What will it take to run a 2 hour marathon?

I recently read something on Runners World about what it will take to run a two-hour marathon: http://rw.runnersworld.com/sub-2/

It’s a completely fascinating article, so I urge you to read it if you have the chance. If not, here’s a summary of the main points that are made:

• The right race needs to be selected
  • It needs to be cold (so probably March or November)
  • The course needs to be flat and straight
  • There needs to be a strong group of pacemakers
  • There needs to be a financial incentive for all involved
• The runner
  • Needs to be efficient in terms of VO2 max and running economy
  • Needs to be fairly small (5’6″ and 120lbs)
  • Needs a huge amount of self-confidence
  • Needs access to data and new technologies
  • will be young and ‘fearless’

The article is brilliantly illustrated with infographics and concludes that a sub two hour marathon is possible. It event ends with a hypothetical narrative about when and how it will happen.

Do you think that a sub hour two marathon is humanly possible? If so, when do you think it may happen? If you disagree, what are your arguments?

Monday Morning Motivation – How awesome is this lady?

 

http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/91-year-old-to-run-sundays-san-diego-marathon

91 year old finishes San Diego marathon

It’s tough enough running a marathon as a young person, but to finish one in any time at 91 years old is nothing short of amazing! Hariette broke her age group’s record by 1:45 – not 1 minute and 45 seconds, but 1 hour and 45 minutes!!! Hariette’s advice is to “Sleep a lot and drink a lot of water”.

What helps you to continue on your athletic journey?

 

Patchwork post!

Wow – there’s so much fantastic stuff to read online at the moment, so I thought I’d share some of my favourite reads of the day with you.

First up, there’s Gina Crawford’s latest blog post on her third HIM in 15 days: http://ginacrawford.com/ What I find particularly interesting about Gina’s blog is that she is completely open and honest. Very few professional triathletes make it clear just how many financial sacrifices they make for the love of their sport:

So the goal for this race was to scrape into the top 6 and get a bit of money. It costs us around 15k to travel to Europe, and my goal is to race 5 half ironman to cover these costs so that by the time I get to the Ironman (Frankfurt) I can hopefully (fingers crossed) go home with a profit. After today’s race I am up to around $9500 so I have 2 more chances to hopefully meet that goal.

That’s a lot of money that Gina needs to win/earn, just to break even.

I also read a news article entitled Sixty years ago Diane Leather smashed world record but not sex barrier about the first woman to run a mile in under five minutes and how prevailing attitudes to women and sport at the time mean that it went uncelebrated. You can watch a short video about one of Diane’s attempts:

I also read an article in The Guardian entitled I am a jogger, not a runner – and so are you, with the tongue-in-cheek lead, “Runners run because they love running. Joggers jog because they love cake and, to a lesser extent, fitting into their trousers”. For what it’s worth, I am a runner – I’m out there training and doing my best. That’s not to say that I never jog – occasionally I do – but that’s moving at a pace that feels comfortable to me and is not part of my training (i.e. It’s not a Long Slow Run with a specific purpose)… and to some people (not very many, but there are a few) that pace is what would count as running to them. Today, I was going all out on the track, but only just managed to keep apace with a couple of young guys who were having a great chat whilst doing a ‘very slow cool down jog’ (their words).

I’ve not posted much of my own content recently about how my training is going, so I’m hoping that I’ll find the time tomorrow.

What great articles and blog posts have you read recently?