Not experienced with distance running, excepting know (?) that a human can’t maintain sprint speed for much more than ~400 meters. I further understand that a runner’s energy exertion is somehow measured and “rationed” throughout a distance race, though I don’t know the details.
A mile is 1,609.34 meters – converted into yards, that’s just under an additional 120 yards to run past the 1,500 meter tape.
Let’s say Faith Kipyegon tests a strategy where she attempts to match her personal-best 1,500 time and indeed runs the mile attempt exactly as she would run a 1,500 record attempt … only she then further attempts to maintain her “final kick” speed for an additional 120 yards.
Essentially, this cannot be done, correct? Kipyegon has to either start her final kick later for a mile attempt, or start her kick about where she would for a 1,500m but hold back a bit so she can extend the kick out another 109.34m/120 yds – is that generally correct?
Her current 1,500m pace extended to a mile would get her a 4:04.62. No way she could extend a kick, she’s already at the limit of lactic acid build up.
It’s hard to say which differences in what men and women do (or are) are genetic and which are environmental. It appears that men tend to be taller than women for genetic reasons. On the other hand, while it used to be standard worldwide that more men than women graduated from college, it’s now more women than men in many countries (including the U.S., Ireland, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Panama, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Belize, Argentina, Mexico, and Iceland). In Afghanistan, though, women presently can’t go further in education after turning 12. I expect that it’s hard to tell what differences are really genetic and which are really environmental without doing experiments that consist of planet-sized control groups with various environmental differences.
I had never imagined that women would not be as fast as men in running races.
There are physiological differences in hips and joints that hamper the speed compared to men but it appears women may have more endurance.
Dutch women are exceptionally tall ( tallest of all from a country comparison) and powerful and that shows up in their speed skating prowess.
Hard to tell with Kenyans how much is nature vs nurture …no idea how they can propel those stick like bodies for distance and speed as they do.
I think it’s fine that there are two categories for men and women in most sports but feel sorry for trans people caught in the middle.
I also applaud that women sports are getting more time and funding.
I wouldn’t have considered it the case for activities that rely mainly on strength such as weight lifting or specifically on upper body strength, such as some men’s gymnastics.
But I had always thought that for a runner it wasn’t so much the raw strength that was important, but the strength-to-weight ratio. So, naturally, I had expected that at the pinnacle of perfection, gender wouldn’t matter as much as body type.
Clearly that was an incorrect assumption. I have many of those.