WHAT ’ S THAT
What ’ s That You Say ?
YOU SAY ?
Compiled by SEAN FALCONER
The running community has interesting , informative , thought-provoking , humorous and entertaining opinions and conversations about many things , so each month we pick a few that caught our eye .
Images : Comrades Marathon , Athletics South Africa , Pinterest & courtesy Chicago Marathon
ENTER COMRADES EARLY
The entries for Comrades open on the 21 November . They are only allowed to have a certain amount of entries , and once it reaches the capacity of entries , they will close the process . Now I want to warn everyone that is thinking of running Comrades to enter well in advance . Don ’ t moan and groan if you don ’ t get an entry . You know the rules . So many runners wait until the last moment to enter for a race , and if they don ’ t get an entry , it is always the organisers that are the bad boys . – Wietse van der Westhuizen Ed ’ s Note : Wietse is the holder of 43 consecutive Comrades medals , so he speaks from experience !
BEWARE FAKE RACES !
Stay vigilant and informed ! # FraudAlert # StaySafeOnline . – Athletics South Africa Ed ’ s Note : This post was prompted by a number of advertisements on various platforms for what were clearly fake races , which may have duped a few people to pay entry fees for races that do not exist .
THE MEANING OF THE MARATHON
Can we clarify this , a MARATHON is not just any race . A marathon is a distance of
26.2 miles or 42.2 kilometres . Any other distance is not a marathon . After the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC , a messenger ran the marathon distance to Athens , delivered his message and died . We lot we thought it would be a good idea to try and torture ourselves by running the same distance . So , a poem : A marathon is 26.2 miles distance run A marathon is 42.2 kilometres distance done
Let ’ s repeat the poem above every time we are tempted to call a 10km a marathon . – Gina Mkhonza Mahlangu
RECORD MARATHON RECORD
Since 1985 , the men ’ s marathon World Record has improved by 5.4 %. Here ’ s what other men ’ s distances would look like if they had improved by the same amount during the same time period . 800m = 1:36.4 ( Current WR = 1:40:91 ) 1500m = 3:18.6 ( Current WR = 3:26:00 ) Mile = 3:34.5 ( Current WR = 3:43:13 ) 5000m = 12:19.8 ( Current WR = 12:35:36 ) 10,000m = 25:48.8 ( Current WR = 26:11:00 )
That ’ s food for thought ... – Jonathan Brown
Peter Taylor : The improvement is even more pronounced in the women ’ s marathon , with the World Best time having improved by almost 10 % since 1985 .
Bennie Stander : The chance will always be higher over the longer distances .
Matt de Freitas : It ’ s an interesting comparison for sure . I would say that I think significant other factors play a part in the marathon , though , which is the impact of our improved knowledge of fuelling during the event . There ’ s no other event like it where the fuelling is so important – well , except even longer events , of course – so the improvements that have been gained because of that are quite distinct from other events .
William Douglas : Shoes , training methods , fuelling , professionalism ( money and sponsors ) and that fast runners are not waiting to the age of 32 before doing marathons . Also , paid for pacers , and flatter and faster courses . Doping has also contributed to this , but so it would have in other distances . And I prefer to think of top runners as innocent until proven guilty .
Andrew Blair : The fact top young runners who would have previously been concentrating on 10 ’ s , 5 ’ s and even 1500 ’ s are now focusing on marathons is a factor .
Ryan Nokes : I personally think the shoes have ruined the sport . I ’ ve run a 16min 5k with no super shoes and then stopped running … I ’ m now seeing people that couldn ’ t get close to those times hitting them . I ’ m not amazed by people ’ s times anymore , as I just think the shoes are such a huge advantage . Train an average week , chuck the shoes on , fast times from what I ’ ve seen !
Chris Finill : Surely prize money and sponsorship is a much more significant motivating factor driving improvement in marathon running than in , say , 10k track or road running .
Liam Treacy : Bouncy shoes improving everything . A former World Champ claims they are worth 1 second per 400m on the track .
Keith Browning : What happened to the ‘ wall ’ when your body ran out of fuel .? Used to be around 22 miles - now seems to be just outside Birmingham !
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