Doping

Touch the frog.

Was actually thinking of our local door personnel.....

They already have three very fast guys on board. Once they've paid off the testers and given the runners enough money and drugs... job's a good'un.

So what's going to be different between this and a standard marathon?

Potential scale model of the course

The amount of money and the amount of drugs.

Exactly that - it's a fastest time, not a record.

It could be a record fastest time.

Has there ever been a marathon with a team of very fast pacers who's ole aim is to go below world record?

Don't think so.

If there was maybe it could be done

Has there ever been a marathon with a team of very fast pacers who's ole aim is to go below world record?

I'm pretty sure that happens a lot. All of the big (qualifying) marathons want to have the record on their turf.

Nah. It can never really happen in a race format where one person is the winner.

Most pacemakers will have dropped by mile 20 - the final few miles are up to the competitors.

You do occasionally get pacemakers staying the course though, where they are treated as normal competitors (as I understand, they are registered as normal competitors in any case).

They do have to start the race though - IAAF rules mean you can't have pacemakers dropping in any point of the race.

Yeah but pacemakers have never been given the task of running a 1:59:59 pace. If they get that they might last to mile 16 and then it'd be up to the three athletes to push on to mile 25 at that pace and then race to the line.

That has never happened before.

For a sub-2, most probably not.

For a new WR? Why wouldn't there have been.

I wonder how many pacemakers around that could knock out 16 miles at that pace though - you're probably going to struggle to find people to do that, who wouldn't want a crack at the 2 hours itself.

That's beside the point though isn't it? How many runners can even run a sub-hour half marathon? Pacing's all well and good but there's hardly any actual drafting effect. Sub-2 is so far away from what's been managed to date (in virtually flat city marathons with world-class pacers), it's just not gonna happen any time soon. Without lots of juice.

How many runners can even run a sub-hour half marathon?

I think you're making the point that I'm making - that we're all making - that there just isn't the pool of talent available to even pace a sub-2 (unless you make it an unsanctioned race with pacemakers all around the course, starting at different points) let alone run the full distance sub-2 (without Nike's special sauce).

There are shitloads of runners capable of very low 2.0_ times - all from countries with little/no/suspect dope-testing regimes. We haven't a damn clue what the fastest unjuiced time is. I wouldn't trust anything under 2.05.

Looking at the progression of the men's world record since 1988, it's been cut by just under four minutes from nearly 2:07 to 2:03 (roughly). That's 3.14%

Now they're looking to cut another 2.5% off, with no deadline, as far as I can see.

I can kind of understand why this is in the doping thread, but I think people who are claiming it's impossible have to back that up by saying specifically why the improvements since 1988 lack credibility, other than the fact they were done by people from Africa, which equals bad somehow?

No effective dope testing equals bad, somehow pretty obviously. If Radcliffe can smash the hell out of the record while apparently under one of the more rigorous regimes, don't expect blind faith in the non-existent ones. Put your snidey wee dog whistle away.

Why would you not trust anything under 2:05? Where are you getting that figure from? And are you saying that Radcliffe's record was under the influence of PEDs?

FAKE EDIT: I just read that they want to do this by next spring...

And are you saying that Radcliffe's record was under the influence of PEDs?

lol

Wiggins on Instagram now:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOK4bmfg0kv/

Car crash happening here right now

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2016/dec/19/shane-sutton-and-dave-brailsford-face-mps-over-team-skys-use-of-tues-live?

They were very hard on Shane Sutton

It's on parliamentlive.tv if you want to watch it. Brailsford has just dropped Phil Burt in it.

Graun reporting Fluimucil is not recommended to be taken if the patient has Asthma

If indeed the package was Fluimucil, BC/Sky have not exactly covered themselves in glory here.

It's also unlicensed in the UK apparently and available over-the-counter from any pharmacy in France.

Two months to come up with that?