As a practical matter, conditions will either expand or retract distance in any race, but especially an endurance race. Heat, headwinds, uphills, and humidity are expanders. Cool, dry conditions with tailwinds and downhills  (within reason) are retractors. 

A good example is the Boston Marathon in 2011 versus 2012. In 2011, under perfect conditions with big tailwinds, Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai ran 2:03:02, the still-standing course record. One year later, under high heat, countryman Wesley Korir survived to win in 2:12:40 while Mutai DNFd. Same athletes, same course, significantly different conditions. 

These days we have added super shoes to the equation, perhaps the greatest retractor of distance there has ever been. So not only have today’s professional runners out-trained the distance (which they did pre-super shoes), they are now capable of jacking up the quantity and quality of their training sessions, while simultaneously reducing their rest periods and chance of injury. That is the super shoes effect. (It’s the PED effect, too. But that’s another story.)

As a consequence, the marathon is no longer the pure test of endurance it once was, but a test of speed at distance. 

The 2024 Olympic Marathon course in Paris, despite the severe hills, both up and down, yielded new men’s and women’s Olympic records this weekend to close out the Paris Games.  

First, Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola dominated the men’s race on Saturday, pulling free on the big uphill at 28K and running unchallenged to the tape in Les Invalides. 

His finishing time, 2:06:26, featured a second half of 1:01:35, a 3:16 negative split, 21 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, and :34 in front of Kenya’s Benson Kipruto in bronze medal position. 

Today (11 Aug. 2024), in a much more enthralling women’s race, a late-race lead pack of five absolute killers hooked up, including two time Boston and New York City champion Hellen Obiri, 2022 NYC champ Sharon Lokedi, reigning world champion Amane Beriso Shankule, and world record holder Tigst Assefa. Ethiopian-born Dutch star Sifan Hassan, having already bronze medaled twice on the track earlier in the games, out sprinted Ethiopian Tigst Assefa by :03 to claim the gold medal. She also took down Ethiopian Tiki Gelana’s 2:23:07 Women’s Olympic record from London 2012 by 12 seconds. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, who led much of the final 2K, won the bronze medal in 2:23:10.

The final 400m could just as well have been staged on the track over 5000 or 10,000m. Both Hassan and Assefa, a 800m Olympian in Rio 2016, had (seemingly) totally fresh legs at the end of what was once considered the ultimate endurance event. No more.

With about 300m remaining, the two bumped hard as the course bent slightly left before the final turn right onto the finishing blue carpet.

Dropping into her final sprint gear, Hassan came storming through on the inside by the crowd barriers. By this time, the crowd was in a frenzy. Assefa tried to pinch her off, but Hassan carried too much momentum and got through. Assefa stumbled for a stride after the rub and that was enough to relegate her to silver position. It was like NASCAR had come to the Women’s Olympic Marathon. Cool!

Sifan’s second half took 1:09:33, a 3:49 negative split. Her emotional celebration reflected the power and meaning of her achievement.

In Paris 2024, Sifan completed the rare distance trifecta, running the 5000m (Aug. 5), 10,000 (Aug.9), and marathon (Aug.11) in the same games, adding marathon gold to two bronze medals from the track. She pulled off a more unique triple in Tokyo 2021, winning gold in the 5000 and 10,000m and bronze in the 1500m.

Czechoslovakia’s Emil Zatopek was the first, and to date only, person to take gold in all three distance disciplines in the same games. He completed the marathon, his debut, in an Olympic record time. 

In Montreal 1976, Finland’s Lasse Viren ran his marathon debut following a second double gold on the track over 5000 & 10,000 meters. 

America’s Bill Rodgers felt so indignant that Viren would attempt his debut marathon at the Olympic level against Marathon specialists, that despite his own foot injury, he pushed the pace hard for 25K just to make sure Viren wouldn’t win a medal. 

The fact that the great Finn took fifth place in 2:13:07 after winning the 5000m gold medal the day before was extraordinary.

Thus, what Sifan Hassan accomplished today in Paris wasn’t without precedent, though it was historic, just the same. 

It will be interesting to see how many of the Olympic marathoners walk downstairs backwards the next day or two after pounding that long downhill from 30-32k in the final stages of the race. 

Historically, one would expect that steep a downhill to do some real damage to fatigued legs. That’s the history of the Boston downhills. But with the new super shoes in play, there’s much more cushioning to protect sensitive quads from that pounding than previously with racing flats. 

Recall, old-school training shoes used to weigh approximately 10 ounces each. Racing flats were 6 ounces. That 4 ounce difference was cushioning. But now with the super shoes, you get it all in one, cushioning and light weight with the added benefit of energy-returning foam. Outside Magazine’s Brian Metzler penned a fine article about the Top Marathon Racing Shoes of The Olympics.

Considering 1000 steps per mile, 26,000 per marathon, four ounces per stride over 26,000 strides equates to 6500 fewer pounds carried at the end of your leg to cycle through each stride. That’s called distal weight, situated away from the point of attachment.

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So let’s salute today’s Olympic marathoners and yesterday’s, as well. But let’s also acknowledge how fundamentally the sport has changed in the last three Olympic cycles. 

I wonder if we won’t eventually see ultra distance racing make its way onto the Olympic schedule down the line? Just to bring endurance back and reconnect the Games to old Pheidippides, who inspired the inaugural Olympic Marathon in Athens 1896. 

Remember, he ran about 240K (150 mi) to Sparta in two days looking for reinforcements, and then back to Marathon before taking off for Athens the next day running 40 km from the battlefield to announce the victory over the invading Persians.  So there would be precedent for upping the distance. And boy, didn’t he wish he had some super sandals back then?

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