Hey guys its JP and this time we are going to take a look at Letesenbet Gidey as she
recently destroyed the half marathon world record by over 1 minute in Valencia. She is
currently the world record holder for the 5000 meter, which I analyzed before, the 10000
meter, the 15k, and now the half marathon. I have not made a running analysis video in
awhile, but when I saw this happen, this just had to be done as is one of the greatest runs
I have ever seen. So in this video, I will go over this race and why this was so amazing
as well as analyzing her running mechanics as she took the half marathon world record!
Now before we get into the details of her running, lets look at how she ran this race.
This only took place a few weeks ago at the end of October in the 2021 Valencia Half Marathon.
I also have no note that this was actually Gidey's first official half marathon too.
It was one of the greatest debut races of all time. She started off strong with the
first 5k split completed in 15 minutes flat. This translates to a 4 50 minute per mile
pace. And she only goes faster from here. She ends up completing the 10k split at 29
minutes and 45 seconds. Whats really crazy about this is that she is running a half marathon,
yet she ran just over the 10k world record at 29:38 by only 7 seconds. Now, if you thought
that was impressive, just wait until you hear about the next split. At the 15k mark, she
hit a 5k split in 14:44. This also put her into a comfortable position of breaking the
previous half marathon world record by over 1 minute, which is insane. And from here,
she still stayed strong. You can see this by comparing both her running from the beginning
of the race and toward the finish line. At the end, she demolished the world record by
a whole minute with a time of 62 minutes and 52 seconds. As I mentioned before, what makes
this even crazier is that this is her debut race for this distance, so she still may have
the potential to go even faster as she gains experience with this kind of distance.
Now that we covered just how incredible the race was, lets go into a little more detail
and look at the way she ran. I won't cover all the minute details in this kind of video,
but I will cover a few of them. Honestly, just by watching her here, where she is at
the very end of race running at record breaking speeds, I can tell that instead of being a
running analysis, this will probably end up being more of a running form appreciation
video. With this being said, the first thing we can talk about is the consistency throughout
the race. As I just mentioned, for this being at the end of the race with an average pace
well below 5 minutes per mile, she looks so strong. You can compare this to her running
during the first 5k split. Comparing these clips, there is not too much of a significant
difference in running form. For those who have ran distances like this before, you especially
understand that this not only speaks to her physical fitness, but also her mental discipline
as well.
Now, another thing we can appreciate is her step rate. As you can see, she pretty much
maintains a step rate of around 180 steps per minute. This is noted not only at the
end of the race, but also throughout the race as well. Now I do want to mention that while
this kind of cadence has been commonly seen in elite distance runners, this does not mean
it is a number you should absolutely strive for. This is because step rate can vary based
on you, such as the length of your legs, as well as the relative intensity of the pace
you are running at. For example, for an average person trying to run at this pace, this may
be very hard for them to maintain this speed. Therefore, it would not be unusual to see
that person running at a higher step rate of 200 steps per minute and up. This is because
the higher the intensity of the pace you are running at, the higher your preferred step
rate may be.
Another thing that I tend to look at when someone is running the footstrike pattern.
Now, this can be pretty tough to decipher in this video due to the quality of the footage
and the limited framerate. However, what we can gather from the video is that she seems
to be landing more around the midfoot region as she does not seem to be landing too close
to the heels or toward the toes. This can make a difference as this can change the way
forces are distributed through the body. If you land closer to the heels, forces may be
distributed less on the calf region and more into the knees. however, if you land more
toward the forefoot area, forces may be distributed less on the knees and more into the calf muscle
complex. Now, I wont go too much into the details of the general implications of foot
strike here; however, if you are interested, I discussed this in a previous video.
Now, while you can gather more information from this side view, it is also important
to look at it in this view too. When analyzing running footage it is good to look at it from
multiple views. There are some things you can note here that you cant really see from
a side view. One is arm swing. You will notice that there is no excessive rotation of the
arms as her hands don't really cross the midline of her body. Another thing you can pay attention
to is her head position. This can be a way to clue in on how the body moves side to side.
Here she pretty much keeps the head in a relatively neutral position and her torso in an upright
posture with minimal side to side movement going on. When some people get fatigued as
they run, especially at the end of the race, side to side sway of the head and torso can
increase; however, we dont really see that from her here.
And those are some things you can appreciate as you watch Letesenbet Gidey run. I hope
you found this video interesting. I have not made a video like this in awhile, so I'd love
to hear your thoughts. And as always, thank you for watching!