Will the WR go tomorrow?

ecoli

Very little hype around this one and I think it will probably go under the radar of most.

G Mutai the most consistent marathon runner of the past 2 years will be out to prove a point after being ommited from the Kenyan Team for London.

Current WR holder P Makau has been training with him recently and reckons he is in WR shape and the pacers have been asked for low 2.03 pace for the first half.

What do people reckon? Personally I think that he will get it as I think he has outperformed everyone over the last few marathons but has had to race them and done hem on tough courses. This will be his first chance since his 2010 for a legit fast course WR attempt.

He has set CRs in his last two marathons bar his DNF in Boston this year (Boston and NY in 2011)

average_runner

ecoli wrote: »

Very little hype around this one and I think it will probably go under the radar of most.

G Mutai the most consistent marathon runner of the past 2 years will be out to prove a point after being ommited from the Kenyan Team for London.

Current WR holder P Makau has been training with him recently and reckons he is in WR shape and the pacers have been asked for low 2.03 pace for the first half.

What do people reckon? Personally I think that he will get it as I think he has outperformed everyone over the last few marathons but has had to race them and done hem on tough courses. This will be his first chance since his 2010 for a legit fast course WR attempt.

He has set CRs in his last two marathons bar his DNF in Boston this year (Boston and NY in 2011)

agree with u there. think it will be great to watch

Brianderunner

Yeah he's gonna go close for sure. I predict he just misses out.

Bit too early in the morning for me though

woodchopper

I predict a 2.05 for the win. He will probably blow up a little if he goes through in 61.20 as requested. If he holds back and goes through in 62 flat then I predict a mid 2.04. I dont think he is in the form of previous years.

ecoli

woodchopper wrote: »

I predict a 2.05 for the win. He will probably blow up a little if he goes through in 61.20 as requested. If he holds back and goes through in 62 flat then I predict a mid 2.04. I dont think he is in the form of previous years.

I thought 61.40 was what was requested? I agree his shorter distances races havent been on par with previous years but I think he still has the capability of hitting sub 2.04 at least tomorrow.

Will be interesting to see whether Dennis Kimetto makes or breaks his training partners race. If he challenges for the win he may make it a more tactical affair once the pacers drop off

Clum

I predict me not watching Berlin for the first time in about 5 years. It's so boring! They always pick one clear favorite who has no competition but the clock. The other majors always have stacked fields and they make a race of it. Berlin is one dude trying to set a record.

Hopefully I'm wrong and Mutai's partner gives him a run for his money because as much as I'd rather stay in bed and just watch the last 10 minutes I'll probably watch it all (I've run Berlin & watching brings back good memories).

ThePiedPiper

I think I read somewhere that he ran a fairly ordinary half recently, only coming third in 62 or something.. His Boston this year was a bit of a disaster.. If this had been this time last year, I think he could've ran a WR. I'm just not sure if he has the same sort of form this autumn. I'd love if he did, he seems like a great character.

ecoli

RunForestRun wrote: »

I think I read somewhere that he ran a fairly ordinary half recently, only coming third in 62 or something.. His Boston this year was a bit of a disaster.. If this had been this time last year, I think he could've ran a WR. I'm just not sure if he has the same sort of form this autumn. I'd love if he did, he seems like a great character.

Given conditions in Boston I think it was understandable (was won in 2.12.40)

I do remember a 62 or 63 half and a few 10ks which were nothing to write home about but hard to take these on face value without knowing what phase of training he was in at the time.

ThePiedPiper

Yeah, that's very true alright, those sort of conditions make it a bit of a lottery. Anyway, I would absolutely love to see him get the WR. I thought his performance in NYC was absolutely incredible last year, I know Boston 2011 has plenty of questions over it but last year's NY was amazing. I still have my doubts though. The magic of Kenyan marathoners of 2011 seems to have dimmed a little bit. I think we're more likely to see a faster time in Frankfurt. Must look up some dodgy website to tune in tomorrow, one way or the other.

Krusty_Clown

The men are 20 seconds behind world record pace, at the 5km mark (14:57), despite Mutai's pre-race conviction that he was going to attack the world record. Early days, but you'd imagine they'd be trying to hit the first 5k split on schedule.

ThePiedPiper

Where you watching it Krusty?

RayCun

Any live tracking online? Or do we have to wait for a shot of the crowd and look very, very closely?

RayCun

It's on Eurosport

Krusty_Clown

Leading men reached the 10k and the leading group passed it in 29:41. That's still on 2:05h finishing pace. The second 5k split was faster with 14:44

RunForestRun: No Eurosport in this house unfortunately. That's from the Berlin marathon Twitter feed. However, if you google search for 'live eurosport feed' the first result seems to work fine.

BeepBeep67

That's a shocking finish to a major marathon!

curraghyid

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

That's a shocking finish to a major marathon!

Agreed a very odd finish indeed

ThePiedPiper

I think it went something like this... "I'll give you 100,000 to stay behind me". Now where's Google translator for Swahili. That win is effectively worth half a million or 600,000 to Mutai with the WMM title.

eliwallach

RunForestRun wrote: »

I think it went something like this... "I'll give you 100,000 to stay behind me"

Now, who here would not do that for a training partner.

If this guy (Kimetto) is as good as he appeared today (in his debut?) he will have his day in the sun in the not too distant future.

Brianderunner

Yeah a definite fiddle. If that was horse racing there would be bans thrown out. Good article here

http://www.letsrun.com/2012/berlin-0930.php

Clum

eliwallach wrote: »

Now, who here would not do that for a training partner.

If this guy (Kimetto) is as good as he appeared today (in his debut?) he will have his day in the sun in the not too distant future.

I think Kimetto had the world record there for the taking.

Himself and Mutai went through 40km in 01:57:22 and seemed to just jog the last 2km with Kimetto sitting comfortably on Mutai's shoulder. Neither athlete put in the usual end-of-race sprint finish. There was no battle for honours so no increase in pace. Last year Makau went through 40km in 01:57:15, just 7 seconds ahead of this year's leaders pace. Mutai was already slowing at this stage. If Kimetto was holding his position as agreed prior to the race then he had no choice but to slow with Mutai.

If the organisers of Berlin gave Mutai the same deal they gave Geb and allowed the favorite to pick his opponents then they shot themselves in the foot because it looks like Mutai agreed with his training partners that they were not to pass him.

nerraw1111

Interesting article.

Particularly this point re the $500,000 marathon major bonus.

"”(If Kimetto had won) everyone in the small village where Mutai and Kimetto live (Kapn’gtuny) would have lost.”

http://tonireavis.com/2012/10/01/making-a-mockery-of-competition/

myflipflops

Yeah, I don't believe what they did is good for the sport but what should we expect expect? 500k goes a hell of a long way in Kenya. Half a million for 1st and zero second is a pretty big incentive to make a deal.

Kimetto looks like he will have plenty of chances in the future to win a big city marathon.

I think what the situation really shows is that races should put together competitive fields instead of time trials.

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Interesting article.

Particularly this point re the $500,000 marathon major bonus.

"”(If Kimetto had won) everyone in the small village where Mutai and Kimetto live (Kapn’gtuny) would have lost.”