The race we will cover today is the longest track event in athletics where athletes have to complete 25 laps of a standard 400 meter track. It’s also the most prestigious 10000m race you can find and only the elite athletes participate and it should not be confused with a road race (10K). Due to the longevity of the race, athletes have to conserve their energy and therefore pace carefully the whole race and the aerobic capacity plays a very big role in 10000-meter races.
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Pacing Strategies and Training
Are you planning to run 10000 meters or just curious of training tips? Here’s a guide to prepare:
If you never ran 10000m in one run, you should first increase your distance from training to training in order to be comfortable with the distance and its demands on your body. Having accomplished this, you should think of a time you want to achieve for the 10000m. Remember to be realistic here and not put up too good times in order to not be disappointed. You then can divide the time by 25 so you have an average time for the splits that you have to run. Make sure to have a constant pace in the earlier laps of the race and save up energy to achieve a final boost in the last lap. Others may try to confuse you by breaking out of the group which is supposed to result in you losing your rhythm and burning out to soon by trying to keep up. Just stick to your plan and keep a positive mindset over the whole run. When training, you have to focus on you aerobic endurance a lot. For the 10000 you should do runs with higher distances but also intervals so you train your ability to run for a longer time but also your aerobic capacity. Another interesting training method that you could incorporate would be hill runs where you build strength and stamina . Elite athletes even train with astonishing 160 km a week!
Development & Records
The 10000 Meters originate from Ancient Greece and it has been part of the Olympics since 1912 for men and 1988 for women. Here the world record holders were and are similar to the ones represented in the 5000 meters: Until the late 1940s especially Finnish athletes dominated the discipline as they were also called the “Flying Finns” due to their high speed in middle-distance and long-distance races. Jean Bouin (FR) had the first official record with a time of 30:58.8 in November 1911. Since 1993, only African athletes held the world record which shows their dominance in especially long distance races. Currently there is again Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda holding the world record with an excellent time of 26:11.00 since October 2020. He also holds the Record of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, completing the 25 laps in just 26:43.44 minutes making him the fastest 10000m runner nowadays. Beatrice Chebet from Kenya ran the distance in 28:54.14 minutes in May 2024 and therefore holds the women’s world record.
10,000 metres – Wikipedia
10,000 Metres
