"Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me... This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful world."
An amazing boundary to breach.
Besides, I know you can’t control for adrenaline and elation, but the fact that he picked up 10 seconds of pace at the end—when he was running only 10 seconds shy of 2 hours for the whole marathon—and then spent a good half hour running around and celebrating after he crossed the finish line might be a hint that we haven’t even found the real limits yet.
Runners are prone to injury, and if you're not feeling 100% on the race you're likely to not win or run at your best.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge#Competition_rec...
It's the one sport that's open to just about everyone.
Perversely, this makes its highest levels open to only the most extreme of genetic freaks.
> "Many theories are offered up as the secret to Kenya's success in long distance running, but one of the most commonly cited, especially by Kenyans themselves, is the hard, active life the children here lead. Most run long distances to school each morning, and when they get home they are sent out to tend to the goats or sheep. There are few televisions, let alone PlayStations or Xboxes."
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2014/11/04/3614032...
It's definitely true that the marathon is somewhat less accessible than short or mid-distance running, but it doesn't take years of marathon running to be a top marathoner. Much of the fitness transfers from mid-distances. Many competitive 10k runners post elite times in their very first marathon race. This means that in practice, the marathon is very nearly as competitive as that for a middle distance race.
I believe the word you were looking for is "drafting".
I read an interesting article about that explaining that this wasn't really down to any kind of barriers but more having pacers and a better track (which is coincidentally about the previous 2h marathon attempt.)
https://sportsscientists.com/2014/12/2-hour-marathon-4-min-m...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/obituaries/roger-banniste...
To mix metaphor with reality, there was perhaps a pack speeding toward the finish line, and one crossed it first.
You wouldn't allow a rocket propelled and self driving formel1 car into the same bracket as the normal league either.... Though the difference is significantly less here
His achievements are listed on Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge
WASI does not hate the player. WASI hates the game.
Also you are missing a bunch of nines because out of the 7.7bn people on earth there are probably only a a few capable of running that time; lasers or no lasers :) Seriously though, he ran the distance under his own power and nobody denies that. They are all just like *"Unfortunately it's not going to be official". Not official why?! Oh, because the IAAF doesn't recognize it; a little fact almost every news release leaves out. That sounds trivial and arbitrary. It should be called the "IAAF World Record".
Why are those pacemakers that important?
Over the duration of the attempt, runners will hop in and hop out of the run to keep the running pace alongside Kipchoge as well as block wind (a non-trivial factor) over 26.2 miles. Also, it is mentally boosting to have teammates and even competitors of his run along side him as he pushes his body and mind farther than he has ever had before.
”Drafting behind another runner can conserve energy, although the effect is less than in cycling due to the fact that speeds are lower.”
There also is a psychological effect. It is easier to keep a constant pace if there’s somebody in front of you that does it, too.
Are there any ultramarathon runners that wear glasses while they run?
Some events don't even allow the use of Garmin watches (by elite runners) because they can be used for pacing.
https://image.businessinsider.com/5da1887a4af90974904877c2
https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2...
But that can't provide the drafting and morale benefit of running behind your teammates
For the previous attempt at the Breaking 2 event at Monza racetrack, they used a Tesla as a pace car.
Personally, I find this a very inspirational idea.
Strava live segments kind of do this already and it's more of a curse during training. The hardest part of training for running, aside from the consistent long hours, is taking it easy most of the time. Strava segments cause you to compete with yourself and others and go too hard. This quickly leads to burnout and injury. Slow, consistent runs are what you need during training, and a GPS watch can already give you that.
And then the internet will be flooded with bloggers talking about how everyone is doing it wrong since they're now self-proclaimed experts, repeating the same things they've heard someone else say.
And eventually, most people will get on the right track with it. It'll be a "GPS watch" in their head that's far more effective.
And I'm sure people will take it beyond that in ways that neither of us are prepared to imagine yet.
Of course, if the speed benefit of pacing is down to psychology and camaraderie rather than purely information, a simulated pacer might not offer the same benefit.
It doesn't apply to this one-person demonstration event, but it would sell like crazy to the gear nuts.
Having pacemakers in marathons that way is deemed acceptable. The organization of a marathon will even specifically hire runners to, say, run the first half in one hour ten minutes, after which they are free to step out of the race.
Here, each pacemaker, including the ones that accompanied him to the finish line, ran for only about 9 km (my guess, given 35 pacemakers used and using groups of 7). So, the last group only started running when Kipchoge has run for over one and a half hours.
In a college indoor track 5K, one of my teammates was being lapped by another teammate competing for a podium spot. The guy being lapped started sprinting to help the guy near the front of the race finish strong. That was ruled illegal pacing and they were both disqualified. It was a similar sort of situation — in order to legally pace you must be able to keep up with the runner your pacing.
Many of whom might be considered his competitors, too
Considering the required speed most pacers were 5000m and 1000m people