Official Jim Walmsley missed the 100k world record by 11 seconds after running for 6 hours

Goes home devastated

Told you he shouldn't hang back early.

If you combine the porto stop and the unnecessary surge to break open the lead pack he should’ve had it. Maybe a second or two for the bleeding shoulder and constantly looking at his watch down the final stretch.

This was a much better event than last year. I hope they do this again, it would be awesome to have a high quality 100k in the US. The YouTube feed had up to 20k people watching the finish.

What is a lot more amazing, that Don Ritchie's WR stood for 40 years and Walms improved that by a less than a minute.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/obituaries/donald-ritchie-record-breaking-ultrarunner-is-dead-at-73.html

You’re confusing disciples- Ritche record was on the track. This was 100km ROAD. Don’t worry manynhave been making this mistake. Ritchie best road 100km was 6:30, miles behind Walmsley.

NYT reader wrote:

What is a lot more amazing, that Don Ritchie's WR stood for 40 years and Walms improved that by a less than a minute.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/obituaries/donald-ritchie-record-breaking-ultrarunner-is-dead-at-73.html

I knew that over the last few minutes, the camera perspective was offering false hope. I was trying to compare how quickly the image of Walmsley was descending toward the bottom of the screen against the countdown, and I decided when the race clock hit 6:08:45 that the record was out of the question.

I didn't think I'd ever see a more agonizing runner-vs-clock road finish than Steve Jones missing Carlos Lopes' marathon WR (2:07:12) by one second in Chicago in 1985. Seeing someone miss one by 11 seconds over 100K was, as it turns out, harder.

For those watching online, I think the small crowd produced a paradoxically powerful emotional effect: Rather than a true roar, you could hear a few dozen individual voices from people who had properly lost their minds and screaming with everything they had to bring Walmsley in. He may have missed the record, but he's now had the experience of hearing a few dozen people, many of whom he knows well, absolutely focused on nothing else but driving a comrade toward an achievement that would elevate everything about the day. Him missing the record didn't really diminish the moment from a spectator's perspective.

Both Jones and Walmsley pure animals. Walmsley raising his arms at the tape despite missing the record (and having better things to do with the remnants of his energy) was a poignant addition to a well-orchestrated event.

Well, KMB, let's not forget that Walmsley also raised him arms to signal the destruction of the American Record from 6:27 to 6:09. I'm sure there are mathematicians that can run the numbers on the percentage improvement and extrapolate that relative to the what it would be if someone did what he did to the 1500m or the Marathon.

Legendary performance. #2 All-Time

http://www.alltime-athletics.com/m100km.htm

Towards the end of the race today Jim ran up on the inside of a curb. He stumbled a bit and the commentators commented on it. That won’t effect the ratification of his American Record will it?

nzkenbg wrote:

You’re confusing disciples- Ritche record was on the track. This was 100km ROAD. Don’t worry manynhave been making this mistake. Ritchie best road 100km was 6:30, miles behind Walmsley.

For the last 10 years or so, there are no distinctions in surfaces anymore in ultrarunning.

But you can see in every list on which surface the race was run.

And yes technically track should be faster, but in reality I doubt this for ultrarunning.

In any case there is not a 20 minute difference between the surfaces.

And then there are the new shoes of course.

I don't respect anyone who doesn't find this impressive AF

Could he have run 1 second per 5K split faster? If he had not cut his shoulder and lost blood?

Maybe in the Rocket X vs the Carbon X? (definitely in vapors)

That last big lap looked painful.

https://imgur.com/a/m1wjLyp

https://i.imgur.com/HkpVT4G.png

im devastated

I agree. I think I respect Jim more for missing by a tiny bit than I would if he’d gotten the record. I’ve run a marathon at sub 6 pace but I simply cannot fathom going for 6 hours at that pace

KMB wrote:I didn't think I'd ever see a more agonizing runner-vs-clock road finish than Steve Jones missing Carlos Lopes' marathon WR (2:07:12) by one second in Chicago in 1985.

Meseret Defar crying in 2008 after having missed the women's 5000 meter WR with one second (14.12 to 14.11) was the worst. You could basically see it already on the last of the home stretch as it was slipping out of her fingers as she always knew she never had Dibaba's sprint finish down to the wire in those moments.

Still waiting to hear about apparent timing confusion...

I didn't watch any post-race interviews as we were busy recording the post-race reaction show but was wondering how Jim would react to the race. I'm pleased that he has his head up high as RW has some post-race comments from him that I think were taken from the broadcast.

"Definitely feels like one of the more special runs I’ve had. I got everything out of myself today, dug real deep, and fought all the way to the line.. I don’t feel like I gave up, but it was tough to see the seconds tick by. It’s a little bittersweet, but definitely awarded with an American record today, and those don’t come very often...A 45-minute PR. It was a pretty amazing day.”

But man, he's still got to wonder about 12 seconds.

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a35297833/jim-walmsley-100k-american-record-project-carbon-x-2/

sesamoiditis wrote:

Towards the end of the race today Jim ran up on the inside of a curb. He stumbled a bit and the commentators commented on it. That won’t effect the ratification of his American Record will it?

Nah. I highly doubt that officials care whether commentators commented on it or not.

Five is the magic number wrote:

KMB wrote:I didn't think I'd ever see a more agonizing runner-vs-clock road finish than Steve Jones missing Carlos Lopes' marathon WR (2:07:12) by one second in Chicago in 1985.

Meseret Defar crying in 2008 after having missed the women's 5000 meter WR with one second (14.12 to 14.11) was the worst. You could basically see it already on the last of the home stretch as it was slipping out of her fingers as she always knew she never had Dibaba's sprint finish down to the wire in those moments.

Bekele missing the marathon WR by 2 seconds ranks right up there.

Yeah, it's up there on a grander stage and greater implications... so close.. also similar when Geb snuck under 2:04 with his 2:03:59 WR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GuGDGV1q2g

I don't care about the 11 seconds.

THIS was an amazing performance and finally Jim Walmsley could prove that he is as fast as he always claimed to be.

I hope we see him at Comrades, at a 100k World Championship and I would love to see him at Spartathlon as well.