Golden age of racing - or pacing: By Len Johnson

Geoffrey Mutai runs 2:03:02 in Boston; Moses Mosop finishes on his heels in 2:03:06.

For a while we’re talking about how bewildering it is that these times are faster than the world record but not eligible to be a world record. Then Patrick Makau runs 2:03:38 in Berlin, beating the world record, and the previous world record holder, on a record-eligible course.

Phew! That’s that, I guess. Not quite: before Makau’s ratifiable time has been ratified, Wilson Kipsang comes within four seconds of it in winning the Frankfurt marathon.

Haile Gebrselassie ran the pre-Makau world record 2:03:59 in Berlin in 2008. No-one had come closer than 2:04:27 until this year. Now, suddenly, we have four faster times within six months.

I am no stats guru, but such an agglomeration of times around the world marathon record is surely unusual, perhaps unprecedented.

Derek Clayton’s 2:08:33 in Antwerp in 1969 went unchallenged for 12 years. For those who worry about accepting the Antwerp performance, Clayton ran 2:09:36 in Fukuoka in 1967 and in the next seven years only three others – Ron Hill in the 1970 Commonwealth Games marathon, Ian Thompson in the 1974 Commonwealth Games marathon and Bill Rodgers in the 1978 Boston – joined him as 2:09 runners.

Of course, one element missing from all those earlier performances and the current swag of super-fast times is pacing.

This prompts the question: are we witnessing a new golden age of great marathoners and great racing, or of great pacing.

Truth is, it is probably a bit of both. Throw in the commercial realities which see the best runners spread themselves round over the available races – London seems to be the only race with the budget, and will, to bring a good field together outside the championships – and it becomes easier and easier for runners to produce their maximum performances with a minimum of competition.

Boston, of course, is not paced – but some years it might as well be. When a tailwind blows – as it did this year – the downhill nature of the first half and the benefit of the wind amounts to a fair amount of assistance. The tougher second half negates this to some extent, but only if you are already running into problems. It is fair to assume that neither Geoffrey Mutai, nor Moses Mosop, ran into problems when they ran their 2:03s.

Berlin provides pacing par excellence. Type the phrase “posse of pacemakers” into a search engine and you’re bound to come up with a Berlin marathon report within the first page or two’s results. This year, race reports describe a virtual flying wedge of pacemakers shielding Makau and Gebrselassie.

This lasted until Makau got serious at 27km, dropping the former world record holder. Makau still had the company of one pacemaker until 32km.

Kipsang did not get quite that level of help in running his 2:03:42 in Frankfurt, but the quality of the pacemaking there can be shown by the fact one was Peter Kirui, who broke through to win the Kenyan champs 10,000 this year, running 27:32 at altitude, and then finished sixth in the world champs 10,000. Kipsang had assistance beyond 33km before chasing the world record on his own.

Pacemaking assistance through 30 kilometres of a 42.195km marathon is proportionally equivalent to three laps of a mile race. So the modern male (it’s pretty much always the men) marathoner gets the same sort of help the two Chrisses, Brasher and Chataway, gave Roger Bannister in the first sub-four minute mile.

Jerome Drayton, one of the best marathoners of the 1970s, once observed that the marathon was a 10km race that didn’t start until the 32km mark. Barry Magee, New Zealand’s Arthur Lydiard-trained bronze medallist in the 1960 Rome Olympic marathon, though along similar lines.

“Anyone can run 20 miles,” Magee said. “It’s the next six that count.”

Pacing gives a new layer of meaning to their observations.

So what is good pacing worth? It’s hard to know, though no doubt there is a scientific estimate out there. Athlete reactions range from blame (when things go wrong, it’s the fault of the pacemakers), to pretending (when things go right) they weren’t even there. And, of course, athletes are motivated by self-interest.

But I liked the observation by New York Road Runners’ Mary Wittenberg that the benefit is around two minutes. This, at least, roughly matches the difference between Paula Radcliffe’s world record 2:15:25 – made with the help of male pacemakers – and her best in a women-only race.

It also makes Sammy Wanjiru’s 2:06:32 in Beijing – which many of us regard as the best marathon performance ever – equivalent to a paced time of around 2:04:30. The world record at the time was Gebreselassie’s 2:04:26.

Pacing is not going to go away. Nor are super-fast marathons produced with pacing assistance. But perhaps it is not just women’s marathon results and records that should be collated on two lists. For men’s results, that would be under paced, and non-paced.