Do elites (or even really fast runners) talk to each other during a race? (Read 1117 times)

I've done a fair bit of talking during sub-2:30 marathons, but it gets real quiet towards the end. Anything shorter, and the talking is less. I talked during the first mile of my fastest 10K when I was doing 5min flat pace, but it was just to tell the guy behind me that if he punched me in the back one more time I'd throw him on the infield and make my DNF worth it.

I'm going to tape over it soon, but I think it was last year's Boston Marathon where 2 guys took off from the front of the pack (the guys sponsored by Spira footwear) and they looked to be talking to each other about the race. I'm guessing it wasn't idle chatter, but they were talking with each other, possibly about race strategy or perhaps how long they could go until they blew up. If you watch the races, sometimes you can see the top runners talking a little bit, but probably very little idle chatter.

Spaniel is probably right - I've heard several former elites say they talk a fair amount during a race at the beginning, and you can see it on TV. I recall when Elijah Lagat won Boston (I think it was 2000?) there were several pointed exchanges with Gezehange (sp?) Abera, Lagat and Moses Tanui about heel clipping, sharing the lead, etc. It was really interesting because Lagat was doing all the pulling late and kept motioning and telling the others to come up, and a couple of times you se Abera wag his finger and yell at Tanui and Lagat because he felt they were clipping his heels and boxing him in (keep inmind the rivalry beween Ethiopian and Kenyan runners!) I have a feeling this was unusual though because it was very late in the race - most communication at that point is likely non-verbal! On a slower scale, the same thing happens with me and my friends during races and training runs. Early on, there's a lot of chatter but when it gets late in the run or if the pace drops, we'll go a few miles without saying anything. My current PR I ran with a friend almost the entire way and we talked a lot the first 17-18 miles but probably didn't say more than a few sentences from that point to the finish. The pace had a lot to do with it!

The back story there is that Machuka was angry that Geb hadn't shared the lead at all.

It's irritating when that happens, but that's the tactics of winning races. That's one reason I put myself in situations I'm unlikely to win -- I get pulled along but I'm not tempted to get tactical and blow a PR!

I am always at the front of the pack...and we all chat, it's great. ... then the gun goes and the race starts and my new friends run away.

I found this incredibly funny..thanks- I needed the laugh today! In the race I ran on Saturday we had 2 guys behind us talk the.whole.entire.time. At first it did not bother me as I just listened to them and their coversations..but by the end it was all I could do to pick up my pace just so that I could get away from them as I found it distracting after awhile. I talked here and there with my mom, but not more than a sentence or 2 at a time and towards the end it was mainly hand gestures