Our Take:

Imagine having the cojones to create a race and name it “The World’s Fastest 10K.” Back in MY race directing days, I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing something so hubristic. But maybe I should have, because The World’s Fastest 10K does seem to see an awful lot of the world’s fastest times. This past weekend’s iteration was no exception – the record books have been burned to ashes by Agnes Ngetich, who – I’m struggling to land on a verb powerful enough here but I’ll go with decimated – decimated Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s previous world record by 28 seconds, breaking the tape in 28:46. That’s 4:38 pace!

While it’s well known that the streets of Valencia are paved with the speed boost pads from Mario Kart, it’s still almost unfathomable that anyone could run this fast. Until 2017, the fastest time ever run by a woman was Paula Radcliffe’s 30:21. Not to be all analytics nerd here, but this is SIGNIFICANTLY faster. If it were a track 10,000m, Radcliffe’s Mario Kart-style ghost (sorry, I have only ever played one video game in my life) would have been lapped.

From the first step, Ngetich made this a record chase. She came through the first 3K in 8:29, which is a time that only five American women have ever run under. I point that out so that our more casual readers could grasp how absurd this race was. Like, the US is good at running… we win medals! She didn’t slow there after hitting the gas hard. Ngetich came through the 5K in 14:13, which ties the world record (on the road).

But to fully appreciate how impressive of an effort this is then you have to watch the race. It looks like she is sprinting and eating up ground while leaving no crumbs. Although it is giving me mild flashbacks to my grandparents yelling at me in a language I don’t fully understand, the commentator’s enthusiasm is electric.

Admittedly, I don’t think many of us saw this coming from Ngetich. She had a strong 2023 campaign highlighted by a bronze medal at World XC and then a sixth-place finish in Budapest in the 10,000m. This past fall she ran 29:24 and 29:26 in Brasov and Lille for 10K, both also known as fast courses (although sometimes short). But on Sunday morning, everyone leveled up. Emmaculate Anyango also dipped under 29 minutes and the previous WR.

Given the chaos on the women’s side, it was mildly disappointing to not see the men’s world record go down. What unfair expectations for fans to have! But that’s mainly because the current mark is 26:24 by Rhonex Kipruto from this same race four years ago and he is currently serving a provisional suspension by the AIU (he denies any wrongdoing). So while that time is currently in flex, it’d have been nice to see Jacob Kiplimo make a run at it. I suppose this is where I have to acknowledge that his win in 26:48 wasn’t too shabby either.

As a parting thought, it would have been cool/fun/interesting to see some of America’s best chase the 10K standard on the road rather than waiting for a single opportunity in March, at a track somewhere in California. The women’s time to hit is 30:40 and 13th place here was 30:42. It just feels like a missed opportunity! Is the track even faster than the roads anymore? No one has ever broken 29 on mondo!

Unfortunately, the three athletes who ran within a couple of seconds will not get the standard because for some confusing reason, World Athletics uses gun time, rather than chip time. In the case of Jess Warner-Judd, there is a three-second discrepancy between the two. This isn’t punishing athletes for having a geriatric reaction time – it’s giving start-line preference to men over women. There’s been a big gender equality push from the governing body these past few years, and this seems like a low-effort, yet very impactful correction.