Seb Coe and the 5000m

His best was 13:03

No he did not. I don't believe he was too much under 14 minutes. He might not even have run faster than 14 minutes.

His 5k was equal to a, say.......Ryan Bak

His 5000 pr was 14:07. Probably the only one he ever ran, on a cold, windy day early in the season.

I don't believe he ever ran under 7:50 for 3000 either. And I recall him running 8:13 3000 indoors around 1987 or 1989 in the United States.

Remember he was 46.0 400 runner.

There was a long discussion of this about 2 months ago. One idea, as I recall, was that he was so determined to get an Olympic Gold in the 800 in 1984 that he didn't step up to the 5 when he might have after 1980 and that he never did make the transition.

I don't think he ever ran one on the track, and if he did he won't have trained specifically for it. He was always due to start running the 5000 after the 84 Olympics. However it never materialized. It was due to be his main event all along – he only started doing the 800/1500 to gain more speed for his 3000m as a kid!

He ran one in England, probably very early in his career. Maybe around 1979 but I can't be sure. I remeber this from the great book "The Coe/Ovett Files" which was a compilation of newspaper clippings and race results for both of their careers up until around 1982.

Sure, he ran a 46s 400m, but only because he worked a lot on his speed. This quote from Frank Horwell sums ups his endurance for any doubters:

"But where did Coe get his amazing endurance from? The answer came to me in 1986 when I went to Battersea Park Track one Saturday morning with a 13:11 5km performer to do a session of 7 x 800m at 5km speed with 45 secs rest. The rep times were fixed at 2:08 because the 5km runner was returning to fitness after injury. Coe was on the track and came across and asked what we were doing and could he join in? I felt a little apprehensive that an acknowledged 800m/1,500m runner would not survive a 5km pace session with a short recovery. The 800ms went like this: 2:08, 2:06, 2:04, 2:02, 2:00, 1:58 and 1:56! Coe led them all. Afterwards, he confessed that he did a 5km pace session at 13:20 speed each week. I ventured the opinion that he could run a good 5km anytime. He agreed, but said he didn't like the event! It is doubtful whether any 800m runner before or since could have completed such a session in such times."

better yet, does anyone have any info on juantorena's training...Ive heard that in the offseason he would do 10-15 mile runs thru the mountains...and this was for a 400-800 guy....anyone confirm or refute???

Coe's PBs.

400 46.87    14 Jul 1979   London (CP)

600 1:15.0   + 10 Jun 1981  Florence, ITA

800 1:41.73    10 Jun 1981   Florence, ITA

1k 2:12.18    11 Jul 1981   Oslo, NOR

1500 3:29.77    7 Sep 1986   Rieti, ITA

1M 3:47.33    28 Aug 1981   Brussels, BEL

2k 4:58.84    5 Jun 1982   Bordeaux, FRA

3k 7:57.4    23 Apr 1980   London (CP)

5k 14:06.2    11 May 1980   Cudworth

Mar 2:56:20    1 Jan 1991      

Indoor:    

800 1:44.91 12 Mar 1983 Cosford

1k 2:18.58 19 Mar 1983 Oslo, NOR

1500 3:42.60 12 Feb 1983 Cosford

3k 7:54.32   8 Mar 1986  Cosford

Seb could run sub-13 if he had trained specifically for it. He is this type of athlete like Geb, El G, Auita, Morceli etc. Just good runners no matter of the distance.

he was 112lbs he could have smoked 5k.

I recall comparing the prs of Coe, El G, Geb, Viren, and Kristiansen at, e.g., 800, 1500, 3000, and 5000.Canova's warning about reasoning from such "prs" notwithstanding, I can only conclude - Coe was lucky he never had to race Viren @ 3000... or Kristiansen @ 10000!

Ajax wrote:

His 5000 pr was 14:07. Probably the only one he ever ran, on a cold, windy day early in the season.

I don't believe he ever ran under 7:50 for 3000 either. And I recall him running 8:13 3000 indoors around 1987 or 1989 in the United States.

Remember he was 46.0 400 runner.

I think most people accept that Coe's 5k PB is nowhere near what he could have run. It's a shame he didn't post a fast time but then again when you're that good at 800/1500 it's easy to understand why you didn't move up.

In his bio, it stated that he first mentioned moving up to 5k in the press conference after winning the Moscow 1500. He wanted an 800m gold medal first, so he stuck with the 8/15 through the '82 Euro Champs.

He intended to try the 5k in '83, but was feeling very sluggish during the winter (the yet undetected toxoplasmosis) and couldn't put in the training necessary for a 5k. So he stuck with the 8/15 through '84.

Then in '85, he did some basework for the 5k but got hurt in the spring and claimed that he couldn't put in enough to basework to run an exploratory 5k in '85. So he stuck with the 8/15 for the '85 and '86 seasons. Plus, he really wanted to win a championship 800, which he did at the '86 Euros.

In '87, he was injured and basically missed the entire racing season, so he never got the chance to try a 5k before the '88 olympics, and then he retired in early 1990.

Seb's 2000 meter time was briefly the world record in 1982, when his 4:58.84 eclipsed Jürgen Straub's 4:59.6 from 1980. However, 1982 was apparently the year they decided to go after the 2000M record, and so, in a series of races which featured all the big guns of the time, including John Walker, Steve Scott, and Ray Flynn- after Coe's race on June 5- the record next went to Steve Ovett (4:57.71) on July 7, and then finally to Thomas Wessinghage who brought it down 5.51 seconds to 4:52.20 on August 31 (outkicking Scott's 4:54.71). Wessinghage's mark stood until 1985 when Steve Cram brought it down to 4:51.39.

To put things in perspective, the current record of 4:44.79 by ElG (who else?) is all the more impressive when you note that he brought it down a whole 3 seconds under Morceli's 1995 mark.

Perhaps Coe saw that he wouldn't be able to hold any records above 1609.344 meters? after all, his 3000 meter efforts never made a "dent" in any record book. I think he simply realized he was just better suited to the "shorter" distances. In addition, the duration of his 800 mark in the record books (16 years and still No. 3 all time), is testament to his unique talent at the middle distances. In any case, I can't believe he ever seriously looked at the 5000 as "his event".

I would think Seb back then could jog 2:00 800m in his sleep so those times don't sound so berserk.

Coe never held the 2000m world record. Walker ran 4:52 in 1976 and Cram was the guy who broke the record, with a 4:51 in 1985, then Aouita, then Morceli and El Gerroudj.

Thanks for correcting.

The recovery was only 45s though!