Is Kenenisa Bekele a Freak(In a good way) or what? (Read 945 times)

I agree, Bekele is amazing. But it's not the speed, it's the endurance. He's got decent speed: he could probably run a 49 second 400m all out, which would win most high school meets. But what makes him great is the fact that he is so strong and in such good shape aerobically that he's able to run comfortably at very close to his top speed.

To me it's not so much the last lap that was amazing, as we seen these sort of last laps in 5 & 10k's before (admittedly off slower paces), but the fact he ran sub 4 min mile pace for the last 2k's of an already decent paced 5k. JDF, I think Bekele has run low 3:50's for the miles in previous years but I can't remember him running anything shorter. I hope he tries a 1/2 marathon or marathon eventually as he must have massive potential over these distances.

I hope he tries a 1/2 marathon or marathon eventually as he must have massive potential over these distances.

Agreed. He could be freaking scary at the marathon. As far as the shorter stuff. I'm sure he could impress with his best attempt at a perfectly-paced time trail type race. A race for him...no traffic...a rabbit to take him through in 51, etc. I would not be surprised if he pulled a 1:45 in the 800 in that kind of setting. But he could not run 1:45 in a championship-style race against the best in the world.

I wonder why he doesn’t run the marathon then? He sure isn’t afraid of Geb! Maybe it is Sammy Wanjiru that scares him?

Or maybe it's because he is the best runner in the history of the world at 5000 and 10000 so he'd rather focus on that, for now. Just taking a wild guess there.

I read somewhere that he was basically quoted as saying he still thinks his best days in the 5K/10K are ahead of him so that is what he is doing. The classic thought is that you lose speed before endurance, so guys tend to exhaust themselves in potential improvements at 5K/10K before they move up. This trend of some young Kenyans, like Sammy W., going to the marathon early is a rather recent development. If this trend continues, I would expect to see the marathon WR broken with increased frequency. Take Haile G. and Tergat for example. Both had started to decline in the 10K before they moved up to the marathon, and both took 2-3 years to master the marathon before setting their WRs. Just think of the damage they could have done had they already been adept at the marathon when they peaked in their late 20s. Haile, particularly, was IMHO solidly in decline before he set the marathon WR. It's easy to see why they do it, you only get a couple good-paying marathons per year when you could be running the 5K/10K in the Golden League meets and racking up the $$$. And it's so much harder to hit a good marathon. I bucked conventional wisdom and went straight to the marathon at 22 as it appeared I was better at long distances. I never did manage to run up to my potential in that event, and I do regret not getting a good 5K in while I had it in me (age is probably starting to degrade that potential even IF I was training the way I needed to to do it).

No Bekele, but you can find free live coverage of today's Golden League meet here starting at 2pm EST. It will be an Olympic caliber meet, the highlight being another showdown between Bolt and Powell (who went 9.72 last week) in the 100m. Meet preview here.

I have no idea, but it's worth pointing out that you have to be very, very good on the track to make money. By contrast, you don't need to be nearly as good to make money running road races. If your best event is the 10k, you need to be run close to 27:00 to make any money on the track. Otherwise, you're better off running on the road. There are a lot of Americans who would never run on the track in Kenya because the money on the roads would be incredible.

How much money are we talking about? $10K per race? $25K, $50K? If you only run 1-4 races a year that is not exactly killing it considering the time in training you have to do to win a race of that caliber. I would think that a sponsors money far exceeds the prize money unless you are one of the lucky few who can break world records every time you go out there!