Nutrition - Weight Loss? A recent Runner's World investigation identified nine factors that will have to conjoin for that epoch to arrive: cold weather, a straight flat course in one of a select few locations, lots of good pacemakers, prize money linked to time, access to technology as yet unimagined, and an East African in his early 20s with perfect running economy who trains with an elite group.
Checking off those nine requirements, Sunday's What You Need to Know About the Sydney Marathon A Part of Hearst Digital Media: the Ugandan outsider who burgled the 2012.
Several of the front pack are East African with perfect running form, but only one is younger than 26 (Lelisa Desisa, 24, already a veteran of four marathons). You could almost say the elite field looks a little elderly, with an average age for the top ten men of 30.6 and the top ten women of 33.7.
For the rest, New York's notoriously rugged course (corners, hills, potholes, gratings), and no pace-maker policy mean that if you want to see a world record, or even world-ranking times, on Sunday morning, you'd be better off staying in bed with a replay of Berlin, where the last six men’s world records have been set.
The top runners who come to New York seemed on Friday to be a different breed. For them, a good time is the one that will win or give them the place they want. The tougher it comes, the better they like it.
“My aim is top five,” said Nick Arciniaga, who has a personal best of 2:11:30. “All the Americans in the huge field are happy to see an American in the top ten. I'm hoping for bad weather, that will keep the first half to 1:05 or slower.”
“Bad weather would be great,” said U.S. Olympian Desi Linden. “I need the adverse things that throw people off their game, and take out the time-trial element. My strength is my strength, and my ability in a real race, with no pacers. It's about competing, where time is not important, and it's a matter of who copes with the conditions.”
“The course is tough, especially the second half. There are no pace-makers, and it might be windy,” said Latvia’s Jelena Prokopcuka, who has an impressively consistent resumé in New York's inconsistent weather of fifth (2004), first (2005), first (2006), third (2007) and third (2013). “But in Riga last week it was [25 degrees Fahrenheit] and very windy. The runners from Kenya, Ethiopia, Italy and Portugal will not have trained in that weather.”
Another who has compiled a golden career without ever approaching the world record is Stephen Kiprotich, Running Shoes - Gear Olympic title and then proved his racing skills again by taking the 2013 world championship.
“I'm not worried that my colleagues have faster times. Everything is possible in a race. Here the course is a challenge, and we will be racing each other to win, like in championships,” Kiprotich said.
Even those who have super-fast times behind them accept that the game is different on the bumpy road through the five boroughs.
“It is a nice challenge, something very new. I am ready for what comes,” said Wilson Kipsang, whose world record 2:03:23 was broken five weeks ago by Dennis Kimetto. “My dream now is to run in all the major races, to see how fast I can run on each course. It is important that the field is good, as I like to run with the strong guys. It is a competition, and you must keep raising your sights.”
Kipsang's training partner Geoffrey Mutai and is a frequent.
“It is not easy to keep running top times. Here I think about the race, not the time. To win three years, that would be very nice,” said Mutai, who was New York champion in 2011 and 2013 (the 2012 race was canceled). Asked if he would ever improve on his 2:03:02 at Boston in 2011, Mutai said, not very convincingly, “Anything is possible.”
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Grete Waitz (1978, 1979, 1980), Allison Roe (1981) and Alberto Salazar (1981) all set marks that at the time counted as “world's best performance.” Roe's and Salazar's were later discounted because the course was found to be short.
“They all ran full-length, legitimate marathons as that was understood at the time,” Katz said. “When the technical requirements for the pegs in the pole vault bar changed, to make that measurement more consistent, they didn't eliminate all the previous performances. It was only in 1984, at the Los Angeles Olympics, that all the best course measurers got together and standardized procedures, like for instance measuring by the shortest route across curves. Before 1984, every marathon time is dubious, and there's no point in throwing out some and not others.”
Will New York ever see a Waitz, Roe or Salazar moment again? It's highly unlikely. Even Mutai's 2011 course record of 2:05:06 stands more than a minute faster than the next best (Emmanuel Mutai 2:06:28, also 2011). Margaret Okayo's women's course record of 2:22:31 has survived since 2003. Paula Radcliffe'Health & Injuries Mary Keitany went out on world record pace at New York in 2011 (1:07:14 at halfway), she slowed dramatically in Central Park, and fell to third place in the last mile.
It's the flat, fast races with obliging legions of pacemakers that manufacture the records now. Predominant, of course, is Berlin, with seven out of twelve men's world records since 1984, and two out of seven women's.
But Berlin has never seen a race like German Silva's comeback in 1994; or the don't-dare-write-me-off killer-finish victory in 2004 by Radcliffe, the woman they said had no finish; or the desperate near dead-heat between Paul Tergat and Hendrick Ramaala in 2005; or Prokopcuka battling through from fourth to first in 2006; or Firehiwot Dado carving chunks out of Keitany's huge lead in 2011. As for Salazar, Roe, Rod Dixon, Orlando Pizzolato, Bill Rodgers, Waitz...
Collegiate Records Go Down at BU.
“Why do the top runners come when the times won't be fast? Because it's New York. Because it's a great race with a great history. Because winning here really matters, whatever the time. And because it's so hard to win.”
Roger Robinson is a highly-regarded writer and historian and author of seven books on running. His recent What You Need to Know About the Sydney Marathon How to Watch the NCAA XC Championships Running Times and is a frequent Runner’s World contributor, admired for his insightful obituaries. A lifetime elite runner, he represented England and New Zealand at the world level, set age-group marathon records in Boston and New York, and now runs top 80-plus times on two knee replacements. He is Emeritus Professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and is married to women’s running pioneer Kathrine Switzer.
