World Half-Marathon Record Falls - 58:23

[mim244]

Zersenay Tadese, the Eritrean former World Cross-country champion and multiple world half-marathon champion, delivered on his promise to break the half-marathon world record in Lisbon.

His time, an amazing 58:23, breaks the old mark of Sammy Wanjiru, the undisputed number 1 marathon racer in the world and sets up what should be a great showdown in London in just over a month (assuming Tadese goes ahead and races it, as he has suggested).

The London Marathon will also be a chance for some redemption for Tadese - he made his debut there, to much hype as the next big thing in the marathon, but he failed badly, dropping off the lead group early and failing to finish. There is of course no guarantee that a super-fast half-marathon predicts a great marathon, and if anything, there may be concerns that he's too fast at this stage. With a month to go, Sammy Wanjiru last year ran a mid-61 minute half-marathon and then dominated the Chicago Marathon. So for Tadese to maintain the form he clearly has in Lisbon will be a huge challenge, and one of the fascinating sub-plots of the 25th April race, which promises to be one of the greatest ever.

To put Tadese's performance into perspective, he reached 10km in 27:53, shedding the pacemakers at the ninth kilometer. He then sped up to run the next 5km in 13:40 (15 km time of 41:33). The next 5km split in 13:48 gave him a world record of 55:21 at 20km (30 seconds faster than Gebrselassie's old mark). He brought the final 1.1km home in just under 3 minutes to eclipse Wanjiru's 3-year old record.

[tree]

That's fast.

[trackgal]

That is 2 27:40s in a row, which is absolutely incredible. One of the most amazing runs ever..ranking up there with the marathon world record, Daniel Koman's 3000m wr and Bekele's 5000 and 10,000

[eeen]

He ditches the pacemakers at 9km and speeds up. 10-20km he splits 27:28. My God

[cda]

Plus he looks sort of funny when he runs.

[mim244]

Decent quality video here www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tcgpHIaw0 if you want to check it out, bobbling form and all. Not sure if there's an english version anywhere. Frick can he move.

[SI]

As ridiculous as it sounds, I see a guy like that and it just reinforces my belief that the mary record is soft. The funny thing is that if you try to mercier that time(or any time under 60 minutes) it doesn't work(IAAF tables do though).

[mim244]

Based on your comment SI, I thought it would be interesting to see what the ratios are between WRs in races that are exactly 2X/half the distance of one another. This is what it looks like...

200m (19.19) : 100m (9.58) = 2.003
400m (43.18) : 200m (19.19) = 2.250
800m (1:41.11) : 400m (43.18) = 2.342
3000m (7:20.67) : 1500m (3:26.00) = 2.140
10000m (26:17.53) : 5000m (12:37.35) = 2.083
Marathon (2:03:59) : Half Marathon (58:23) = 2.127

Kind of interesting to look at and think about how the physiology/energy systems behind each event affect how much slower each distance is than the one before it. The general trend (besides the 100 to 200 because of how much time is spent accelerating) is that the longer the race, the less you need to slow your pace when doubling the race distance. I’d assume that part of the reason why the Marathon:Half ratio is greater than the 10000m:5000m ratio is due to glycogen depletion factoring in...

[francisccm]

mim244 - That was a cool post and very interesting observation.

Also this record is absolutely mind blowing it should have been close to possible for him on a fast course with pacemakers but woooowww. So awesome to have it happen,

[saskatchewan]

Great article from 2007 on a study of Tadese's running economy.

www.sportsscientists.com/2007/12/running-economy-part-i.html

[SI]

Interesting read but all you really have to do is watch that video.

"There is good evidence that athletes are able to run for 2 hours at about 80% of their VO2max. Now, if Tadese did this, he would be able run at 66 ml/kg/min. Given his Running Economy of 150 ml/kg/km (which is 'relatively' independent of speed - see Figure, and was similar for Tadese in the two speeds he was tested at), this would mean he could cover each kilometer in 2 minutes 18 seconds! Even if his running economy worsened quite a lot and he used up 180 ml/kg/km (a 20% increase), he'd still have it in him to run 2:45/km!"


As I was saying. Maybe it won't be him but it will be some other guy like him.

[mim244]

What I find absolutely unreal is that Tadese has about the best running economy ever measured. I would think that when most people observe his "bobbling" stride, they would assume that he is less efficient runner than those who look more smooth.

[slamer]

Mar 26, 2010 14:14:52 GMT -5 SI said:

Interesting read but all you really have to do is watch that video.

"There is good evidence that athletes are able to run for 2 hours at about 80% of their VO2max. Now, if Tadese did this, he would be able run at 66 ml/kg/min. Given his Running Economy of 150 ml/kg/km (which is 'relatively' independent of speed - see Figure, and was similar for Tadese in the two speeds he was tested at), this would mean he could cover each kilometer in 2 minutes 18 seconds! Even if his running economy worsened quite a lot and he used up 180 ml/kg/km (a 20% increase), he'd still have it in him to run 2:45/km!"


As I was saying. Maybe it won't be him but it will be some other guy like him.

I'm sure Zersanay could do at least 1 km (maybe even 2) at 2:18/km. But there is no way he is running 80% at those times/efficiencies for longer than that.

I know they acknowledge it, but clearly there is something major they are missing.

[saskatchewan]

Tadese still has to figure out the marathon. 7th in London in 2:12:03.

www.iaaf.org/LRR10/news/newsid=56560.html