Marys? You should be drawn and quartered.
Marys? You should be drawn and quartered.
I have no problem with half-marathons. I do have a problem with a race director tacking one onto the full just make an extra buck. It's disrespectful to the people running the marathon. Not that marathoners deserve way more respect than those running a half, but there's something a bit more intense about marathon day than half-marathon day.
Columbus used to run a marathon relay along with the marathon. Probably got 1500-1800 runners total. They changed to a half marathon a few years ago and got almost 10,000 runners last year. The marathon increased from 4300 to 4750 during that time.
The half marathon is a great distance. I like that I can run several a year but focus on one or two as target races. Marathons take too much out of me to do that. I wish, though, that they'd make it 20k instead so people would respect it more.
tough mudders suck wrote:
I have no problem with half-marathons. I do have a problem with a race director tacking one onto the full just make an extra buck. It's disrespectful to the people running the marathon. Not that marathoners deserve way more respect than those running a half, but there's something a bit more intense about marathon day than half-marathon day.
Yeah, why should a RD make money? I mean all that time and investment and risk for what? To have an event that is not a "one-off".
What are your thoughts on marathons with a 5K associated with it? I guess that is showing even less respect.
Boston marathon has a mile associated with it, so that must be the most disrespectful of them all.
To the O/P, well done but you could have got even more replies if you had posted "mary's".
Marathon numbers wrote:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/232693/It's sad that it's come to this.
Yeah, it's really surprising that shorter distances have more participants than longer distances. For instance, I would expect more people to be running 100 milers than marathons or halfs or 5K's because they are so enjoyable and fun for the whole family. But you just never know.
Both are fine as stand alone events. The problem occurs when race orgs such as the competitor group allow the half to overshadow the full for a $.
Makes sense to me. I've run an equal number of full and half marathons, and every time I do a half I am amazed by how soon the race is over; I have the rest of the morning and afternoon to do whatever I want, and I recover so much faster (I can have a fairly normal run the next day).
Who cares which distance is more popular? Why should the marathon be inherently more important if both distances are offered? Personally, I prefer 15K to either the full or half.
I will agree, however, that it does suck if you run a marathon and all the food is picked over at the finish by the 20,000 half marathon finishers. Or that the water in the showers is ice cold for the marathoners. Or, worst of all, if the idiot course designer has the full and half marathon routes merge for the final three miles so that any relatively speedy marathoner has to weave through groups of very slow halfers, 3 and 4 abreast.
Of course, there are some marathons that still do not have a half counterpart and I guess I could just run those. But, then again I'd rather run a 15K anyway.
agree wrote:
VF Runner wrote:I would almost expect the LRC reaction to be more along the lines of "Good! People should conquer the half before they move up to the full." Isn't that one of the prime LRC complaints - too many people participating in marathons without really respecting and preparing for the full distance? There should be a whole lot more people doing halves than fulls and they should only move up once they are really ready.
Second this. Weed out all the ill-prepared people running marathons. Leave the marathon to the real runners.
Why shouldn't people be able to run the race they want? If these ill prepared people get in your way you need to run faster.
Don't run too fast, though, or you'll have to make your way through hordes of half marathon walkers.
Even worse is that the running community is populated with lazy people who would rather cut their race short at 26.2 instead of running an ultra.
Marathon numbers wrote:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/232693/It's sad that it's come to this.
It all comes down to being able to put another sticker on the back of your SUV, no matter how meaningless it might be.
I think in this case it's called a hail Mary.
Yeah, the church is probably really upset with people walking out the side door. It sets such a high standard.
wha huh? wrote:
Why shouldn't people be able to run the race they want? If these ill prepared people get in your way you need to run faster.
Bud, I've won my last marathons, so ironically it's the overlap with the half marathoners who get in the way. People can run whatever race they want to run, but it's good there's halves so it leaves the marathon to more real runners (like myself).
Many marathoners run a half in preparation for their main event. If each marathoner runs one half as a tuneup, time trial, or workout before each marathon, then halfs will be just as popular as full marathons. For this reason, I wouldn't be surprised if halfs were more popular than fulls even among our top marathoners.
You recover from the half faster, so you can run more of them. Few guys run more than 2 or 3 marathons in a year, but those same guys can and probably do run several halfs each year.
luv2run wrote:
Yeah, why should a RD make money? I mean all that time and investment and risk for what? To have an event that is not a "one-off".
Big marathons are already a cluster-f*ck without taking on a 1/2 marathon. Single-event events are simply better. Do you disagree?
luv2run wrote:
What are your thoughts on marathons with a 5K associated with it? I guess that is showing even less respect.
Yes.
long sox wrote:
Boston marathon has a mile associated with it, so that must be the most disrespectful of them all.
The Boston marathon disrespects the runner in far more distasteful ways than having a one-mile race on a different day.
Here's a typical Boston Marathon day for an average qualifier:
Get up super early.
Find your way to the buses.
Stand in incredibly long line waiting to get on a bus to Hopkinton.
Get on bus for 45-minute ride to Hopkinton.
By the time you get to Hopkinton you've almost pissed yourself because you're trying to stay hydrated.
Find your way to a porta-potty, only to find that there are 20-minute waits to get a porta potty.
Try to sneak behind a tree to pee, only to find that there are security officers behind every bush and tree threatening to take your bib if you piss in the woods.
Get back in line and wait 20 minutes for a porta potty.
Stand around for hours waiting for the race to start.
Walk around looking for your baggage bus.
Walk half a mile to the starting corrals.
Stand around in the corrals for what seems like forever.
Plan a strategy to take a piss after the start because you have to piss again, but you don't have time to leave the corral, wait 20 minutes in a porta potty line, and come back.
Race starts, and you shuffle shoulder-to-shouler with thousands of other people until you cross the starting line 15 minutes after the gun.
Run shoulder-to-shouler with thousands of other people, with no hope of having a good race because of the "sardines" factor.
Run a crappy race and cross the finish line only to find that you have to walk 1/2 mile to find your baggage bus.
Walk another 1/2 mile to find your "people" in family meeting area M...or was it R?
Shuffle another mile to the parking garage where you hurriedly dumped your car 8 hours earlier.
Deal with spirit-breaking Boston traffic for the rest of the afternoon.
Arch Stanton wrote:
Or, worst of all, if the idiot course designer has the full and half marathon routes merge for the final three miles so that any relatively speedy marathoner has to weave through groups of very slow halfers, 3 and 4 abreast.
This x1,000. I'm looking for a good marathon to run in the Northeast this fall. (I can't do NYC, my brother's getting married that day). Every single one has a half marathon in conjunction with it that starts at the same time, and every single one brings the runners back together for the last few miles. Also, most of the half marathons are substantially larger in terms of participation that the full marathons-- some 2-3x times as large. I run mid-2:30s, and in some of these half marathons there are literally hundreds of people finishing right around that time. Awesome.