October 12, 2019
Last night a monumental human achievement, the first sub two hour marathon, was completed by Eliud Kipchoge. My first thought was 'Thank goodness he is not associated with the Nike Oregon Project'. I'm sure much joy was felt in the streets of Nairobi and on the dusty roads around Eldoret in the western Rift Valley of Kenya. Next Monday some schoolboy in Kakamega will be running the six miles to school thinking, 'I can do that'. And he will, just like his sister will also be thinking along those same lines about a sub 2 hr 10 min marathon.
Some will say will say this run is on the same pedestal as other milestones like Roger Bannister's sub four minutes mile at Iffley Road on 6 May 1954 or Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon in 1969. The difference in the two other achievements compared to Bannister's feat is the support of corporate finance and technological development.
.
At this point the technological support in shoe, design, route selection, pavement preparation, pace setters with wind tunnel data, and a vehicle showing everyone the pace with a laser played a significant role in this achievement. If any major physical performance was ever a forgone conclusion, this was it. There was only one runner who we thought might do it. With Bannister, there were also John Landy and Wes Santee pushing human performance levels in that global race to break four minutes. In space the Russians were competing with the US in the Cold War, although I don't think they were directly working on putting a man on the moon.
Technology played much less a part in Bannister's race. An old groundskeeper or coach was said to have rubbed graphite on his spikes so the cinders would not cling to them and weight him down. But that was about it for tech assistance. And once he broke four minutes, that performance quickly became more and more mundane. Today a group of moderately read high school kids have more scientific information about training and human limits at their fingertips than Bannister had in his medical studies at Oxford in 1954. Today the kids have better tracks, better shoes, maybe not better coaches, but certainly more opportunity to break four minutes, and they prove that by doing it.
Bannister and Kipchoge were both in a race against time. There was no one in either of their runs who was trying to break the tape ahead of them. Kipchoge has demonstrated that the unthinkable is possible. Thank you Eliud Kipchoge for showing us the possibilities of human performance. Now let the racing resume.
George Brose
Geoff Pietsch of Gainsville Florida has written the following about the event and inspired my effort above.
I did not think this was humanly possible at this stage of our evolution. I never thought I would live to see it. And it is hard to know what to make of it. Remarkable, of course, though the word seems inadequate.
Eliud Kipchoge is clearly a very nice guy - as the delight of all of the pace-setters after the run showed. What was almost stunning was that he picked up ten seconds in the last couple of hundred meters. Even the enormous elation for the achievement doesn't fully explain his lack of any signs of strain or fatigue afterwards. By contrast, Kenenisa Bekele, after his great 2:01:41 in Berlin two weeks ago - missing Kipchoge's record by two seconds - was obviously exhausted.
For me.... I am vaguely disappointed. I did not want anyone to do this under these circumstances. To me the artificialness of it detracts from the extraordinary accomplishment. Not just the shoes nor having pacesetters - though they are a factor. But
the whole technological effort that made it possible - and made it less the phenomenal effort of one man. If you have not followed this, I am thinking, for example, of the wind tunnel studies which led to the pace setters running in a V in front of him, instead of him inside an upside down V, with two pace setters deliberately trailing on each side to somehow effect the wind flow. And the scientifically determined nutrition and fluids during the run. And the pace car programmed to go at exactly 2:50 per kilometer speed. And the ideal course with the shortest path painted on the road.
When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile (yes, with a couple of pace setters, but also in the rain and wind on a cinder track) I was 16. But I did not see it. No one did except those at the venue. Later that summer Bannister beat John Landy of Australia, then the only other to have broken 4 minutes, in the British Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. I did see that. It was televised. Both broke 4:00. Although I was disappointed that Landy, the strong front-runner, was outkicked by Bannister, it was an inspiring effort by both men. I wish Kipchoge's great feat had elicited a similar reaction from me.
Yes, my time is past. I would compare Kipchoge's sub-2:00 to Neal Armstrong landing on the moon. And Bannister and Landy to Lewis and Clark crossing the continent, exploring the unknown, and reaching the Pacific. I would much rather have been with Lewis and Clark than with Armstrong.
Geoff Pietsch, Gainesville, Florida In the wee hours of Saturday, October 12, 2019
Do note Richard Mach's commentary in the Comments section below. George
The Guardian Oct. 12, 2019 by Sean Ingle clik here
Last night a monumental human achievement, the first sub two hour marathon, was completed by Eliud Kipchoge. My first thought was 'Thank goodness he is not associated with the Nike Oregon Project'. I'm sure much joy was felt in the streets of Nairobi and on the dusty roads around Eldoret in the western Rift Valley of Kenya. Next Monday some schoolboy in Kakamega will be running the six miles to school thinking, 'I can do that'. And he will, just like his sister will also be thinking along those same lines about a sub 2 hr 10 min marathon.
Some will say will say this run is on the same pedestal as other milestones like Roger Bannister's sub four minutes mile at Iffley Road on 6 May 1954 or Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon in 1969. The difference in the two other achievements compared to Bannister's feat is the support of corporate finance and technological development.
.
At this point the technological support in shoe, design, route selection, pavement preparation, pace setters with wind tunnel data, and a vehicle showing everyone the pace with a laser played a significant role in this achievement. If any major physical performance was ever a forgone conclusion, this was it. There was only one runner who we thought might do it. With Bannister, there were also John Landy and Wes Santee pushing human performance levels in that global race to break four minutes. In space the Russians were competing with the US in the Cold War, although I don't think they were directly working on putting a man on the moon.
Technology played much less a part in Bannister's race. An old groundskeeper or coach was said to have rubbed graphite on his spikes so the cinders would not cling to them and weight him down. But that was about it for tech assistance. And once he broke four minutes, that performance quickly became more and more mundane. Today a group of moderately read high school kids have more scientific information about training and human limits at their fingertips than Bannister had in his medical studies at Oxford in 1954. Today the kids have better tracks, better shoes, maybe not better coaches, but certainly more opportunity to break four minutes, and they prove that by doing it.
Bannister and Kipchoge were both in a race against time. There was no one in either of their runs who was trying to break the tape ahead of them. Kipchoge has demonstrated that the unthinkable is possible. Thank you Eliud Kipchoge for showing us the possibilities of human performance. Now let the racing resume.
George Brose
Geoff Pietsch of Gainsville Florida has written the following about the event and inspired my effort above.
I did not think this was humanly possible at this stage of our evolution. I never thought I would live to see it. And it is hard to know what to make of it. Remarkable, of course, though the word seems inadequate.
Eliud Kipchoge is clearly a very nice guy - as the delight of all of the pace-setters after the run showed. What was almost stunning was that he picked up ten seconds in the last couple of hundred meters. Even the enormous elation for the achievement doesn't fully explain his lack of any signs of strain or fatigue afterwards. By contrast, Kenenisa Bekele, after his great 2:01:41 in Berlin two weeks ago - missing Kipchoge's record by two seconds - was obviously exhausted.
For me.... I am vaguely disappointed. I did not want anyone to do this under these circumstances. To me the artificialness of it detracts from the extraordinary accomplishment. Not just the shoes nor having pacesetters - though they are a factor. But
the whole technological effort that made it possible - and made it less the phenomenal effort of one man. If you have not followed this, I am thinking, for example, of the wind tunnel studies which led to the pace setters running in a V in front of him, instead of him inside an upside down V, with two pace setters deliberately trailing on each side to somehow effect the wind flow. And the scientifically determined nutrition and fluids during the run. And the pace car programmed to go at exactly 2:50 per kilometer speed. And the ideal course with the shortest path painted on the road.
When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile (yes, with a couple of pace setters, but also in the rain and wind on a cinder track) I was 16. But I did not see it. No one did except those at the venue. Later that summer Bannister beat John Landy of Australia, then the only other to have broken 4 minutes, in the British Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. I did see that. It was televised. Both broke 4:00. Although I was disappointed that Landy, the strong front-runner, was outkicked by Bannister, it was an inspiring effort by both men. I wish Kipchoge's great feat had elicited a similar reaction from me.
Yes, my time is past. I would compare Kipchoge's sub-2:00 to Neal Armstrong landing on the moon. And Bannister and Landy to Lewis and Clark crossing the continent, exploring the unknown, and reaching the Pacific. I would much rather have been with Lewis and Clark than with Armstrong.
Geoff Pietsch, Gainesville, Florida In the wee hours of Saturday, October 12, 2019
Do note Richard Mach's commentary in the Comments section below. George
The Guardian Oct. 12, 2019 by Sean Ingle clik here