220. Running Events at the 2024 Olympics in Paris

[00:00:00] You're listening to episode 220 of the Marathon Running Podcast. In this episode, we're going to talk about the Running Events of the Olympics 2024.

[00:00:17] This is the Marathon Running Podcast by Letty and Ryan from WE GOT THE RUNS. Join us in our running community for weekly content that is motivational, educational and inspirational. And let the Marathon Running Podcast take you from the starting line to the finish line and beyond.

[00:00:37] Hey, runners and welcome to the Marathon Running Podcast. My name is Letty. My name is Ryan. And we are finally back on American Soil recording this podcast number 220.

[00:00:48] Yes. So you were in Germany for a while. I did visit you for the last week, but is it you happy to be back home?

[00:00:54] I'm happy to be back. But at the same time, I know I'm going to miss a bunch of things from Germany over there. It's been so much fun.

[00:01:02] And you and I were talking about it earlier how ideally it'd be great to have the best of all worlds squeezed into one. Yes, but then maybe it would be boring because anywhere you wouldn't ever want to travel because everything you had was right home.

[00:01:15] And the rent would be super expensive. We've been paying a lot for having the perfect running weather, having all the mountains, but all the water, all the seasons is just too much. Right? It would be a lot. Yeah. Might be worth it though. Exactly.

[00:01:33] How was running in Germany compared to your usual Florida running? It was a lot hilly, Ryan. It was a lot less humid. All in all, it was interesting because I grew up in Germany and everything seemed to be so far away.

[00:01:46] But then again, I was a kid and now coming back, I am able to run through my hometown within probably three miles. And then if I wanted to do anything longer, I had to go to neighboring villages and stuff like that. So you know.

[00:02:00] I did always find it interesting too when I went back to childhood places that I thought were really big. They ended up being quite small. Yeah. That was kind of interesting and cool and it brought its own challenges.

[00:02:12] All in all, I'm not complaining because where we live in Florida, it's super, super safe. At the same time, it can be very, very boring. But if you run at five o'clock in the morning before it gets light outside, you don't see where you're running anyway.

[00:02:27] So that's kind of a perk. Yeah. I think, um, there is really neat. I really what I liked about Germany, I was there for that last week is all the trails they have. You know, here if I find a trail that leads somewhere like to commute, I'm excited.

[00:02:47] I'm like, oh wow, that's really cool. Like a trail that you can only bike or run and stuff like that on. But in Germany, they're just everywhere. So that to me is amazing and a lot of fun. So you train in for a marathon? I am. To what?

[00:03:01] I love you. Having a laughter breakdown right now. We'll be back to their schedule program in just a minute. So, let me, are you training for anything? I was supposed to. There is a marathon last month, next month that I'm signed up for.

[00:03:16] And it's called the tunnel light marathon taking place in North Bend, Washington. The marathon takes place September 8th. If you are running it too, let us know and maybe we can do a little meetup. But it's a fairly small marathon. Washington state? Washington state.

[00:03:32] So that name intrigues me. Is there anything interesting about that marathon? So yeah, it runs through a tunnel. The first, I think two miles or three. I haven't really researched are running through a tunnel.

[00:03:44] So just the beginning and then it goes right at the beginning and you're supposed to wear like headlamps and all that. Two miles, I guess is long enough where it would get dark inside. Yeah, and I'm assuming I mean it starts obviously in the morning.

[00:03:54] So it's going to be dark and then it's going to be dark. And the tunnel darkness. So how's the training going? I didn't get as much running in as I wanted to, but it's all good.

[00:04:05] I'm sure muscle memory will kick in and I'll be able to run it and complete it at least. Just have expectations accordingly changed. Yeah, I think it'll still be fun. Yeah, I'm sure it will be.

[00:04:18] And on that note, if you guys don't know it, we do have a YouTube channel and you can find it simply by going to our link or going to at running podcast in YouTube in the search bar.

[00:04:30] And we did a video on the best 19 destination marathons destination marathons as in a purely fun destination, you know, scenic and all that stuff, not necessarily a PR course. So I think that video is pretty cool and I'll also link it in the show notes.

[00:04:49] And let us know what you like or don't like and we'll try to make better videos for you. Exactly. All right, so speaking about worldly things, Ryan, today we're going to talk about the running events of the Summer Olympics 2024.

[00:05:02] We're going to talk about the Olympics and running events in general, maybe a little history. Then we're going to talk about some disciplines and then we're going to hop into the athletics and within the athletics what running events there are.

[00:05:15] And then of course, we're going to talk about the marathon, which hasn't happened yet as of recording. Exactly. And by the time this episode airs, it's already going to be August 5th. That gives us the opportunity for you to make some predictions and see whether they come true.

[00:05:31] At least for the marathon part. Yeah, exactly. Because that's obviously the part that this podcast, the marathon running podcast is mostly concerned with. So all in all, there are 32 different sports in these 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

[00:05:48] They are aquatics, which includes all the swimming and diving archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, modern, pedathon, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, skateboarding, sports climbing, surfing, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlons, volleyball and wrestling, weightlifting. And I think that's it.

[00:06:16] Then I do a good job, Brian, memorizing all these sports. I think you missed the breaking. Yeah. So that's a ton of different sports that we have. But obviously as the running podcast, we're only going to focus on the first and most important.

[00:06:30] I'm doing air quotes because I'm joking. Important one, which is athletics, which includes the sport of running. So within athletic, there are the sprint distances, middle distances, long distances, hurdles and other events.

[00:06:46] As we're watching these Olympic games, there are a couple that I'd never really learned anything about. So did you know that there is a 20 K race walking? I didn't know about race walking. I didn't know the distance. I didn't.

[00:07:00] I don't know if it was one of the previous events or during it, but I saw one person that was like race walking, but got disqualified because they were more, they weren't holding their technique well enough. I guess I don't know, you know, walking compared to running.

[00:07:15] I guess two feet have to be on the ground. The key characteristic of race walkings are that you have to continuously maintain contact with the ground. One foot must always be in contact with the ground.

[00:07:26] The leading leg must be straightened from the knee down when the foot touches the ground. So what I find really interesting about this whole race walking thing is that the entire time you're running, you are being watched, right?

[00:07:37] Because when you're running a marathon, if you're walking for a minute, it doesn't matter. Nobody cares. You're just hurting yourself by running slower. When you're changing your gait and your posture, it's completely okay because you're just running. But with this, somebody's to constantly watch you.

[00:07:52] And on top of that, those race walkers, I was looking up what type of pace they're going. The winning man runs 20 kilometers in an hour and 18 minutes in some seconds. And that pace comes down to a to a 627 minute per mile or at 3.9 minutes per kilometer,

[00:08:11] which is kind of fascinating how fast. So technically they're walking, not running, right? Yeah, no, that's what I meant. Yeah, I didn't think about that. But yeah, you're right. I guess someone has to be constantly watching to make sure that the form is maintained,

[00:08:27] which unfortunately adds some subjectivity to the judging, which is one thing that is unavoidable, but I dislike a little bit about the Olympics is the subjective events. You know, a lot of them are gymnastics and things like that are well known or diving

[00:08:46] because when you have someone judging, there's an opinion in there. Whereas like a lot of the other running events that we're used to is just based on time. So there's really no subjectivity. It's just whoever crosses the fastest. No, I agree. I completely agree with you.

[00:09:04] And who knows? Maybe at this point they're using artificial intelligence to analyze the gates and see if what happens and if a leg is straight and all that stuff. All right, so since this is a running podcast, why don't we move on to the running? Yes, yes.

[00:09:19] So before we get into running though, there is another new event at this Olympics, which is going to take place on August 7th. So depending on when you listen to the podcasts, it might have already happened or not. It's the marathon race walk mixed relay.

[00:09:34] It is composed by a male and a female. So the format of this race is that the teammates alternate between walking sections covering the entire marathon distance. So each of them does a little bit more than a 10 K until they switch for the other person.

[00:09:49] Is there a requirement as to how far they can run each leg? Yeah, I mean each leg is approximately 10 K. And the first thing is completed by the male athlete, second one female, third one male and fourth one by the female. Interesting.

[00:10:06] I was thinking for the Olympics 2028 if you're free. We could walk it. Yeah, race walk it together as a team. All right, so enough about walking. What are the events you're excited about to watch other than the marathon? I like watching the sprints just like you.

[00:10:25] Those are also kind of the glory ones, I guess in a way. You know, they're the ones that get a lot of attention because you're the fastest sprinters or so. I think a lot of the middle distance events probably get a little bit less attention.

[00:10:39] Yeah, and just to give you the definitions, sprinting distances are the 100, 200, 400 meters. Middle distances considered are 800 meters and the 1500 meters. And then long distance we're talking anything above 5000 meters, which is five kilometers or 3.2 miles,

[00:10:59] which for us marathon is kind of funny because you don't think of a 5K as a long distance run. Yeah. And then all the other track and field events are pretty fun than two. But what's interesting about the middle to longer distances is that it's more about strategy.

[00:11:17] And I think on the sprint distances, it's kind of basically who's the fastest just run full out. But as you get the longer distances, you see how all the races kind of unfold differently. You know, they have little packs, they follow each other for a little bit,

[00:11:32] one might pass or then someone breaks out and then they got to chase them down. Or you have to strategize as to maybe you're not as fast of a runner. And so you're worried about someone that sprints to the finish

[00:11:44] and you got to get ahead before they get their sprint in or something. So that's interesting, interesting stuff. I like when they have commentators that are like educated and discuss this stuff. I agree. I think it's also interesting to think about how those athletes train.

[00:12:01] Right. I met Sean Bailey, who is a 400 meter Olympic runner from Jamaica at the airport while we had a layover in Atlanta. I talked to him for quite a while about his training in the regimen. And I know that the runners that run long distance quote unquote,

[00:12:18] which again, it means over 5K, they run quite a bit of miles, right? Some of them run 80 or more miles per week. And since he's a 400 meter guy, I asked him how many miles a week he runs.

[00:12:31] And he told me he doesn't even run a mile that their training is just completely different because obviously you're using different type of muscles and they focus on different things. So I thought that was quite interesting. Now, you know him because you met him at the airport.

[00:12:45] Exactly. We're going to cheer for him. Yeah, I think in the case of sprinting, it's probably more training strength and fast twitch so you probably don't need the like endurance that you do as the long distance runners do.

[00:13:02] Yeah, they probably do a lot of 100 meter sprints and stuff like that. Yeah. So why don't you get in the marathon? Your favorite. Yes, and I have a lot to say about that one. All right. So for the marathon event, the men will be running an August 10th

[00:13:15] at 8 a.m. Paris time, which is 2 a.m. New York time. And the women will do the same on Sunday. 8 a.m. Paris time, 2 a.m. Eastern time, New York time. And I guess we'll be waking up for that, right, Ryan? You will.

[00:13:30] Right now there's 81 men listed on the Olympic website and 92 females on the men's side of the field from the United States of America. We have Leonard career, Clayton Young and Conom months out of the American athletes. Conom months is ranked 82 in the world according to World Athletics,

[00:13:49] which displays only the top 100 and Kenchobi is Kipchoki is at this point rated 13th in the world. Yeah. So it's interesting because some of that can be deceiving because a lot of it has to do with strategy in terms of when they race and how many races

[00:14:06] they race and the ranking comes from not only where, how their time is, but like how many events they participate in and stuff too. Right? That's exactly right. So Kipchoki at one point was obviously ranked higher, but in the last year

[00:14:18] he hasn't been ranked so high because he hasn't finished podium in all of his races. Benson Kipruter on the other hand who at this point is a friend of us because we've seen him at a bunch of the events and we messaged with him.

[00:14:33] He is of Kenya and he's ranked currently number one in the world. Benson Kipruto has done his fastest marathon at a 2 to 16 in Tokyo recently, but also I think he's kind of fallen under the radar a lot because everyone

[00:14:47] always focuses on Kipchoki and then Kelvin Kiptum while Benson Kipruto has won a bunch of marathons and also he podiums quite a lot. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I wonder if one of those little guys will win.

[00:15:01] Exactly. Also participating in this marathon is obviously also of Ethiopia Cece Lemma who is currently ranked number two in the world with a PR of 20148 and then Kenensia Bekele of Ethiopia who's number seven in the world.

[00:15:16] And he's also likeable to me personally because he's in his forties as he runs his marathon. Two other marathons I want to point out is Alexander Munayo also of Kenya. He's podiumed a lot as well. And then one that we personally met is Gabriel Gay of Tanzania.

[00:15:35] He's the fastest man in Tanzania. He currently has a little bit of an injury. So nevertheless, we'll be watching him because it's kind of cool to know these athletes a little bit more on a personal level and then watching them

[00:15:47] perform. I think that's going to be super exciting. Yeah, that is really cool. So how about the females? So in the female field, you have takes a sefa of Ethiopia, the current world record holder of a marathon done in two minutes, I'm sorry, two hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds.

[00:16:06] And then Hassan Sifan of the Netherlands who has a current PR of 23444. Also Amane Shankule of Ethiopia. Perez Yabchir Chir also of Ethiopia. And then you have the Americans, the Coda Lindworm, Emily Cisen and Fiona Keefe who all qualified at the trials.

[00:16:25] You remember the trials in Orlando that we went to? So that was cool to see them run in there and now they're going to be watched again on television. It's cool. Totally cool. Yeah, it is really neat. All right. So now from our sponsor Tifosi Optics.

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[00:18:28] So don't compromise on style and comfort. Check them out at runner.run. That's R-U-N-U-R dot run and use code R-U-N-U-R underscore MRP20 for 20 percent off. So how's the race course look like? Pretty hilly. So the course is four hundred and thirty eight meters of uphill running.

[00:18:55] All right, so according to the website, the race starts at 36 meters at the Hotel de Ville, which is City Hall in Paris. It reaches 183 meters right before the half marathon mark. And then it goes down a bit and up again to reach 75 meters or so.

[00:19:11] And then it goes back up to 172 meters. Then it drops between the 30 K and the 32 and a half K from that 172 meters to less than 50 meters. So I mean, to say that this course is comfortable to Boston is not even fair.

[00:19:29] I think it's I think I read somewhere that it's six times as bad as Boston. And for you guys that, you know, the meters don't say a lot to you. The climb is nearly equal to the height of the Washington Monument, which is 555 feet compressed into just 3.8 miles.

[00:19:49] So put that into perspective. It does sound challenging. So, you have some history and how they pick the course, huh? I do. So I guess they picked this course because because this route is a key moment from the front for allusions.

[00:20:03] The women's march on Versailles on October 5th, 1789, where market women shopkeepers and workers from the quarters gathered in the front of the Hotel de Ville in Paris to demand bread and arms. Then between 6000 and 7000 Parisian women joined by men marched through the Paris,

[00:20:22] marched through Paris to Versailles to bring the king back to Tiliers on that day. Louis the 16th finally agreed to ratify the Universal Declaration of Rights of men and citizens. So that's the history behind this. Interesting.

[00:20:37] Yeah, but at the same time a super challenging course for our marathoners. And in my personal opinion, I feel like it's almost unfair. I don't know. I'm kind of intrigued as to who's going to win.

[00:20:48] I wonder if it's like, you know, certain racers will do better at challenging courses. I was talking to a friend, our friend Martin about this and he was saying that maybe the ones that have built a little bit more muscular, right?

[00:21:02] Because the running of all these sales probably puts a puts a demand on different types of muscles. Yeah, I don't know. You know, it's difficult because you still have a long distance. So definitely that. But I think when a marathon distance, efficiency is still a huge factor.

[00:21:21] And when you increase weight, it makes it with more muscles or other things you're carrying around more weight too, which makes it hard. And, you know, unlike sprinting where you can be heavier because you just want power

[00:21:35] and speed, you know, marathon I feel like is all about efficiency and lightness. That's a good point too. And also I think I've told you about this, but on YouTube, I've been watching the YouTube channel of Clayton Young, who is one of the American

[00:21:49] runners, and he's talking a little bit about the type of weight training and stuff that he does preparing for this marathon. I'm also following on Instagram his physical therapist and his coach to kind of see what they put the athletes through. But I mean, it's it's difficult right?

[00:22:05] Running it was difficult as is now you're adding these hills to it. It almost feels like there should be a trail runners race. Yeah, I think it's interesting point seems valid. You know, trail running is more hills in general.

[00:22:17] So maybe some of us more used to trail running could do better. I think trail running you also have surface issues where you have to, you know, uneven surfaces and other stuff that you're running over. Whereas, you know, even though they're doing a marathon, it should be

[00:22:33] or a hilly marathon, it should be relatively flat surface they're running over. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, give those runners some walking sticks right? Hiking sticks. Hiking sticks. And on top of that, on top of everything, you're talking August in Paris.

[00:22:47] So I think we're just at the point where we're about a week away. And we can start checking the weather for it and see what these predictions say. But I think it's going to be gruesome. My own personal prediction, I actually don't have one.

[00:22:59] I think it's going to be an underdog because this is not the regular course. And we're not going to see the regular winners. Unfortunately, my personal opinion, I don't think it's going to be

[00:23:08] Kypchogi as much as we want to see the goat do it over and over again. I don't think that's what's going to happen. Same for the women. I don't have a prediction. So give me a predicted winning time. Okay. Winning time given that this course is so difficult,

[00:23:24] I am still going to be optimistic and say we're going to see someone finish this course in 208 or 209. And I'm saying that because we have some really strong athletes that finished in the 202 range and given that this course is that much harder and the

[00:23:41] weather and all that, I think 208. What about you? So what about for the females? Females, I want to say, and I'm literally just pulling this out of my butt to 17 to 18. Interesting. Yeah, I have no idea either.

[00:23:57] I mean, I can guess, but it would be a complete guess. It's just really hard to compare this race because you haven't seen anything like that. There's really no world marathon. Even the hilly ones, that's as close. Boston is the hillyest one in this way.

[00:24:08] And like I said, it's supposed to be six times as hilly as Boston. So that's it'll be interesting. Yeah, it'll be interesting. And I'll definitely be up for it. If you are up to then message me on Instagram, I'll be awake and probably chatting

[00:24:21] with all my friends about what's happening. Anything else? I think that's concluding our episode on all things Olympics and just running events. Stay tuned for next week's episode, which we haven't figured out yet. But we're kind of rolling with the punches, given that we just got back

[00:24:41] from Europe. We'll think of something good. As always. And with that, have a great week of running. Thanks for tuning in for more information and marathon running news. Please head to www.marathonrunningpodcast.com and we'll be back next week.