Haile's world marathon record splits....

I believe that the other " great one " , Paul Tergat will rise to the challenge. The next year , Haile and Paul should be ambassadors of fitness to the U.S. Have them meet next year , with the glory of the Olympics just behind us , in an epic Berlin Marathon. 2:02 - and change.
I was in the stands , with a great seat , while the two of them did battle in Atlanta. When those two broke away from the field - Tergat trying to break Geb with 61 second quarters - you could tell these were the two best in the world. With all due respect to Bekele et.al , seeing those two go at it one more time next year would be a dream come true.
We'll see. My running is going well. I have decided to take one shot at sub 5 this year. I'm going to try it on a slightly downhill , straight road course. The pain and tightness of my left calf appears to be a faint memory now. I lost over a month of training , so my aerobic fitness is suspect , but . . . it's only a mile . :)
I'm thinking Oct 27th at midnight. Any thoughts about running on an illuminated , but dark-ish road vs. the light of day , as it might relate to speed ? I sense that stride length may be shorter at night because of a caution factor . The watch will tell the tale. The Master's Midnight Mile.
I'll keep you posted. 2:04:26 equates to a 4:48 per mile pace !
Happy trails.
Chase

Ross Tucker here, one of the authors of the Science of Sport blog, which Simon kindly linked to. First of all, thank you very much for that Simon!

On the note of what is possible moving forward, I would dearly love to see Tergat and Geb race it out for the gold at the Olympics. Truth be told, I'd be rooting for Tergat, because as much as I think Geb is a magical athlete, I think that Tergat, for his contribution to the 'running boom' (on the track and road in the 90's and now) has been a great ambassador and I can think of few who deserve an Olympic gold more. The one thing Tergat will always have that Geb won't is the success over the country.

But unfortunately, the realist in me does not think that this will happen. I hope to be proven incorrect, but I just sense that Tergat may have run his best marathon. Hopefully, he has one more "race" in him and it will come in Beijing. But as far as reclaiming the world record goes, I have my doubts.

As for where the time could go, there has been a lot of talk about a sub 2-hour marathon. I am highly sceptical. We scientists have been trying to guess the limit and ultimate performance for a long time and always seem to end up with egg on our faces, so I'm not going to go there. BUt I do believe it will be at least two more generations of runner before we crack sub 2:03. It is possible that within the next three to four years, we'll see a sub 2:04, maybe even from Gebrselassie. But I honestly feel that talk of Geb running 2:03 dead or sub 2:03 is very optimistic. That would require a full 96 seconds to come off. Considering the margin of this record was 29secs, we're talking at least 4 more marathons, each a world record! Unless he cleaves a full minute off at once. But this record is too strong for that, I feel.

So I reckon Geb and Tergat are both at their limits. Maybe someone new, a Sammy Wanjiru or even Martin Lel (though he is a pure racer, not a WR man, perhaps?) will come through. But I hope I'm wrong, especially when it comes to Paul Tergat.

Well, thank you once again for the link, Simon, and I do hope you keep visiting. I'll certainly be checking in here. And for Finish Strong, I wish I had been in your seat in 1996!

Regards
Ross Tucker

Fascinating to think of what the next few years of marathoning might produce at the elite level. It will be interesting to see Gebrselassie and Tergat duel it out again in the Olympics, and whatever marathons they meet in.
On the topic of running with less light, if the road is smooth, I somehow find it more exhilarating to run at night. I may not actually run faster, but I feel faster. That may be an illusion, though.
Good luck.