Once upon a time, those top marathon runners were basically the best in the track races, or at least they used to be.
There are many such examples, such as those of Emil ZÁTOPEK, which may be too distant, and a little more modern, from Paul Tergat (2:04:55; 26:27.85) and Haile Gebrselassie (2:03:59; 26:22.75) and then to Samuel Wanjiru (2:05:10; 26:41.75), Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:09; 26:49.02) and Kenenisa Bekele (2:01:41; 26:17.53)。
Toshinari Takaoka (2:06:16; 27:35.09) to Da Qiangjie (2:05:29; 27:36.93), Ren Longyun (2:08:15; 28:08.67), Dong Guojian (2:08:12; 28:17.60), Han Gang (2:08:56; 28:35.73), Miyazawa (2:10:11; 28:51.53) and so on. Even Hu Gangjun (2:09:18), who has always been known for marathons, also ran 13:37.29 in the 5,000 meters and won the fourth place in the National Games.
The situation is similar for women, from Sun Yingjie (2:19:39; 30:07.20) to Zhang Deshun (2:24:05; 32:12.78), Paula Radcliffe International (2:15:25; 30:01.09), Tirunesh Dibaba (2:17:56; 29:42.56), to Almaz Ayana (2:16:22; 29:17.45), Letesenbet Gidey (2:16:49; 29:01.03), Sifan Hassan (2:13:44; 29:06.82), Hellen Obiri (2:21:38; 30:10.02) and so on.
Some of these success stories have been successful in running marathons after making a name for themselves in track races. It's no wonder that there was once a saying that when you "can't run" in a track race, you will turn to running a marathon and continuing your athletic career, and there are indeed many people who do this, such as the aforementioned Haley, Bekele and Kipchoge.
Among them, there are also a few venues and marathons at the same time, and they have also achieved good results, such as Hassan, Sun Yingjie and Ren Longyun.
So are there any runners with average track race results, or even no track race experience, who are also successful in the marathon?
The times are advancing, and with the deepening of the professionalism of road running marathons, it is like not every track race master can become a marathon winner in the end. In recent years, more and more runners who have not been trained in track races before, or even before, can succeed in marathons.
Most of these people are from Africa, and the representative is the late marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum (2:00:35), like him, who is basically a road runner who has become almost mainstream, and too many African runners on the Grand Slam platform in recent years have had a similar experience with Kiptum.
There are many such examples in China, and many grassroots masters outside the system, such as Jia Orenjia, Cen Wanjiang, Huang Xuemei, etc., may be more and more in the future.
When I was young, I trained for the track race and laid the foundation so that I could achieve higher achievements in the marathon in the future, which has always been a development method advocated by many people. So far, many marathon runners in the European and American systems have also come all the way, participating in a large number of middle-distance races when they were teenagers, starting the 10,000-meter race relatively late, starting the marathon very late, and the marathon performance is still improving after the age of 30.
Athletes in the domestic system have more or less experience in track training and competition, but many runners with average track results have become more and more prominent in the marathon field in recent years.
After the Wuxi Olympic Trials, the best results of the men's season, the top few, He Jie, Yang Shaohui, Wu Xiangdong and others, are almost not the track masters we traditionally think, not now, not before.
At just 25 years old, He Jie has been focusing on marathon training and racing for an early age, and he had never scored 30 points in the 10,000m before breaking the national record last year.
In the more than 10 years of his career, Yang Shaohui has scored only a handful of 30 points in 10,000 meters, with a best time of only 29:34.11. The situation is similar for Wu Xiangdong, 10,000 meters PB 29:38.48.
This is obviously contrary to our traditional perception, the 5,000 and 10,000 meters on paper even high-level female athletes "can't run", why can the marathon also run to 206 and 207?
10 years ago, no one would have believed that the Chinese could run 9.83 seconds in 100 meters, and 5 years ago, no one would have believed that He Jie would be able to run 206 in the future. Is it possible to run a marathon directly in the future, without going through the field training? This is a question worth exploring.
The answer is obvious, it is still important, but the current reality also tells us that if you run 10,000 meters well, you may run well in the marathon in the future. However, if the results of the 10,000-meter or other track events are average, it does not mean that the marathon will not be successful.
In the past, I could always hear similar statements, a certain 10,000-meter PB can't even run for 30 points, and the marathon is only 2XX at most, and the upper limit is limited, and then move out of the "endurance coefficient" or something.
The PB of the track race is really not necessarily related to what height you can reach in the marathon in the future, or it is not as relevant as you imagined before. Especially for Chinese athletes, due to objective reasons such as fewer competitions, there is often a big gap between the 10,000-meter PB and the actual ability, and the real level is much higher than the PB. Just like the domestic players mentioned above, the best results of 5000 and 10000 are not indicative at all.
There are also some cognitions that need to be updated, such as the correlation between the 10,000 meters and the marathon, which may not be as big as many people think, and may not be as relevant as the 1500 and 5000 meters, 5000 and 10000 meters.
The marathon distance is very long, and more emphasis is placed on aerobic capacity and the economy of running technology, which is affected by objective conditions a lot, including competition strategy and competition experience, such as Wu Xiangdong and Yang Shaohui have excelled in this regard. To use a metaphor that may be inappropriate, it's more like the relationship between 100 meters and 400 meters. You can't conclude that just because a teenage athlete doesn't stand out in the 100 meters, he won't be able to do it after 400.
For a runner who aspires to a marathon, the real meaning of the 10,000-meter or other track events is to lay the foundation. No one can train for marathons from a young age, it must be a gradual process, with the growth of the body, the increase of training years, from the middle distance to the long distance, and then to the marathon training, some basic skills of track and field should also be slowly polished from the short distance events.
If you are really talented in the marathon, the average track result does not mean that the marathon will not be successful.
The first is talent, strictly speaking a talent in a marathon, and there is no doubt that talent in a physical event must come first. Kiptum, Asafah, Kengo Suzuki and He Jie are not the most talented people in the track race, but they are the most talented people in the marathon.
Then there's focus, which is just as important as talent. Not everyone can have both and all the same things like Hassan, and in today's world, at home and abroad, almost all successful marathon runners have been focusing on the marathon for a long time, taking the marathon as their only goal.
Training and life also revolve around the marathon, and they may occasionally participate in the half marathon, or even many people only participate in the marathon, because the improvement of their marathon performance will not bring obvious benefits to the improvement of their marathon performance. Only the perennial systematic marathon training and competition, through continuous trial and error and honing, can finally succeed.
Also take a few domestic examples, Yang Shaohui and Wu Xiangdong also participated in a lot of track competitions in their early years, like others, but in recent years, they have almost completely focused on the marathon, and their long-term focus has allowed them to continue to improve.
The younger generation of marathon runners in China began to focus on marathons at a younger age than Yang Shaohui and Wu Xiangdong. In particular, He Jie took the marathon as his goal very early, completely gave up the track race, and after several years of unremitting efforts, he broke the national record in a row.
This is very different from the previous generation of athletes represented by Dong Guojian, Dong Guojian did not give up the venue after the age of 30, and fought on two fronts for a long time.
Now it seems that there are many successful cases of the gradual development from the track race to the marathon, or the early establishment of the marathon as the goal.
All roads lead to Rome, the key is not to be limited by preconceived notions, and it is not wrong to stay focused on your goals, so do you think that way is better?