holy fuck id never seen that cheserek race before, that was absolutely hilarious i really enjoy a good tactical race because it gives me the same feeling as pack racing in indy or nascar - its like a game of chess being played out at speed. they definitely have their place and as you said, itd be boring if every race was just the same medium pace through to the end. great vid as always!
One interesting thing about the 2016 Rio 1500m is that due to a medal ceremony running late the athletes were left in the call room longer than usual and couldn't run. Nobody was fully warmed up when the race started so it didnt go out very hard.
As a dirty end of the race kicker, I appreciate this video. it's quite fun to follow right behind someone for a whole race just to dust them right at the end.
I feel like the tactical last leg of a relay is a whole other thing. It just doesn't make a lot of sense if you get the baton first, to not use your head start and let everyone catch up. There is also the aspect that if the team had the record in mind, Chez just ruined all the hard work the first 3 legs put in to give him a shot. Then he didn't even win the race.
Also as I understood it he's one of the fastest so his best 'tactic' would actually be to keep the pace high rather than risk someone out-kicking him as in fact happened? This is the very definition of "congratulations, you played yourself".
i’m a cyclist and this is how many of my favorite (classics) races play out. bit different bc of the outsized role of aerodynamics in the cycling vs running, but personally i love this style of racing and find it incredibly tense and exciting
I think tactical races are just fine, but front running from the perspective of a runner is much more exciting personally. You run depending on the fact that you’re going to have given the race everything you possibly have at the end, and for me that’s what distance is all about
I've been running xc/track for about 5 or so years and the better I get at the sport, the more I appreciate tactical races. Also the more you race, especially when you get better, you get to learn about the thought process, the positioning, and the mental game runners have to play when they're in a race like this, and it really makes watching tactical races interesting. WR's/PR's are fun and all but watching someone like Mo Farah run a tactical masterclass at the 2012 Olympics never gets old.
Depends. For someone like me who was pretty good at endurance but had little speed, I hated sandbaggers lol. I can’t deny how fun it is to watch the end of a tactical race though.
I did this in a highschool dual meet 3200 against my rival school. The guy's pr was 15 seconds faster than me but was content to run tactical and I was able to out kick him 62 to 65 over the final lap.
Sometimes tactical races can be boring. But as a brit I remember watching Mo kick at the end of that race with all the energy of a home games, as one of the greatest sporting moments I have ever watched
It’s the same strategy as flat courses in grand tour cycling. Your teammates, or even other riders, will conserve energy for the whole race, which is easy to do since you don’t have to deal with a climb. When you approach the end, you all pick up the pace slightly, and then about 600 or more meters to the end, someone tries to go for a sprint, and then it’s down to positioning and reaction time to get the win at that point. There’s also the breakaway, where a small group of riders breaks away early from the peloton in order to build up a lead at the cost of energy for the final sprint. These are more typical in climbing or mixed stages, where a final group sprint isn’t liable to hapoen
I really love your content and I would love to see you make a video on some of the best Tactical Races and their significance! With the History and story presented in only the way you know how!
Interesting to hear this as a outsider from the cross country skiing world where for our mass starts the tactical racing is a big part. Furthermore in cross country skiing there are no records take seriously mostly because the variety in conditions and track layout which gives the athletes no reason to go for time even for a wr or pr. The only place where they try to ski there fastest race overall is in the individual starts. I also think it it interesting to see the fight between athletes with better endurance compared to those with a higher top speed.
I fully believe that the over reliance of “tactical” races contributed to the US being terrible at 1500m for years. US athletes became accustomed to this style of racing for championships that we never had the times or skill to be able to compete against the best in the field. I think Jakob Ingebrigtsen changed the race for the better by challenging everyone to actually race from the start. More of saying “I can race and win with fast times so you all better learn how to race fast or get left behind”.
Great analysis. Only one point I disagree with. You said tactical races can only occur 1500m and up. I was once in a tactical 800m. It was my HS district indoor championship on a 200m track. All eight of us in the seeded heat had PBs in the 1:59-2:01 range, so going in this was anyone's race. I felt very confident in my final kick, so I decided I was not going to lead, that I'd tuck in behind the leader and sprint the last 200m or so. However, apparently I wasn't the only person with this strategy. The first 400m was crazy slow. Instead of our typical 57-59 splits, we went through in 62. This would have been good for me given my sprint speed. The problem with that, however, was that literally everyone went through in 62, and we were tightly packed with me in second. Just after 400m, whoever was in last stepped on the heel of another runner, causing a domino effect with all of us except the leader falling to the track. The seven of us get up with me getting knocked down again by the guy who had fallen on top of me. Once on my feet I immediately start going all out for the remaining~350m, eventually regain my (now distant) second place position. I was making ground on the leader during the last 200m, but too much ground had been lost and it was too late and I couldn't catch back up finishing second. The guy ran an amazingly slow winning time of 2:04 becoming champ merely as a function of being the only one not to fall (I was so pissed as I would have easily outkicked that guy had I not fell). In the outdoor version of the race three months later with memory of that race fresh in my mind, I did the uncharacteristic strategy of leading from start to finish so as not to repeat the indoor result. It worked, and I won but almost got picked off at the line by another runner with a good kick, literally holding on for the win by 0.1 with a lean at the tape in a more normal 58-61 splits race.
wait what do you mean by the description? Obviously, "run slow to run fast" isn't great for PBing in a race, but isn't the term meant to be about training plans?
What annoys me about tactical races is the fact that most of the time these athletes are not self aware when the best time for them to administer their final sprint. Waiting for others to make a move is not smart. These runners should know what sprint distance best suites them. But they don’t. Except centro, he made the move when it needed to be made. RIO 2016 1500 - awesome race.
Running a tactical relay is stupid - the winning time is the sum of the individual times, so tactically winning a leg does NOT mean the team will win. It only makes sense for individual races, or for the last leg.
It’s fine when it’s an individual event, but it’s so disrespectful to your teammates in a 4xmile when you’ve seen that they all ran a low 4. Not only did he break their chances of getting that relay best, he lost them the race.
