How fast now?

You may have watched David Rudisha win Olympic Gold in the 800m at London2012 on Thursday (9th August 2012) and break the world record in the process. If Usain Bolt is rated as a legend for his dominance in the sprints, I'd argue that David Rudisha is currently even more so in the 800m.

The sprints don't generally require tactics, its 'just' about getting to the line as fast a possible. I am massively impressed by how fast Usain Bolt is and will admit there is some thought required on running style, especially during the bend on the 200m, but that's it.

The 800m however, is the shortest race where the runners don't run in lanes. It is also a fast race with some referring to it as a 'sub-sprint'.
Having to run so close to your competitors means that there are tactics involved in the 800m, and the few I'll outline are just for starters.

The race will often involve elbowing, barging, bumping and blocking in order to disrupt each other's running stride or pace.  There's also the possibility of getting 'boxed in' where you are on the inside but have a runner in front, behind and to your right and you are all running at the same speed. This is a very bad situation and commentators will refer to an athlete as being 'in trouble' during the race. There is no way out except to hope that the pace changes, or you force your way out, which could end in disqualification.

So to win the race, you ideally need to stay 'out of trouble' and the simplest tactics to do that are to lead from the front, sit on the leaders shoulder and hope you can sprint faster in the home straight or stay at the back and start your sprint earlier than the others.

David Rudisha is so good and so much better than everyone else that he can lead from the front, stay out of trouble, and win. No-one can sit on his shoulder and sprint past him because they're either too far behind, or too tired. In other words, Rudisha has taken all the tactics out of the 800m, and has virtually the same benefit of a 'clean' run that Bolt has in the 100m/200m.

Rudisha's time was 1m40.91s and it may not be long before he breaks 1m40s. He'd probably need someone to pace him through 600m during one of the 'golden league' meetings as I doubt it could happen in a competitive race. His dominance is such that no-one would risk losing a medal by trying to push him harder through the first part of the race.

In mentioning his time - the new world record - puts into perspective my best time of 1m52.89s. I would probably only just be coming round the final bend as he was finishing.

However, I'm not planning on racing him! He's 10 years my junior and the last time I ran an 800m, he wasn't even in his teens.

The thing is, I've got no idea how fast I could run it now. I could find that I'd only have finished one lap before Rudisha would be crossing the line. Getting lapped in a 2 lap race would be embarrassing, even if the competitors included the world record holder.

I think I should find out so I'll soon be heading to the local track to answer the simple question - What time can I run the 800m in right now?

I'll be running it on my own, with no training, no spikes and no Olympic crowd. I'm starting from rock bottom and don't care what the time is.  If you want to have a guess before I do it, add a comment.

Thanks again for reading!