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There's something about the London course today that made for very good running. Three athletes broke the men's world record. One athlete broke the women's wor
by dmurray 5mo ago
There's something about the London course today that made for very good running.
Three athletes broke the men's world record. One athlete broke the women's world record, and three were in the all time top 5. An Irish record was also broken, likely other countries too that I'm not familiar with.
Not to take anything away from the achievements. Incredible running.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5mo ago> One athlete broke the women's world record Not so. She broke a record for a female-only-pacer marathon time. The women's world record was much, much faster.
- ekr____ 5mo agoTo add some color here: It is very helpful to have someone pace you so that you can run an ideal pace without worrying about whether you are running the right speed. However, the rules require that pacers start with you [0], which means that by definition if you are running faster than anyone has ever gone before you have to run some of the race alone. However, because marathon are often mixed gender and the best male runners are significantly faster than the best female runners, it is possible for a woman to be paced from the gun to the tape by a male runner. For this reason, there are separate records for the women's marathon for women's only events. [0] This is one of the things that made Kipchoge's original sub 2 result not record-eligible.
- ungreased0675 5mo agoHaving a pacer start with you seems to defeat the purpose? I’d prefer someone fresh and full of energy to jump in halfway to carry me through the end.
- dmurray 5mo agoI stand corrected, but I don't think this changes my point at all. She broke the thing that the IAAF have gone back and forth on calling "the world record". It's the relevant record for this event - there was no more chance of her beating the man-paced record than of beating the men's record or the Le Mans lap record.
- NooneAtAll3 5mo agowhat does female-only-pacer even mean?
- PaulDavisThe1st 5mo agoIt is common in "big" marathons for the fastest runners to have pacers with them who help establish and keep a pace. They could be male or female, but the fastest marathon runners are generally male, so they tend to be male. "Female-only-pacer" means that only female pacers are used.
- tim333 5mo agoIt was good weather for London. Clear skies and cool.
- tasuki 5mo ago> It was good weather for London. Unusual!