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Eliud Kipchonge

skelton said:
not to mention the cars providing the slipstream as well
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I am nerd enough this thought piqued my interest ... so on the back of an envelope making gross assumptions about human surface area (1sq.m), speed (13,25mph converted to metres per second), the density of the air etc calculating power lost to drag (proportional to rho*A*v^3) I think shows the effect of 'no drag' is rather less than half a watt in terms of effort saved. After looking up how much energy it takes to run a marathon at an amateur pace - let alone the pace achieved which is extraordinary - the drag contribution is down below the 10^-3 range. <<0.1%, less than 3s if energy expended where to be held constant. It's actually not worth bothering with, let alone a decider.

The vehicle provided pacing - which is the key.

Sub 2-hours is an amazing achievement by an amazing athlete!
 
Weekender said:
Times haven't changed that much: Bannister was paced as well.
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True but there were no digital clocks for Bannister in 1954, no scientifically engineered shoes and clothing, there weren’t even any full-time athletes (Bannister had to travel to Oxford for his date with destiny only after he had completed his shift at a London hospital). There were no nutritional experts or sport scientists or multi million pound sponsorships. The list goes on. All part of the process of commodification that has affected nearly all sport over the past fifty years.
 
palacefan said:
An amazing feat but ever since Roger Bannister did the four minute mile and was paced I am a bit uneasy about using pace makers......miserable old sod that I am.
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Are these pacemakers also motivators? I would have thought a digital wrist device would have been sufficient to set the pace and keep me on target.
 
An amazing achievement.

Nike are spinning it as their latest development of their running shoes, but really it was the Sky cycling team (Dave Brailsford) approach of trying deliver as many small differences as possible to deliver a significant advantage. With as much science as possible behind it.

Start with the best marathon runner in the world. Give him what may be the best shoes to run in. A car driven at the required speed throughout with a display system to show the required pace on the floor just in front of the runners. Select a track with the maximum allowed height loss (somewhere around 30m from start to finish), but otherwise flat over the whole distance (including sections relaid to eliminate camber changes). Pick the time of the day for cool conditions and the least wind. Select the best aerodynamic shape for the pacemakers to run in to reduce the drag that the Kipchonge felt. Train a large number of very fast athletes to run with Kipchonge in this very specific shape and change them enough times during the race to keep the pace as required.
 
It’s amazing how much detailed planning went into this.

The pacemakers were there in order to provide drafting for Kipchoge, amongst other things, but also to protect him from wind in all directions. That’s why they were in that distinctive V formation at the front, chosen as the most effective after testing many possible alternatives, plus two behind him. The
chestnut trees lining the road also acted as a wind shield. (The downside was that the team had to carefully sweep the road to remove any windfalls from the runners’ path.)

One of the aspects that prevents this astonishing achievement from being a world record is also related to the pacemakers. For a world record, you are allowed them, but only if they start at the start. Yesterday, they needed people coming in and out throughout, in a well choreographed manner. There is no one in the world who could keep up with Kipchoge from start to finish, so it was the only way to get full pacemaker coverage. (As it was a lapped course, actually maybe there is another way, but it would basically be cheating, so probably there is some rule against it.)

Kind regards

- Garry
 
These pacemakers, did they run the entire distance too, well the last one standing if I'm needing to be more specific?

Edit: Posted at the same time as the comment above, so they came in each lap and didn't do the full distance then?
 
Correct.
The method of fluid delivery via bike rather than pick up from stations also not permitted in IAAF record setting.
 
...it’s still an amazing feat.

I have run 2 marathons, and beating 4 hours was hard enough.
 
This was a necessary step. Kipchoge had tried two years before in Monza, and failed. That seems like an irrelevance now.

Now that barrier is shattered, the question is when Kipchoge will attempt to run 1:59 under IAAF conditions, not if.

It will be interesting to see, when we look back on this period, which of the two will be considered the landmark. If it is Kipchoge who accomplishes both, I would expect it would be the official world record that gets remembered, but should it turn out to be another athlete, I think perhaps we will remember yesterday as pivotal.

P.S. The thing that puts this in perspective for me is that this summer I took part in my first cycling sportive, which was about the same distance, and my average speed was pretty much the same as Kipchoge's. On a bike!
 
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