I am looking at the times and I see that Gomez went sub 30 minutes for the 10k in the Stratford ITU race. Can this be true? That run time is incredible for most 10k road races.
I read somewhere that the run course there is known to be short, while the bike is known to be long. Not sure if anyone is running sub 30 on a legit 10k course.
Hunter Kemper. Nuff said.
Back in the day Lessing and Macca were both capable, as was (possibly still is!) Whitfield. That said…ITU courses are notorious for being a bit short. I remember in triathlete mag reading how leading up to worlds the year that Macca won he told Lessing that he had done a 29:10 10k time trial on the track. Lessing’s response…“i did one too, in 29:08…” Gotta love it. If anybody out there right now is capable, I would bet that on Gomez is. But most courses are a bit short. The courses where the top guys are going 31:30 to 32:30 or so tend to be fairly accurate.
Just saw the Vancouver BG Triathlon World Cup on TV recently (event was in June) and both Simon Whitfield (29:52) and Andy Potts (29:55) went just under 30min.
Nope. There are a few pro’s that maybe could do it with a wetsuit swim (generally easier) and a super easy bike course - Gomez, Whitfield, & Kahfeldt, for example - but most of the time, the course is short, but not by all that much. Lately, there have been a couple courses that have been about a minute short. Sub-31 is still very, very fast.
Back in the day…
That was a Wednesday?
.
Whenever I have heard anyone ask this question about a particular course, inevitably someone pipes up and says it is short. Some of these guys could probably run under 30 on the track in an open race, but if they could do it in a tri then it is likely they would be fast enough to be very competitive in open running races which pay a lot better than triathlon.
Chad
Back in the day…
That was last Wednesday?
.
That was a wednesday… A Wednesday… Come on now Paulo, I know you have it on CD. If not, I’ll make you a copy.
DAMN IT!!! I’ll edit it before Simon sees it, I want full groupie points for this one!!!
Are TRI courses certified?
What does “under 30” mean in this statement? 29:50 or 29:00? There’s a big difference.
Stating that a triathlete would be better off financially running if he could run 29:50 in a 10K in a triathlon is a bold statement. And I really don’t think it would be true.
Simon W ran a 14:10 or so (I’ll leave it to the groupies to correct me if I’m wrong) for a 5000 on a track. Maybe he would go a little faster if he only trained to run. That’s really fast. But, I think he knows where he can make money, and its not racing on the track.
Are TRI courses certified?
Not by a long shot. I think it is Monty that tells a great story about some RD’s setting up an out-and-back swim course. They went out in the boat, looked at the shore, and said “yup, that’s about half a mile,” and plunked down the buoy… Kona has a certified marathon course, but it is one of the few. There are some threads out there about the fact that technically you can qualify for Boston racing in Kona, but I think it is the only one of the MDot races that has an certified marathon course. The 10k courses in ITU racing are routinely off. Then again, trying to make everything exact for distance when you have three sports that all need to come back, generally, to a central transition area is not as easy as just setting up a 10k run course. But I don’t think it is all that hard either…
I did the AG race at Salford on Sunday and my feeling was that the run was pretty much on the money for 10k. AG run times of people I know seemed to be consistently a couple of minutes slower than at another of our local Oly races (Chester) where the run is a bit short. Certainly there is no reason for the run to be short, other than poor measuring, as the bulk of it is out and back along a straight road and the turn is before the end.
The AG bike course is definitely short though, couldn’t comment on the Elite bike as part of it is different; it should be longer but long enough I don’t know.
In any case, they were really shifting especially Gomez, as was Fernandes in the women’s race who effortlessly built a big lead on the run.
“The 10k courses in ITU racing are routinely off. Then again, trying to make everything exact for distance when you have three sports that all need to come back, generally, to a central transition area is not as easy as just setting up a 10k run course. But I don’t think it is all that hard either…”
It really shouldn’t be hard to get it right, a lot of the courses have an out-n-back in them. But, a lot of the courses have numberous, tight turns in them, which will really slow down a runner. Even if the courses are short, those ITU guys are hauling ass.
There aren’t many 10K winners in Chicago where guys are going 30 minutes on the roads in the heat.
isn’t simon’s PR like a 28:30 or something on the track? must be all that crazy health food he eats;)
Javier Gomez, Vanessa Fernandes take Salford BG World Cup titlesThis report filed - July 30, 2007
By Timothy Carlson - senior writer
Portugal’s young prodigy Vanessa Fernandes took her 17th World Cup win with a typically devastating run and Spain’s Javier Gomez did the same to take wins at the Salford BG Triathlon World Cup Sunday.
On a course notable for a too-long bike and a too-short run…
http://insidetriathlon.com/portal/news/news.asp?item=110283
I was just stating what I read on insidetriathlon.com
But who are you going to trust, a faceless journalist or me, your man on the ground who lives 5 miles from the course 
Elite bike does look long, probably 5.25km per lap = 42km total. If anyone is really interested I could measure the run course on my bike, think the turn points are still painted on the road. But then we’d have to assume that my bike computer measures right!
Stating that a triathlete would be better off financially running if he could run 29:50 in a 10K in a triathlon is a bold statement. And I really don’t think it would be true.
I’m assuming a guy who can run under 30 minutes for 10K having swam and cycled already for circa 1:15-1:30 at a competitive pace could probably go upwards of 1-2 minutes faster in an open run on a track. That means perhaps 28-29 minutes, which compares pretty well with the USATF outdoor 10,000 won by Abdi where the range from 1-10 place is 28:13-29:02. Most of those 10 guys had the name of a shoe company as their team.
As for a 14:10, that seems pretty fast to the average joe, but that would not even qualify you to go to the nationals meet in the US. I’ve talked with Simon before but he was such a nice guy he spent the time asking me questions and I had very little time to ask him about his own background.
Chad
I know guys who have a running shoe sponsor as their team name and they aren’t paying the bills by running and winning races.
I guess my point is that taking a triathlon split of 29 high and saying that an open 10K time of the same athlete is 28 and a half is a big ask.
That same 28-29 minute 10K is going to get you to the Olympic quals, maybe, but I doubt there’s a lot of money in that. There’s probably a lot more money in being the 3rd ranked ITU triathlete.