MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

[Jon]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

Compiled this page last night:
http://www.paularadcliffe.com/stats/splits.php

All of her top races. When I was compiling the splits for her 2:18:56 (her first marathon) it reminded me that, at the time, the commentators were worried and were criticising her when she made a big break at half-way. "It's a novice mistake, she'll never be able to maintain this pace." She'd covered the first half in 71:04 with a series of mile splits in the 5:20 - 5:30 range. All of a sudden she started putting in 5:07 - 5:15 miles, much to the dismay of the commentators. Maintaining that pace right through to the finish, she covered the last half in 67:52 - the 2nd fastest half marathon of 2002!!

Not bad for a debut.

[bbellows23]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

Rosie Ruiz, because she had no splits.

[old guy]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

Johnny Gray's 48 second first lap in the 800 final at the 1996 Olympics. I belive that he ran 1:44 and change with splits of 48 plus & 55 plus. He really set the table for Rodjal and Sepeng.

[bbellows23]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

This goes into the most sane splits category. I was running with this guy about 15-20 years ago and he was telling us about the national college marathon championships he had just ran. I believe it was JUCO, but it could have been NAIA.

It was 90 degrees out and humid, so he told his coach it was too hot out and was going to run 3 hour pace. Of course the coach was not to happy about it. Everyone else takes off to run 2:20 while he is out there running 7 minute pace.

About half through the race he starts passing runners and before he knows it he is in the top ten. Well to make a long story short he ended up in second or third place in about 2:58.

[ed gee]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

In 1980, the WR in the steeple was Rono's 8;05 from 1978.

Filbert Bayi was known for starting races super
>fast. In the 1980 Olympics steeplechase, he was timed in 2:38.8 at 1000 and
>5:20.3 at 2000 (the WR at the time was 8:08.02). Not surprisingly he ran the
>last km outside 2:52 and lost to Bronislaw Malinowski who was over 5 seconds
>down at 2000.

[RMc]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

>For a selected 5000m of her 10,000m WR run, Wang Junxia ran some insane time
>(around 14:26 I think) - faster than Bo Jiang's WR at the time. Scary to think
>about what time Wang could have ran for the 5000m had she given it a serious
>go.

That was the LAST 5k! But the 5k was not contested much at the time. More insane, she ran the last 3k in 8:17, which was faster than the current WR of 8:22 in the standard Olympic event. Her 8:06 3 days later (after a semi in 8:12 or so) was even more stunning. You can see why we're so skeptical of the circumstances around those marks.

[RMc]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

The last 5k of the 2003 WC 10k was in 12:57. The 5k was won in 12:52.

[79.]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

I shall never forget Harry Butch REYNOLDS' first
200m in his 1993 WC 4x400m split:
He was flying as if he was running a 4x200m
relay.
I think his first 200m was a tremendous 20"2!!!

[slowpoke]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

King Carl once ran an 8.9 100m split in the relays. But what's more amazing is Bob Haye's 8.9 split which he did on a DIRT track.

[fatman]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

How about 56 (previous PR=58) for a HS freshman on the way to a 2:04 800 meters. Same guy: 2:57 as a college senior en route to a 4:18 anchor of a DMR. Apparantly, sense of pacing was not on the coaching agenda in the intervening 8 years!

[eldrick]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

>King Carl once ran an 8.9 100m split in the relays. But what's more amazing is
>Bob Haye's 8.9 split which he did on a DIRT track.<


rubbish !

hayes split was


8.0

[slowpoke]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

8.0? Wow, that would be amazing if he did that! But that's just it - he didn't. It was timed at 8.9. Go look it up. Now, who is this King fella? I'm going to kill you if you don't tell me!!! Argh!!!!!

Update: King as in King Carl? Am I right?

[richxx87]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

The LA times claims the Bullet's split was officially 8.6

[Powell]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

'Officially'??? Who ratified it?

[JohnG]

Re: MOST INSANE SPLITS IN RACE

>Johnny Gray's 48 second first lap in the 800 final at the 1996 Olympics. I
>belive that he ran 1:44 and change with splits of 48 plus & 55 plus. He
>really set the table for Rodjal and Sepeng.

I agree that Johnny Gray's tactics are best described as 'crazy'. I don't think you can describe the splits of anyone such as Paula or Wilson as 'crazy' when they go on to set a WR & win the race (and in Paula's case, maintain roughtly the same pace!).

Gray's split in Atlanta was actually 49.55 on the way to 1:44.21. To be fair to him, roughly the same tactics in Barcelona (49.99 at bell) had won him a bronze. If you want a really crazy split for a major 800, look no further than Coe's 49.3 on the way to his ECh bronze in '78 (1:44.8).

Further back in time, Bedford's opening 2k in the Munich 10k was suicidal. 60.2 first lap and a 2k 6.2 seconds inside WR schedule. Imagine: that's like someone running the first 2k in a major champs today in approx 5 mins 10!