The Worst Thing About the Men's Olympic Trials.... The 7:30 Am Start

concerned citizen wrote:

Maybe they can get the Trials in 2008 and correct all the minor mistakes they made this time around.

Just curious what Olympics you think these Trials are for, if not the 2008 Olympics?

HA!

if they did a 1pm start it would be nearly impossible to shut down times square temporarily....same with central park. in early planning i imagine NYRR went to the city and parks dept with what they wanted, and the city and parks dept came back with "If you want a times square start and a circuit course in CP, then it must be run at XXX time (which we now know to be 7:30am).

i should add that despite any drawbacks in start time and accomodation prices.....could it really get much better than being in NYC the day before the NY Marathon? How damn cool is it gonna be?!! i'm just going to watch and can't begin to tell you how fired up i am.

Birmingham, AL?? No thanks.

Don't know the answer. What time did the race start in Birmingham? In Pittsburgh?

9am in birmingham, though i would say the weather there was probably more likely to be cool considering it was held in early february. i may be wrong on this but i think athletes were consulted on the start time - i don't know any runner who is going to say they want a later start time, especially for a marathon.

by way of comparison, the women's trials in 2004 were at 7am - of course, they were also in april in st. louis.

as for pittsburgh, i can't remember the start time but i think they were held in early may? i can't imagine the start was particularly late.

What's your point? You want to sleep your life away?

Compare with the USATF Indoors in Boston, where every running event is held in the afternoon. More attuned for performance--and a more prime time TV audience.

I think it's fairly well known by now that the start was set to get the start of the race on the Today Show, not necessarily the best needs of the athletes.

I live just outside NYC and will be waking up at 5:30am to catch a train in to watch the race. Wouldn't miss it for the world!

malmo - I think the point of the original poster is that one of the stated benefits to having the trials in NYC-and 6 months earlier than usual on NYC Marathon weekend-was that it would draw a much larger number of spectators than Birmingham or NC or Pittsburgh did for prior OT's. By then scheduling the race for 7:30am you cut down considerably the number of people who will come out to spectate or watch on tv/internet. It was originally sold as "prime time/prime place" but most of that ended up going out the window as details were completed. As noted above, you will lose many of the west coast internet watchers, and you will not draw the CT/NJ/Long Island/upstate NY "locals" who might be into watching this in person if they didn't have to get up at 5am to drive in. Imagine the crowd they could have had, in person AND online, if they had scheduled a noon start. November in NYC is going to tend to be cool even at noon, and if it's somewhat hot (not Chicago hot!) then you just get closer to the temps you are more likely to see in the Olympics so no problem with that.

7:30am, noon, 3pm, whenever...This should be a great race!

the today show goes until 9am. plenty of time to put it on later if they wanted.

are people really suggesting that the start to a marathon should be later? set aside any other reasons for holding it early (get it on the today show, not interfere with traffic as much, etc.) - why would it be a good idea to have the race later in the day? people are alwasy complaining about how usatf doesn't do enough for the athletes. i find it rather hard to believe that the athletes would want the race to be held later. maybe everyone just needs to accept the fact that marathons aren't particularly spectator friendly. this isn't a football game or something. this race isn't going to be held in a stadium where it's easy for spectators to watch. it isn't going to be held at 3pm so it's convenient for everyone to watch it. that's just the way it is with marathons.

d2xccoach wrote:

November in NYC is going to tend to be cool even at noon, and if it's somewhat hot (not Chicago hot!) then you just get closer to the temps you are more likely to see in the Olympics so no problem with that.

this is silly reasoning. the vast majority of athletes are not training in or for warm weather at the trials. why would they? it would be an extreme disservice to the competitors to make them run at 12pm just so people on the west coast can watch.

i find the whining about this quite amusing, especially after we heard so much complaining about usatf xc earlier this year. there the complaint was that usatf was ignoring the athletes needs. now people want usatf to ignore the needs of the athletes. just can't win, can they?

d2xccoach wrote:

malmo - I think the point of the original poster is that one of the stated benefits to having the trials in NYC-and 6 months earlier than usual on NYC Marathon weekend-was that it would draw a much larger number of spectators than Birmingham or NC or Pittsburgh did for prior OT's.

Don't you worry, Mary Wittenberg has promised 200,000 spectators.

It will get some air time on the Today Show. It wouldn't get that with a later start.

Alan

one hour later they'd get the same airtime. they chose 7:30am because of the athletes, not the today show.

Okay, well, I'm one of the West Coast weirdos who might actually get up at 4:15am to watch the race. Apologies for having my head up my arse, but where on the Internet can I stream it? (Judging from the other thread, whatever they decide to show of the race on NBC won't be worth watching.)

there is no way a start that early is good for the athletes, it isn't going to be too warm that time of year in NY and the athletes will have to wake up extremely early to have their bodies ready to go. I have heard optimum performance can not be acheived until after 5 waking hours. Waking up at 2:30 cannot be ideal for the athletes. It seems to me that this was the most feasible time logistically so they were stuck with this time.

the reasoner wrote: optimum performance can not be acheived until after 5 waking hours.

So you figure Geb awoke at 4 AM before Berlin, or do you reckon he slept later and ruined the 2:02 he'd have run otherwise?

The (lesser, southernmost) Central Park Himalayas are brutal - waah!

It starts at oh-dark-thirty, when any reasonable person is still in bed - waah!

I wonder how many of the guys actually lining up to run this thing are griping about the conditions. I suspect few: whining like a spoiled brat seems fairly antithetical to reaching one's potential in distance running.

Weather Channel says it should be partly cloudy and in the 50's. Seems ideal for running. As much as I enjoy sleeping in, it's not like the Olympic trials occur every day.