OT: Is this the greatest athletic feat in human history?

[HoustonCuse]

So if people have been running forever, what's the real reason these guys are running so fast. Looking at this link, the record has been lowered by five minutes in the last 20 years. However if the 20 years prior to that, it was only lowered by 4 minutes. So it's been lowered by 9 minutes in the last 40 years. That's pretty significant. I guess you could argue equipment, medical technology, diet. It is amazing what this guy did. Marathon world record progression - Wikipedia

Let's talk 5000 meters as well. In the 90's, the record was lowered 6 times. However it's been lowered only once in 20 years (in 2004). Is it possible that the record will never be broken again.
5000 metres world record progression - Wikipedia

My take is it is a combination of the factors you mentioned and population growth. If you imagine a normal curve of running capability, the top 0.1% of that curve has a lot more people in it than it did 20 years ago and whole heck of a lot more than 50 years ago. Add to it that it is more likely that talent/ability will be discovered and developed today than at any point in the past. For instance, there might have been guys in Kenya or someplace else that could have performed this feat 20 years ago but they never tried. Or if they did do it, nobody had a stopwatch or reason to publicize it. Another way to look at it is: what if Michael Phelps never took up swimming? How many people are out there that could beat Usain Bolt in the 100 meters but nobody knows it? As population goes up, so do the odds. But like I said, the world is better at finding talent now than it was at any point in the past.

 

[skurey]

I've read an interesting theory on LetsRun.

Most professional runners move up to the marathon as they get older. That means most are not at their physical peak when running these races so the marathon record might have a bit more room to be lowered than we think.

 

[OttoMets]

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PS - for a treadmill, you'd need to set the ramp to like 2-3%, since running on a flat treadmill is actually faster/easier than running outside, due to the speed of the mill assisting leg turnover.

Thank you!

It drives me nuts to hear people talking about how "I did X, Y, and Z...on the treadmill." No you didn't. The treadmill helps you. It's exercise, but it's not the same as actually running. So I don't care about your "miles," your "speed," or the even more absurd "calories burned" according to the digital display on the machine.