Middle distance and more long distance…
When you watch middle distance, 800M to 3000M, you see races where more strategy is involved but there is still little room for error. Though it may not be as common as sprints, you can see world records at the Olympics in a middle distance race. David Rudisha set the current world record for the 800M, 1:40.91 at the 2012 Olympics (Rudisha record source).
In the 1500M or mile, the total race time at the professional men’s level is under four minutes. For the 800M, it’s under two minutes. There are a couple of basics at these distances to keep an eye on. One, runners don’t want to get boxed in at the beginning of the race. They may give a short burst at the beginning to try and establish position. Two, they will want to maintain a relatively even pace. In other words, besides establishing position at the beginning, they won’t continue an all-out surge then hope to hold on, nor will they conserve excessive energy and hope to make up lots of ground at the end. When you look at their splits (an evenly divided number of segments in a race, such as the four 200M portions of the 800M), they will be somewhat evenly distributed throughout the race. Occasionally, you’ll have someone who puts on an electrifying finish but for the most part, the times will not deviate much. If an 800M runner is capable of a 1:42 but they hit the final 200M at 1:20, they will not be running 1:42 that day. In fact, they’d be lucky to break 1:45.
Long distances, 5000M to 10000M, become even more about strategy. The world records for the 5000M and 10000M are 12:37 and 26:17, respectively. Until this past Friday, August 31, no one had gone under 13:00 in the 5000M in 2018 (5000M time source). This points to how tactical the distance races are and how the wins are so important. When you watch the Olympics or another track meet and see that they are way off a of a world record pace, this is due to tactics. There have been some races at big meets where people complained that the race was too slow, in that you had people there capable of a low 13:00 or high 12:00 5000M time but were conservative in playing for the win.
Runners will go into a race with a strategy. This may seem obvious but it gets tricky. One, you need to plan according to what you are capable of. Two, you need to plan according to what your opponents are capable of. Three, you need to plan for wild cards, like unusual weather or your opponents doing something unorthodox. At the 2001 USATF 5000M final, Bob Kennedy, the best 5000M American runner who had held that title for several years, raced against Adam Goucher, who many considered to be Kennedy’s heir apparent. Kennedy employed an unexpected strategy of alternating very fast laps with laps where he backed off. This threw off Goucher and Kennedy won the race. This wouldn’t be how one would race if they were interested in setting a record, but Kennedy wanted the win, and he got it (Kennedy win source).
While you will have some people move from middle distance into long distance, that will largely occur at 1,500M and up. Otherwise, similar to sprints, runners will stay in their categories. When you have someone dominant like David Rudisha, then the distance is a little easier to follow as they become a comparison point for other runners at the same distance. One notable middle distance runner to keep an eye on is Jakob Ingebrigsten. At 17 years old, he has won professional championships in Europe and already has run a 3:52.28 mile. For comparison, the national high school record for the mile in the US is 3:53.43, posted by 18 year old Alan Webb in 2001 (Ingebrigsten source; Alan Webb source).
In the 1990s, Haile Gebrselassie was a dominant figure on the track, holding the world record at the 5000M and 10000M distances and winning two Olympic gold medals at in the 10000. Recently, it’s been a little murkier, in my view. Kenenisa Bekele holds the world records for the 5000M and 10000M, but Mo Farah dominated the 2012 and 2016 Olympics at both distances. However, he has not posted one of the top 25 fastest 5000M times of all time, and his personal best in the 10000M is the 16th best of all time. Bekele has faster times but Farah is an outstanding tactical runner. While their careers did not directly overlap, there have been other 5000M runners who are faster than Farah but for whatever reason, have not dominated at the championship level. In some ways, this can make the sport more fun but it can also make it more difficult to keep track of (10000M source; 5000M source).
Similar to sprints, Track and Field News and LetsRun will allow you to keep track of what’s going on in the middle distance and long distance categories.
The fifth and final post on how to follow running will cover ultramarathons. However, the Berlin Marathon is in ten days so next week’s post will offer a brief preview of that, as well as some broader thoughts on how soon the two hour marathon barrier will fall.
Running food review of the week: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): Clif Bloks Ginger Ale: I was concerned that eating this product would be similar to eating mushy-textured blocks that tasted like stale ginger ale. They were nothing like that. The ginger taste was sharp. Not quite as intense as the ginger out of a sushi tray, but more flavorful than a can of ginger ale. I used it before a six mile run on a morning when I’d had lots of coffee, not much breakfast, and had been running errands for a couple of hours. My run went well, so I like this product.
Sources used:
https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/stunning-rudisha-14091-world-record-in-london
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/08/legendary-company-selemon-barega-runs-1243-4-time-brussels-join-bekele-geb-komen-sub-1245-club/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kennedy_(athlete)
http://www.european-athletics.org/news/article=ingebrigtsen-smashes-year-old-european-u20-mile-record-eugene/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Webb_(runner)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10,000_metres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5000_metres