{"id":656,"date":"2019-05-24T00:50:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T00:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/?p=656"},"modified":"2019-05-24T00:50:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T00:50:18","slug":"bolt-or-kipchoge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/24\/bolt-or-kipchoge\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolt or Kipchoge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shortly after the conclusion of this year\u2019s London Marathon my daughter asked me, \u201cWho\u2019s a faster runner, Bolt or Kipchoge?\u201d She was referring to Usain Bolt, arguably the greatest sprinter of all time , and Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathoner of all time. This is an interesting question and not one that\u2019s easily, or maybe possibly, answered.

In a previous post<\/a>, I discussed how sprints are very different from distance races. You don\u2019t see athletes switching between them during their careers because of the significantly different styles of training and racing. To answer the question of who\u2019s faster, you couldn\u2019t have Bolt and Kipchoge meet in the middle by setting up a half-marathon showdown. Kipchoge would dominate it. You might be able to use a 600M race but since neither man specializes at that distance, it wouldn\u2019t be a fair comparison either.

Another possibility is to look at how they dominated their respective distances. Bolt won the 100M and 200M gold medals at three straight Olympic games starting in 2008. This was unprecedented and no other Olympic sprinter, male or female, has come close to this mark. He owns a variety of world records but the two most prominent are the 100M at 9.58 seconds and 200M at 19.19 seconds. Though he lowered these records multiple times, his final ones stand at 1.6% and .006% faster, respectively, than the ones he initially broke.

Kipchoge has won 12 out of 13 marathons he\u2019s entered and has a current winning streak of eleven. These victories include eight majors, Olympic gold in 2016, and a world record of 2:01:39, which is 1.05% faster than the prior mark. He owns the fastest unofficial time of 2:00:25, as well as the third and sixth fastest official times ever, and has defeated all of the other current top marathon performers head-to-head.

Bolt and Kipchoge\u2019s performances at high-level races is exceptional and they\u2019ve made it look almost easy. During a replay of the 100M final at the 2016 Olympics, the commentators slowed down the footage and pointed out Bolt turning and smiling at the camera. That is nearly unfathomable at that distance and it shows how confident he was he would win. In the 2018 Berlin Marathon and 2019 London Marathon, Kipchoge could be seen directing the other pacers and runners during the race in an effort to keep the speed up. When he\u2019s finished his last several races, he has enough left over to enjoy the crowd in the final stretch. What does all this mean? They\u2019re not barely getting over the line in front of everyone else, they\u2019re winning comfortably.

So who is the faster runner? Given how far they\u2019ve been ahead of their competitors, I\u2019m going to call it a tie, something neither one is used to but which seems appropriate.

Running food review of the week:\u00a0(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 Bar Fruit Smoothie Filled Blueberry Acai<\/a>: This seemed like it had potential but it wasn\u2019t much different than a standard Clif Bar. The interior was still very chewy. I liked it, it tasted like Blueberry, and it had good energy, but if they\u2019re more expensive than the traditional Clif bars (and I forgot to check the price comparison) I wouldn\u2019t see any reason to pay more for them.

Sources used:

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/100_metres

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/200_metres

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eliud_Kipchoge

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marathon

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Usain_Bolt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the conclusion of this year\u2019s London Marathon my daughter asked me, \u201cWho\u2019s a faster runner, Bolt or Kipchoge?\u201d She was referring to Usain Bolt, arguably the greatest sprinter of all time , and Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathoner of all time. This is an interesting question and not one that\u2019s easily, or maybe … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bolt or Kipchoge?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W0ku-aA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":807,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/21\/but-for-three-seconds\/","url_meta":{"origin":656,"position":0},"title":"But for three seconds…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"November 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As mentioned in an earlier post, after being shelved in terms of expectations, Kenenisa Bekele won the 2019 Berlin Marathon in 2:01:41, just two seconds shy of tying the world record and three shy of breaking it. 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