definitely misleading & I agree that they should instead compare this achievement to Justin Gatlin's 9.45 Second Artificially Wind-Assisted sprint!

I live in Vienna and got to see all the measuring over the summer. The course is legit, ratified and also respects the separation rule, the elevation loss rule and had the short coursr prevention factor. Stop the bullshitting on whether he ran the full distance or not. Live splits were presented on their website on the second screen within seconds after they hit each km markers. On the course there were timing systems at each km marker too.

+1 but wrote:

I live in Vienna and got to see all the measuring over the summer. The course is legit, ratified and also respects the separation rule, the elevation loss rule and had the short coursr prevention factor. Stop the bullshitting on whether he ran the full distance or not. Live splits were presented on their website on the second screen within seconds after they hit each km markers. On the course there were timing systems at each km marker too.

^^^ there's one born every minute

I just found this about someone who made a correction on INEOS's tweet . It's "funny"

https://i.postimg.cc/fRW7ySBg/Deception.jpg

jamin wrote:

In my mind this is a "legit sub-2." However it's a good illustration of why running times cannot be compared apples-to-apples. Bannister's 3:59 might be equivalent to 3:53 with modern tracks and spikes. Maybe even 3:50 on indoor banked track with perfect pacing. Let's not kid ourselves by thinking that runners today are "better" than in the past.

Why do U.S. runners today look to the old days to Roger Bannister (Mr. 4th place) instead of Malvin Whitfield? Whitefield, a 400/800 man, a contemporary of Bannister. Whitfield was a 45.9 400m man under the same conditions in which Bannister raced. I have no doubt with today's training, shoes and modern tracks, Whitfield would be as fast as today's 400/800 men.

pattylover2001 wrote:

How does this affect Nike? Nike put in millions of dollars and spent a couple of years researching(According to the national geographic documentary). So all they did was setup the foundation for INEOS to reap the benefits of all that research? The best thing that Nike did was to select Kipchoge for their breaking2. Imagine if they had selected Bekele, they would of fallen flat on their face with all three failing miserably attempting the sub2. Then INEOS 159 challenge might never happen and Adidas could have a glimmer of hope for their breaking2 project. As it stands now, Adidas totally missed out on an opportunity to challenge Nike. All of the the runners today were wearing Nike tank tops and shoes! As for their underwear, I am not going to speculate, but could be Nike too!

No underwear. They went commando

Martymart wrote:

Congratulations to Kipchoge and pacemakers! Looks like they paced well, 2:48-2:52 minutes per km. I am definitely not that consistent!

I can’t even do a single 2:50. I max out at 2:54.