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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

New Marathon World Record

This past weekend, Wilson Kipsang broke the world record at the Berlin Marathon, running 2:03:23. At 4:43 per mile, that's pretty freaking fast.  To put it in perspective, I saw this posted a few places:

How long could you run with Kipsang?
  • Couch potato: 20m (3.54 seconds)
  • Fairly athletic 12-year-old: 100m (17.69 seconds)
  • Five-a-day-eating, non-smoking, healthy adult: 200m (35.38 seconds)
  • Nauseatingly fit bloke you see jogging around the local park: 600m (1 minute 46 seconds)
  • The fastest person you went to school with: 800m (2:21)
  • A competitive county-level athlete: one mile (4:43)
  • Emil Zatopek, 10,000m world record holder from 1949 to 1956: 10,000m (29:18)
  • A professional half-marathon athlete: 13.1 miles (around 1:01.41)
  • Nobody, in the history of athletics: 26.2 miles - a full marathon (2:03.23)
I don't know how they came up with the data, but it's cool to look at.  Maybe if I jumped on that same course, under the same conditions, in my peak fitness, I could last a little over 10 miles.  Who knows?

It's also impressive that he ran that fast for his fourth marathon in 13 months.  But his record may not last long as semi-marathon rookie, Eliud Kipchoge and Geoffrey (looks so much cooler when it's spelled with a G) Kipsang weren't too far back.  While the sub 2:00 marathon won't come for a long time, I can see the record dipping in the 2:02s in the next year or two.

Renato Canova gave an excellent recap on the men's and women's Berlin Marathon races as well as more in-depth information on Kipsang.  I always enjoy reading Canova's opinions on things (except when it comes to one issue) and feel like he is one of, if not the best marathon coach in the world.  I feel he has a complete picture of the race and everything it entails.  Almost like the Yoda of distance running coaches. Cheers to a great performance last weekend.



2 comments:

  1. When I first saw those comparison times I assumed that you would run a 1:01:41 next weekend. From where I sit that doesn't seem too big a stretch. Of course, you are a much better judge of that than I am.

    I think I could make it 1500m. Maybe next year I could run the full mile.

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  2. Let me race the first half of the Top of Utah Marathon and I can run 1:01:41. I will also probably have two broken femurs and potentially tear all four of my quads. I'm maybe in 64:30 Tom King shape right now but the Boston Half course is going to be rough. Downhill first half, uphill second half, which is the opposite of what I would want.

    I think you'll surprise yourself. You were just shooting for a 3:00 marathon and now you're going to make a run at sub 2:50. Who knows how fast you'll run next year?

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