With 1 mile to go, Yuki Kawauchi and Dathan Ritzenhein had the exact same time. Guess who won the last mile battle?

I'll go with Yuki in 4:56

(Also, how are we predicting their final mile time/battle when it already happened?)

I'm blown away by Kawauchi's last mile. He ran a 5:02.

Kawauchi ran a 2:15:29 marathon off of a 66:01 first half but finished 5:02 last mile. How is that possible both physically and/or psychologically? 5:02 pace is 2:11:58 pace. So even though he was fading, he somehow found a 5:02 mile in there when he was running for nothing but pride?

Ritz's last mile was 5:52 and he ran 2:16:19.

Wtf Rojo? You think we’re all sheep who aren’t going to look and see that Yuki ran 4:56 and Dathan 5:45? Or is this your idea of a joke?

Hey!

That’s almost as fast as I finish!

rojo wrote:

I'm blown away by Kawauchi's last mile. He ran a 5:02.

Kawauchi ran a 2:15:29 marathon off of a 66:01 first half but finished 5:02 last mile. How is that possible both physically and/or psychologically? 5:02 pace is 2:11:58 pace. So even though he was fading, he somehow found a 5:02 mile in there when he was running for nothing but pride?

Ritz's last mile was 5:52 and he ran 2:16:19.

That's actually common. A lot of runners start fast, cake the middle (that's the hardest part of a race) and then feel good at the end and finish fast because they recovered during the middle of the race.

By common I'm talking non-professional runners. Professional runners don't do that because it serves no purpose to kick hard at the end when you're WAY behind. We all have seen people at local road races who sprint the first 400, jog the next 2.6 miles, then sprint the last 400 to finish in 20 minutes for the 5k.

It's not physically or psychologically special. It's the sign of an amateur runner. If he works on that middle section of the race he can be great someday.

sbeefyk2 wrote:

By common I'm talking non-professional runners. Professional runners don't do that because it serves no purpose to kick hard at the end when you're WAY behind.

You answered your own questions. Some people will always grind it in even on an off-day. Some people will ease off and wait for a better day.

Not judging one way or another but people approach race differently. Nothing amateur about it.

So what you're saying is that they all got more tired than they anticipated, but while Yuki was able to close it out with a last hurrah Dathan had to just hang on until it could be over. None of this is too surprising. It's not like either of them ran 4:30 or 7:00. That's still a pretty reasonable pace.

rojo wrote:

I'm blown away by Kawauchi's last mile. He ran a 5:02.

Kawauchi ran a 2:15:29 marathon off of a 66:01 first half but finished 5:02 last mile. How is that possible both physically and/or psychologically? 5:02 pace is 2:11:58 pace. So even though he was fading, he somehow found a 5:02 mile in there when he was running for nothing but pride?

Ritz's last mile was 5:52 and he ran 2:16:19.

It looks like Yuki will get a hard time to ever run 2:08 again now a fulltime pro.

Perhaps not 2:08 but he did run 2:09 last month.

Yuki 4:58, Ritz 5:48

Is this thread update? wrote:

Yuki 4:58, Ritz 5:48

I did guess right after reading the OP, came within a few seconds of each. My though process was that Yuki always pushes like crazy at the end no matter the time while Ritz wouldn't care about running 2:13 or 2:17.

Let me get this straight:

Yuki ran the first half at 5:02.4 pace.

Then ran the next 12.1 miles at 5:19.5 pace

The final mile at 5:02 pace

Not seeing anything mind-blowing here.

13.1 miles 1:06:01 @ 5:02.4

25.2 miles 2:10:27 (12.1 miles @ 1:04:26) @ 5:19.5

26.2 miles 2:15:29 5:02

rojo wrote:

I'm blown away by Kawauchi's last mile. He ran a 5:02.

Kawauchi ran a 2:15:29 marathon off of a 66:01 first half but finished 5:02 last mile. How is that possible both physically and/or psychologically? 5:02 pace is 2:11:58 pace. So even though he was fading, he somehow found a 5:02 mile in there when he was running for nothing but pride?

Ritz's last mile was 5:52 and he ran 2:16:19.

I'll say this as a guy who's a big Kawauchi fan, and who has a similar tendency to finish races like a freight train: a fast finish in a sub-par race doesn't mean you're tough.

Of course, Kawauchi IS tough (and so is Ritz), but having a massive last mile when you're out of contention suggests that Kawauchi never needed to be so far back in the first place. Whereas Ritz' fade suggests someone who gave it all he could until he couldn't hang. Who sounds like they hurt more from mile 20 to mile 25: the guy who closed in 5:02 or the guy who closed in 5:52?

Again, I'm not saying that's how the race played out. Kawauchi's running has no much "personality". Last year's Boston was amazing. But don't underestimate how tough you have to be to put it all on the line and crawl to the finish.

After miles of quad-pounding downhill, the course flattens out in the final mile. Obviously that was a favorable change for Yuki but not Dathan.

I don't think you physically recover in the last mile of a marathon. Maybe psychologically, but glycogen depletion is real and recover is the wrong word.

we know what you mean, but it's inaccurate.

rojo wrote:

Please predict the final mile times for each Yuki and Ritz.

Go ahead and predict it now.

It’s funny that Ritzenhein has always been regarded by Letsrun as one of the toughest, gutsiest runners in the United States (think his XC races where he couldn’t walk in the finish chute or his 5,000m AR in track race) .

Then in 2018, Yuki has one tough race in abysmal conditions and Rojo feels compelled to take a little jab at Ritz’s toughness.

The both ran sh*t races today and you’re studying their last mile?!

Petty, but not unexpected Rojo.

typical speculation on Letsrun wrote:

rojo wrote:

Please predict the final mile times for each Yuki and Ritz.

Go ahead and predict it now.

It’s funny that Ritzenhein has always been regarded by Letsrun as one of the toughest, gutsiest runners in the United States (think his XC races where he couldn’t walk in the finish chute or his 5,000m AR in track race) .

Then in 2018, Yuki has one tough race in abysmal conditions and Rojo feels compelled to take a little jab at Ritz’s toughness.

The both ran sh*t races today and you’re studying their last mile?!

Petty, but not unexpected Rojo.

I'm not taking a jab at Ritz's toughness. I was just curious as to how Ritz and Yuki did and saw they were together at 25.2 and way apart at the finish. I wasn't jabbing ritz - I was just more perplexed by Kawauchi.

Ritz is my boy. I've been hyping that guy since HS. I went to Penn Relays to watch him run in HS. I went to Jordan to watch German F run World junior xc. Crushes on both.

sbeefyk2 wrote:

That's actually common. A lot of runners start fast, cake the middle (that's the hardest part of a race) and then feel good at the end and finish fast because they recovered during the middle of the race.

By common I'm talking non-professional runners. Professional runners don't do that because it serves no purpose to kick hard at the end when you're WAY behind. We all have seen people at local road races who sprint the first 400, jog the next 2.6 miles, then sprint the last 400 to finish in 20 minutes for the 5k.

It's not physically or psychologically special. It's the sign of an amateur runner. If he works on that middle section of the race he can be great someday.

Agreed.

Yuki underexerted himself over the course of the race, then sprinted in like an amateur. That’s not tough.

Dathan fullly exerted himself, to the point of crashing (perhaps like an amateur), but was at least tough.

Anyone can speed up after running much worse than one’s current fitness for 25 miles (which Yuki did by definition if he had 5-flat in the tank in a 2:15 performance).