UKC

I can be a bit cynical about the London Marathon, but wow, the elite races yesterday were something else.

Men’s race - Fast start going through half way in 1:01:40, then Kiptum blows the field apart and accelerates to run the second half in 59:45. Recording the second fastest marathon in history, on not the fastest course. This guy has only run two marathons and the slowest is sub 2:02.

Women’s race - Hassan making her debut, she stopped after an hour to stretch her hip out. At that level, nobody recovers from that. Next time the camera is on her, she has the leaders in her sights. She catches them and stays with them until the last two hundred metres, then she kicks like someone with a 1:56 800m PB, which is what she has. 
 

Some good British performances, Emile Careless got himself 3rd in the British all time list and was disappointed. Sam Harrison got herself well up the Women’s all time list and was pretty pleased.

In reply to The New NickB:

Both winner's performances were remarkable. Hassan in particular deserves great credit for keeping going. Obviously none of us know how her hip was feeling, but I'm sure many runners would have dropped out for fear of inflicting more long-term damage, especially in a World Championship year. 

In reply to The New NickB:

A couple of observations about Hassan's race. She didn't surge to get back with the lead pack really quickly. The commentators said she was 25 seconds down at one point, but it almost seemed like she decided to wait to catch them up? When you consider how much easier it is running in a pack, deciding to go solo for that long was an interesting tactic. That she then had that crazy situation grabbing the last bottle at 40K where she offered some to Megertu? Surely that was designed to psyche her out? Then the little surge with about 1km to go to get whoever it was to respond. Even all that pre-race "I'm really scared, I don't know what I'm doing here" talk. I think there were a lot of mind games involved (I'm not suggesting she faked the hip problem though!)

Kiptum's negative split is unbelievable. I said in thread about Kenyan doping that I watched his performance in Valencia and I wasn't sure what I was watching as it seemed so far off the scale. It felt the same again. The way he was taking some of the corners, you could really appreciate the speed. I've not seen any Km splits* but they must be mindblowing from where he put the hammer down. I truly hope he is clean.

*13:49 for 30 - 35Km

https://olympics.com/en/news/how-fast-was-kelvin-kiptums-london-marathon-vs...

In reply to The New NickB:

That's a lot of 14:20 5k's.... he doesn't have many races, but all his 1/2s are pretty tasty.  He looked pretty thrashed at the end

In reply to The New NickB:

I got to watch the women's finish and I was on the edge of my seat, it was so exciting!

In reply to Tom Briggs:

"A couple of observations about Hassan's race. She didn't surge to get back with the lead pack really quickly. The commentators said she was 25 seconds down at one point, but it almost seemed like she decided to wait to catch them up? When you consider how much easier it is running in a pack, deciding to go solo for that long was an interesting tactic."

Running in a pack may be quicker, but if you push too hard to catch back up straight away you are at high risk of blowing the doors off and suffering big time later. It's very difficult psyciologically to do in a race situation, but a slow catch is best (as long as you have time!) at mitigating time loss.

Seen this a few time with people get a bit lost in a fell race, blowing the doors off to get back to 'where they belong' and try to salvage the race, only to explode and drop like an anchor.

In reply to The New NickB:

Really good watch, and great to see some UK presence - 4 men in the top 10! Good little interview with a veteran Chris Thompson here  youtube.com/watch?v=Jgw8CJRKXa4&

I assumed Hassan was just a one off character, but maybe it was a bit of mind games?

In reply to The New NickB:

From what I've read on other channels Kiptum's performance is either:

A) God given genetic freakishness

B) the result of the youth of today having always trained in super shoes

C) drugs, drugs and more drugs

D) A +B + C.

First year for awhile I didn't watch it, which seems like a massive shame now!

In reply to Nic Barber:

Sure, but my understanding is with road marathons where they're trying to run an even pace (at least for the first 2/3rds, until someone decides to go for it!?) running in a pack can 'save' around 2 seconds per mile for the elites. A combination of sharing the workload at the front/wind resistance and being able to preserve mental energy. So the temptation would be to get back to the lead pack as soon as possible, if you're comfortable running at their pace, without burning too many matches. I just thought it was interesting that someone in their debut marathon who is incredibly quickly over 1500m didn't try and catch up more quickly. Anyway, whatever her tactics it worked! It must be up there as one of the most incredible performances in a marathon. Reminded me of Des Linden at Boston in 2018 when she wasn't feeling great, so waited for Shalane Flanagan who went for a wee to help her re-join the front group, then went on to win it.

In reply to NorthernGoat: Lots more reasons than that, but if you're in a group of people where everyone runs <2:10, then that becomes your normal.

Plus he likely got circumcised without anaesthaetic at age 13, and no matter how much it hurts, that hurt more ( a well known Kenyan once said)

In reply to The New NickB:

Did anyone run the marathon here?