Still Running (weakly). Issue 37

PAST – inspiration – The very sad death of Kelvin Kiptum, marathon world record holder, in a car crash in Kenya at the weekend, reminds us that he is not the first athlete to have died in this way. And they seem to be mostly males. Wladyslaw Komar (1972 Olympic shot gold) and Tadeusz Slusarski (1976 pole vault gold), both Polish, died in the same car in 1998.

Bronislaw Malinowski (1980 steeplechase gold), also Polish, died at the age of 30. Perhaps more tragically than those great athletes who could be said to have fulfilled their athletic destinies at least, Ivo van Damme and Steve Prefontaine died when their careers had just begun.

Can one really differentiate between categories of heartbreak in this way………?

Van Damme of Belgium had won silvers in both the 800 and 1500 in Montreal 1976, and much was predicted for his future, but he died the same year at the age of 22. (There is a Diamond League meeting in Brussels in his honour each year.)

Prefontaine had come fourth in the Munich 5000 in 1972, but died at the age of 24 in 1975. I ran in the East Coast version of the Prefontaine Memorial 10km in New Hampshire in 1977.

PRESENT – perspiration – Kiptum’s passing could be said to be the most saddening of all. He was just 24, and had set the world marathon record of 2:00:35 in Chicago in 2023. He was expected to take the official record below two hours in the near future (he was due to run in Rotterdam in April), a feat thought impossible until Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 with special (illegal in a race) pacers in 2019.

To runners of my generation, the sub-2 hour marathon is a fairytale target. Ron Hill, who knew a thing or two about marathon running (2:09:28 in 1970), once said that he could not conceive of anyone ever breaking two. He said he knew how hard he had trained to go sub-2:10, and he did not think it was possible for anyone to go that much faster. He was a technical innovator himself (mesh vests, freedom shorts, carbo-loading), but even he had not foreseen the super-shoes, super-flat courses and everything else in favour of today’s full-time runners.

The sub-2 hour marathon has almost the same mythical status as the sub-4 minute mile once had. Today, my friends, it is as if Roger Bannister had died a few weeks before he would have run 3:59.4 at the Iffley Road track in Oxford on 6th May 1954.

FUTURE – suggestion – The days are longer; the weather is warmer; but the trails are still muddy, Steve! Nevertheless, spring tells us that it’s time to get speed training.

The addition of a little faster running into your weekly schedule will work wonders for your running times. And it need not be much. Inserting, let’s say, 4 times 60 seconds fast/60 seconds jog into the middle of a run, will raise your cruising pace after a few weeks.

Adding 6 fast hill sprints of 20-40 seconds (with a strict jog down between) will enhance your speed, your leg strength, your speed-endurance and your running form!

A “tempo” run of 1-3 miles 30 seconds a mile slower than your target 10km pace – working towards runs AT that pace – will prepare you for the sustained effort necessary in 5km, 10km and half marathon races.