What do you guys think jacob could run in the marathon?
Hard to say since he hasn’t trained / competed for the distance -so we have to speculate: For a starter I would like to compare Jakob with Bekele. -In the 1500m the former has a pb that is 5.2 sec better than the latter, but if Kenenisa had prioritised racing the 1500m (and with better shoes / tracks) my guesses would be a 2 sec better pb. On the other hand I would give Jakob a 3.26.5 in a peak 2023 race, so let’s estimate a 4 sec difference between the two…
Bekele is a 2.01.41 marathoner with even better potential. The big question is then: Does Jakob’s relative better 1500m capacity suggest that he has more (genetically) fast twitch physiology than Kenenisa, and therefore worse slow twitch (marathon) capacity, or is this narrative false (at least when it comes to distances 1500m and above)..?
Personally I don’t know anything about Jakob’s marathon potential -heck, I don’t even know for sure what he can do in the 5000m… But it’s exciting to speculate, and the female marathoners have done it even more so.
Well, I don't think Jakob has more FT fibers than Kenny. Think about 2 mile distance. Sure, Jakob has the supershoes, but the difference between him and Komen/Kenny is also significant, so I'd rate Jakob's potential over longer distances at least the same as Komen. Jakob has a 12:48 against his name since 2021 in a tactical race and many believe that he might get the WR if he tried a 5000 TT. His 2023 season was definitely better/faster than 2021, so it's reasonable to consider Jakob in the same time range of 12:3x as Komen/Kenny. We will see his true potential in 5/10 in the next few years.