Marathon progressions

The Perfection Point, John Brenkus

Today the world record is 2hr 3min 59secs and was set by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie in 2008. Brenkus predicts that in 2245, on a perfectly designed course, a marathon will be run in 1hr 57min 58secs.

Legend has it that the first was run in 490BC when Pheidippides, a messenger, ran 26 miles to Athens to announce that the invading Persians had been beaten at the Battle of Marathon. How long he took is not recorded - but he dropped dead after delivering the news. When the marathon distance was resurrected for the 1896 Athens Olympics, the qualifying race was won in 3hr 18min. I started wondering what has happened between then and now and what how the progression has been made. Below is a very rough guide, bearing in mind that the IAAF didn't officially recognise World Best times pre 2003 or World Records pre 2004 so some of these were done on long courses, some on point to point courses and one on a short course.

2:55:18.4 Johnny Hayes 1908

2:52:45.4 Robert Fowler 1909

2:46:52.8 James Clark 1909

2:46:04.6 Albert Raines 1909

2:42:31.0 Henry Barrett 1909

2:40:34.2 Thure Johansson 1909

2:38:16.2 Harry Green 1913

2:36:06.6 Alexis Ahlgren 1913

2:32:35.8 Hannes Kolehmainen 1920

2:29:01.8 Albert Michelsen 1925

2:30:57 Harry Payne 1929

2:26:14 Son Kitei 1935

2:25:39 Suh Yun-bok  1947

2:20:42.2 Jim Peters 1952

2:18:40.4 Jim Peters 1953

2:18:34.8 Jim Peters 1953

2:17:39.4 Jim Peters 1954

2:15:17.0 Sergei Popov 1958

2:15:16.2 Abebe Bikila 1960

2:15:15.8 Toru Terasawa 1963

2:14:28 Leonard Edelen 1963

2:13:55 Basil Heatley 1964

2:12:12.2 Abebe Bikila 1964

2:12:00 Morio Shigematsu  1965

2:09:36.4 Derek Clayton 1967

2:08:33.6 Derek Clayton 1969 Disputed (short course)

2:09:28 Ron Hill 1970

2:09:12 Ian Thompson 1974

2:09:06 Shigeru So 1978

2:09:01 Gerard Nijboer 1980

2:08:18 Robert De Castella 1981

2:08:13 Alberto Salazar 1981

2:08:05 Steve Jones 1984

2:07:12 Carlos Lopes 1985

2:06:50 Belayneh Dinsamo 1988

2:06:05 Ronaldo da Costa 1998

2:05:42 Khalid Khannouchi 1999

2:05:38 Khalid Khannouchi 2002

2:04:55 Paul Tergat 2003

2:04:26 Haile Gebrselassie 2007

2:03:59 Haile Gebrselassie 2008

As you can see the guys in the early 1900s were really going for it until the first world war got in the way and, not surprisingly, there was a bit of a dearth during the second world war.

It seems that in the 1950s the boys were making up for lost time. There had been some strong influences on training methods coming from Scandanavia pre-40s. It was mostly runners competing on the track in middle and long distance events that were demonstrating the benefits of structured training. Paavo Nurmi, from Finland, and his coach Pikhala were possibly the first to apply scientific principles. They recognised the relationship between effort and recovery and their system of dividing training into numerous spells of effort laid the foundation for interval training. Their system became known as terrace training with each being built on the previous, like a terrace.  Swedish national coach Gosta Holmer studied Nurmi's training methods and adapted it to produce fartlek training in the early 1930's.

Woldemar Gerschler of Germany then took training methods further by devising interval training. Gerschler studied the Swedish and Finnish methods and concluded they lacked sufficient speed work. His system enabled greater intensities because of the periods of rest or easy running that allowed partial recovery. The key was the athlete's pulse rate. Pulse was raised to 180 in the effort with a recovery that allowed it to drop to 120 within 90 seconds. Gerschler's system also incorporated gym work, time trials and a weekly long run (1.30 to 3 hours). 

Another dominating force in this period was New Zealander Jack Lovelock. Lovelock applied scientific principles to his training (he was a doctor) and developed mental strategies to a new level. He would run a key race in his mind for months beforehand, rehearsing every possible eventuality. He believed the body was a bank - the more work that was deposited over a lengthy period in the conditioning period the more you could withdraw on race day.

Interval training became the dominant system from the late 1940's. Although self trained, Emil Zatopek (Czechoslovakia) used interval-training principles and upped them - he would do sessions of 60 x 400m for ten days in a row or run reps in heavy army boots. Much of Zatopek's training, including 400m rep sessions, were aerobic and built a huge base.

Franz Stampfl, an Austrian living in the U.K. applied interval training principles to his coaching and it was his methods that guided Roger Bannister to the first sub four-minute mile in 1954. Stampfl also advised Chris Chataway (world record 5000m) and Chris Brasher (Olympic steeplechase gold). Hungarian coach Mihaly Igloi took interval training a stage further by incorporating sets into sessions. 

It was around this time that Jim Peters started to push his mileage up. Jim was one of the first to do regular 100 mile weeks, although he made his marathon debut on significantly less. He and his coach, Johnny Johnston started adding fast 10 mile training runs on the roads most days, anywhere from 5:20-5:50 pace. The intensity of his training runs was greater than the accepted by coaches and athletes of the time.

The next big influence came from Australia and New Zealand courtesy of Percy Cerutty and Arthur Lydiard. Lydiard used himself as an experiment of one to determine and perfect his system. He reasoned that the interval training should be replaced with a large aerobic base (160km a week - he called it marathon conditioning) followed by hill work then track training and carefully planned speed sessions. Lydiard, along with Cerutty, was probably the first to periodise a year. Prior to them training just changed from one form of interval training to another. Cerutty had a more complex approach than Lydiard but was built on the same principles of high volume mixed with long intervals, fast reps, sand hill running and weights.

Once these training methods had been established some runners were realising the benefits of altitude training. African marathon runners had arrived on the scene including Abebe Bikila and studies began to take place on the advantages of living at high altitude. Some runners began to use it and so performances continued to rise.

All of these developments in training seem to have helped the marathon record gradually fall. Now what about the races themselves? There have been developments here too. When Jim Peters was setting world best times he wasn't able to take on board any fluids at all as drinks weren't allowed. Now that runners are, not only able to hydrate, but also to mix drinks to replace what they have lost in terms of energy and minerals. Many of our courses are designed and orgnanised to give runners the best chance of running fast times and many put pace makers into the field to help that to happen. We should also recognise that with the growth in numbers participating the numbers of spectators have also grown. This supports the runners and helps many keep that essential concentration and focus. On top of that there is the very tempting carrot of prize money, bonuses and sponsorship deals that waits at the end of the marathon for those who get to the finish line first!

Unfortunately there is also the concern that over the last 50 years or so some runners may have used blood doping or drugs but I'm sure that the influences above are the predominant reasons for the time coming down by more than 50 minutes. There is one other factor that I would like to add to this. There have been times when the time has stood still for several years...five, six - even ten, and other times when it has fallen rapidly. Could this be that success breeds success? If there are several runners of around the same standard, when one sets a new standard the others all work harder to raise the bar again. I guess the question now is: What influences will we see in the future to bring that time down to 1:57:58 in 2245?