[espinchi]

Here's the hypothetical scenario that the report describes in the end.

I've found reading the analysis after this story makes it an even better read:

The road is so flat and straight, you can see them coming from a mile away. Six runners flow in arrowhead formation around the Canadian city of Saskatoon. The early November air is still and dry, the sky overcast, and the temperature hovers a bit above freezing, just as predicted.

All in their early 20s, they’ve been training together for this moment for years; only in the last month did their coach select which three will go for the record. The remaining three form the front of the arrowhead, blocking the wind and enduring the mental effort of controlling the pace. Should one of them cross the finish line in two hours—or faster—all six will share equally in the $50 million jackpot promised by the heirs to the Hoka One One fortune. The pot of money is up for grabs, for any runner, anywhere in the world. The chase is on.

So, will they make it? And what year is this? We’ve cut the distance to the sub-two marathon in half since 1998, but it will get progressively harder to trim the remaining seconds. Still, the physiologists tell us that it’s not impossible, meaning it is possible. I’m saying the year is...2075—and they make it

[TwoBit]

Why is it that drafting is allowed in world records? Why not just break the record by having a big draft train like in cycling? Cycling records don't count if drafting is involved, in fact.

[revelation]

Because the benefit is pretty small compared to what you can save in cycling. Now it's certainly there, which is why you want to save the extra 5% for the 2h mark, but it's not the 40% you get in cycling on the flat (drag grows faster than linear).

[nl]

Marathon races are traditionally about winning, not about records, and times aren't really comparable across courses.

The Marathon record doesn't even require the course to be flat (there are limits on the elevation difference for it to be recognised as a record).

Drafting isn't massively effective in running. A Marathon in 2 hours is 21 km/h, and in cycling you wouldn't really bother drafting at that speed.

[sopooneo]

I wondered whether everyone you're racing with has to have started the same path at the same time as you. If so, my inherent sense of fair says it's okay. It's just admitting that it's effectively a team sport.

However, If the people who break the air in front of the record contender get to jump in part way through, I don't like it. Though I'm realizing now that if the track is any kind of loop, you could stretch this rule by intentionally letting the contender lap the pacers so they could reserve energy for every nth lap when they hop back in front of him.

[x0x0]

The whole article is beyond stupid. It's impossible to seriously discuss athletic records in 2014 and not mention drugs. No discussion of steroids, blood doping, hgh, nothing. For context, the major marathons just increased their drug penalties [1]. The second they get serious about testing they'll discover they have the exact same problem as bicycle racing.

[1] http://www.bmw-berlin-marathon.com/en/news-and-media/news/20...

curun1r: steroids are useful for the exact same reason in the tour de france: decreased training recovery times, joint protection, etc. See eg nordic skiing [2]. You don't take the same doses as bodybuilders do because your goal isn't hypertrophy, but it still helps. Or see this quote [3]

   To boost their strength is not the sole reason athletes turn to steroids, 
   Yesalis adds. "They have been taken for at least 45 years by endurance 
   athletes to recover from workouts rapidly. With steroids, a marathon runner 
   can run longer, a swimmer can do more laps and a cyclist can spend more time 
   pedaling." In sports where endurance is everything, the ability to last 
   longer during workouts and competitions confers a definite advantage.
   
   Read more at: http://phys.org/news71508517.html#jCp

Also -- and I missed this mention amidst the scrolling -- while the article mentions epo, it proceeds to discount epo, and avoids any other drugs

   Doping with EPO or blood transfusions is one way of boosting an already-high 
   VO2 max—and it’s possible that cheating may have contributed to the drop in 
   the marathon record, and could even be the “secret” that allows runners to 
   approach sub-two in the future. But Radcliffe’s numbers offer a reminder 
   that such tactics aren’t necessary to achieve boundary-breaking 
   performances: Her VO2 max was already exceptional when she was a teenager, 
   and it stayed at a relatively constant level throughout her career.

Steroids and other drugs help, as demonstrated by baseball, basketball, football, hockey, powerlifting, olympic lifting, bodybuilding, tour-de-france cycling, time-trial cycling, cross-country skiing, nordic skiing, judo, boxing, and mma. Every athletic endeavor that has been seriously tested has found record-breakers using steroids. The point isn't that having an off-the-scale vo2 max isn't required. That's table stakes. Steroids plus other drugs take that exceptional vo2 max and turn it inhuman.

[2] http://www.steroids.info/2012/10/09/documentary-looks-at-ste...

[3] http://phys.org/news71508517.html

[curun1r]

The article did mention drugs, specifically EPO which is used to increase VO2 Max. Steroids would be less useful in a runner since they add muscle mass and dragging any excess weight around a 26.2 mile course is counterproductive. The article mentioned that EPO could be behind either the recent world record times or the eventual sub 2-minute time.

[idlewords]

Corticosteroids are used to improve recovery time and to help reduce pain and inflammation. They are routinely abused by cyclists, who are also endurance athletes who seek to minimize body mass.