Eliud Kipchoge and the Assault on the Two-Hour Marathon

[DonRocks]

This sounds like the stuff of Sidd Finch, but it's true: There is a serious attack occurring at running a marathon in 2 hours, and it was almost reached under optimal conditions: Eliud Kipchoge just ran the distance in an unthinkable 2:00:24.

"Inside Nike's Sub-Two Hour Marathon Attempt" by Chris Chavez on si.com

To put this into terms I can relate to, twenty years ago (I must emphasize: twenty years ago), I was running 30 miles a week, and once every three days, my regimen would consist of sprinting six laps, with one minute rest in between each, as fast as I could. No matter how tired I was after that minute, I'd *have* to start the next lap.

The fastest lap I've *ever* run is just over 70 seconds, which would work out to a 4:40 mile (the fastest mile I ever ran was 6:37). 

A sub-two hour marathon works out to a 4:35 mile pace, which is faster than I could *ever* sprint just *one* time around the track.

[TedE]

This is one of those athletic achievements that confounds me.  In almost every other sport I can see how a combination of intense, prolonged training and good genes from mom and dad gets you to the pinnacle of performance.  I just can't fathom the effort necessary to run a 2:15, much less a 2:00, marathon.  It just doesn't seem physically possible.  Like Don says, at the peak of my running fitness I've run a 400 meters as fast as I could to the point of total exhaustion, and realized that even if I could do that 104 more times without stopping I would be dead last in any international elite marathon.  By several minutes.

I was listening to an NPR broadcast of RadioLab in the background over the weekend that talked about this.  They were looking at possible factors for Kenyan dominance in distance running over the last 40 years, and specifically dominance by runners from one particular region.  It's obviously a combination of things, but they were interested in the one factor that seemed to differentiate these runners from even other Kenyans that shared physical attributes: a culture of pain tolerance that centers on male coming of age traditions (that part of the podcast is not for the squeamish!).  At that level of running the argument runs that there are two primary gating factors for performance: thermodynamics (the ability for the body to dissipate heat rapidly) and the ability to numb feedback loops for suffering.

[DonRocks]

2 hours ago, TedE said:

I was listening to an NPR broadcast of RadioLab in the background over the weekend that talked about this.  They were looking at possible factors for Kenyan dominance in distance running over the last 40 years, and specifically dominance by runners from one particular region.  It's obviously a combination of things, but they were interested in the one factor that seemed to differentiate these runners from even other Kenyans that shared physical attributes: a culture of pain tolerance that centers on male coming of age traditions (that part of the podcast is not for the squeamish!).  At that level of running the argument runs that there are two primary gating factors for performance: thermodynamics (the ability for the body to dissipate heat rapidly) and the ability to numb feedback loops for suffering.

That's interesting for sure, but I have to think two other factors play into the Kenyans' dominance: altitude training, and body weight. Kenyan marathon runners look like little flies, barely touching the ground as they skim along the track, and they don't even seem tired. Unless it turns into an all-out sprint to win, they often don't even lie down when they're finished - like you said, it's hard to fathom.

On the other hand, Eliud Kipchoge probably looks at Usain Bolt and wonders how on earth he (briefly) hit 27.8 mph - that's a 2:16 mile pace (!)

But you know what's pretty scary? 27.8 mph represents only a moment in time when Bolt hit his highest speed ever, and these marathoners are running at nearly half that speed over a span of two hours.

[TedE]

23 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

That's interesting for sure, but I have to think two other factors play into the Kenyans' dominance: altitude training, and body weight. Kenyan marathon runners look like little flies, barely touching the ground as they skim along the track, and they don't even seem tired.

They touched on that.  There are lots of other "running cultures" that have the benefit of high altitude living and naturally thin builds.  These Kenyans happen to be the right kind of skinny, though, as a result of adaptations to a hot and dry climate.  Long, thin limbs that maximize surface area for heat dispersal and, very specifically, narrow ankle structure.  The difference of just a couple of ounces of mass at the apex of your leg swing translates to comparatively massive savings in expended energy over the course of 26.2 miles.

One of the researchers also noted that there is a ton of data out there on the optimum formula for distance running performance and efficiency.  It's basically one of the holy grails of exercise physiology.  However, since it deals so intimately with genetic factors for that performance it's also the third rail of exercise science.  He noted that lots of researchers hold back findings from being published because they fear the ramifications of pointing out causal genetic factors.  I suppose nobody wants to be the scientist whose work gets twisted publicly into sinister pseudo-science.  That's also why the authors in that podcast were excited to find a cultural explanation.