Why was Berlin so slow this year?

It was almost 70 degrees and high humidity/sun. Wasn't terrible but warmer than most Berlin years.

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

Even if the big guns went out too hard and blew up, surely those behind could have got a 2:03 or so. Its always a strong field there.

With all the super shoes out there, you'd think a faster time was possible at Berlin.

You probably should have watched the race and then you’ll have your answer

Once the temperature is above 60 degrees, running long becomes a lot harder. it got hot in Berlin.

It's not so much the lead pack went out too hard, but they went out as expected and they didn't expect the heat to hit them so hard on the back end.

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

Even if the big guns went out too hard and blew up, surely those behind could have got a 2:03 or so. Its always a strong field there.

With all the super shoes out there, you'd think a faster time was possible at Berlin.

It was likely a combination of warmer than ideal weather and going too hard upfront. There was a WR for a half marathon within a marathon established today, so that says something.

They went out really hard and Kipchoge is really the only person who can handle that kind of pace now that Bekele is almost 40

These threads remind me of the barber shop scene in "Coming to America".

"Eliud Kipchoge? Eliud Kipchoge! Someone always gots to bring up Eliud Kipchoge! Look here, Kenny Bekele was 87 years old when Eliud Kipchoge..."

Pacer dropped out at like 25k and without Kipchoge confidence up front nobody was able to carry on the pace. I think it’s time we stop thinking of 2:05, 2:06 as slow and begin to realize how lucky we were to have somebody so consistent to watch for the past 7 years. There will be others, but I seriously doubt we’re going to see the all time list start to fill up with 2:02s

inanity wrote:

B grade runners

This, entirely. Berlin went all in on Bekele, the rest were just meat in the room. Tola had some pedigree but only from four years ago. You can't expect 2:03/2:04 from a bunch of 2:06/2:08 guys, even in Berlin

Weather conditions were not optimal, and then apart from the top performances of the last years (Kipchoge, Bekele) you could usually get second or third place with a 2:06 in Berlin. Just check the old results if you don't believe it.

The magic shoes stopped working. It was all a placebo effect and it wore off.

High hopes wrote:

inanity wrote:

B grade runners

This, entirely. Berlin went all in on Bekele, the rest were just meat in the room. Tola had some pedigree but only from four years ago. You can't expect 2:03/2:04 from a bunch of 2:06/2:08 guys, even in Berlin

That's why they call him Kenny B.

Dude's a B grade runner. He only fast when conditions is perfect.

Tommy2Nuttz wrote:

Even if the big guns went out too hard and blew up, surely those behind could have got a 2:03 or so. Its always a strong field there.

With all the super shoes out there, you'd think a faster time was possible at Berlin.

The pacing was off and I think that was the reason why the men bombed but regardless, ................

It was a weak filed on both sides and especially on the women's side.

Other than Adola and Bekele, everyone else was just pedestrian or should i say second tier.

As for the women, on paper, Helen Tola was the best and she would up third.

In a race with stronger Ethiopians and stronger Kenyans as well, even given the conditions (weather), they'd have run 2:03 or better.

The real OG Cici wrote:

It was almost 70 degrees and high humidity/sun. Wasn't terrible but warmer than most Berlin years.

Yeah, especially the sun. With more cloud cover it would have been better.

High hopes wrote:

inanity wrote:

B grade runners

This, entirely. Berlin went all in on Bekele, the rest were just meat in the room. Tola had some pedigree but only from four years ago. You can't expect 2:03/2:04 from a bunch of 2:06/2:08 guys, even in Berlin

My observation too.

It was 100% the weather. I ran it today and it was an unseasonably hot day today. Previous days were cool and rainy and then you add a random hot spell on top and you deal with some major soup weather. The start line I wasn’t even fresh in my singlet but the sun was already burning down and I sweated just standing there 🤷‍♀️

You just can’t run to peak performance in such weather. That’s a given.

hgrf wrote:

It was 100% the weather. I ran it today and it was an unseasonably hot day today. Previous days were cool and rainy and then you add a random hot spell on top and you deal with some major soup weather. The start line I wasn’t even fresh in my singlet but the sun was already burning down and I sweated just standing there 🤷‍♀️

You just can’t run to peak performance in such weather. That’s a given.

This was also highly ironic because any other day the last few weeks or the coming week would have been cool and cloudy and perfect to run a marathon. But bad luck is bad 😬

i am the mushroom man wrote:

Pacer dropped out at like 25k and without Kipchoge confidence up front nobody was able to carry on the pace. I think it’s time we stop thinking of 2:05, 2:06 as slow and begin to realize how lucky we were to have somebody so consistent to watch for the past 7 years. There will be others, but I seriously doubt we’re going to see the all time list start to fill up with 2:02s

Good you mentioned that since most if not all the armchair experts here never broke 30 for the 10k which is 3:00/km and 2:06 is pretty much that. So most if not all those saying 2:06 is slow are perhaps slow 10k runners as well. It takes one to know one...right?

Without the Super Shoes they would've only run 2:09! Best in the world can only do that!