oscaro wrote:
Rappstar wrote:
Virtually all major marathon courses are actually measured out to 42.195km though. Ultra-distance triathlon runs are "marathons."
I'd bet any good short course runner would decimate the best Ironman pros over a standalone marathon; it's the ability to run a "not slow" marathon after 180km of biking that often presents an issue...
This, I would expect nothing less than a sub 2:25 from the sub 30 10k guys i ITU. If you look at Frodo he was at least a few years ago capable of sub 30 and a lot faster marathon time than he does during an IM. Of course he has sacrificed some speed going into long course.
I don't think you realize how fast sub 2:25 is. To my best recollection the only triathlete/duathlete who has done it was Benjamin Paredes from Mexico who doubled up as a marathon runner and ran 2:11 at 1994 NYC. Mark Allen tried for a sub 2:20 and DNF'd the Berlin Marathon. Ryan Bolton, and Christian Bostos both on the smaller end for triathletes ran 2:23 or so. I doubt most of the top end pros from Kona break 2:25. Likely closer to 2:30 except for Ivan Rana. I think Ivan could go under 2:20. He's actually small enough to pull that off, which is why Ivan sucks on the bike in Kona and looses so much ground by T2. There is a reason why almost everyone in the top 15 in Kona is 155 lbs and above, which you need for the bike, but if you have all that weight in an open marathon, you're just hauling around 15-25 lbs too much to really run a good open marathon. Rob de Castella was a "giant" at the marathon at 6 ft 140 lbs. There is not a single top 15 pro in Kona who is that light at Rob's height. It's also why Rob could run 2:08 in cool marathons like Rotterdam, Fuokoka, or the worlds at Helsinki but got spit out at 33K at the scorching hot Olympic marathon in LA. For the record, the guy who beat Rob at LA was Carlos Lopes from Portugal who was 5'5 and 120 lbs. That's about the "right size" to run a fast elite open marathon. Pro triathletes are way too big. it's like asking an NFL Wide receiver to enter a gymnastics competition. A lot of the same abilities just that the wide receiver would be slighly too big. Same reason your 5'5" gymnast has no chance catching footballs in the NFL