Chicago better or worse without pacers?

nope.

doesn't have the energy of a boston or nyc

better.

I am a bit unhappy with the leaders getting 2-3 min worth of draft.

Jonesy would have outrun them all today!!!!

now i will probably never watch if its going to be this slow, save the intellectual elitist 'strategy' running for track. I only tune in to see the excitement building to a potential world record. thanks for wasting a perfectly flat venue for world records talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I might be in the minority, but I thought it was definitely better this way. I think the presentation/announcing could still use some work (I watched on universal, so it didn't cut away from the leaders, but the commentary was probably the worst I have ever heard). I hope Chicago gives no-pacers another go next year.

worse definitely slowest winning men's time since 1995 - and it was a decent day to race - (other than the very high heat year 2007 when they cut the race short for many of the masses ) - men's and women's races this year were NOT more exciting than when they use pacers - so they experiment failed

Bad idea.

We need pacers.

They speed the race up.

hey carey! take the money you saved from buying pacers and pad the course record bonus....i suspect 250K+ could get some kenyan to TT a course record or world record at chicago...but if i'm wrong then you didn't hear it here

Better

Non rabbited races are always better.

Fun to watch because puskedra was in the lead group.

However a bit unfair to the top kenyans. In a normal race they would have gotten the price money plus some nice time bonuses.

If i were a kenyan elite, i would sue the organizers.

TheGoodOne wrote:

Fun to watch because puskedra was in the lead group.

However a bit unfair to the top kenyans. In a normal race they would have gotten the price money plus some nice time bonuses.

If i were a kenyan elite, i would sue the organizers.

Its the risk you run when you don't have pacers.

Before they were billing themselves as one the worlds fastest marathons now don't have to play that card. Marathoning is hot participation wise, no need to be the premier anything. Elites will steer away and go to paced events that want to race fast for rankings, depth of field may not play as well as faster times for running future events.

Race director is trying to be clever , maybe not so much now.

I thought it was better.

It was a race not a time trial, which I found more exiting. You had Luke P. in the lead group, an early break, surges, makes the race more exiting. In other races you just have a bunch of people holding on for dear life as the pacers go out in WR pace, the race doesn't start until 30K in.

I like the idea but with 2 of the 2:04 runners that were invited not showing up hurt.

more fun to watch wrote:

I thought it was better.

It was a race not a time trial, which I found more exiting. You had Luke P. in the lead group, an early break, surges, makes the race more exiting. In other races you just have a bunch of people holding on for dear life as the pacers go out in WR pace, the race doesn't start until 30K in.

I agree. Boston 2014 was great to watch for the same reason; it was a race, and Meb ran the best race.

Worse...2:09? What a snoozefest.

random facts

1. kept an American in the race

2. women effectively had pacers

3. slow winning time

questions

1. was this really a better race than in a year with pacers?

2. what is the implication on time bonus money?

perhaps the best marathon duel of all time was Wanjiru v Kebede. they had pacers.

It was boring, the point of a race is to get fast times.

I don't think it made much difference for watching the race. Bunch of guys running together for 30k, then the field split apart. Roughly the same thing happens in paced races. Truth is that it's never going to be very exciting to watch a bunch of folks jogging for 2 hours anyways.

I suspect the race director realized that Chicago just can't compete with Berlin as a fast race. What's the point in having pacers lead the winners to a time 90 seconds slower than the world record? And I assume that none of the majors has as much money as London, which why London always has the best fields.

I liked that there were no pacers. We got a chance to watch LP run 2:10 which wouldn't have been the case with a crazy 2:03 pace. I'm sick and tired of marathons trying to produce the next WR, I like seeing and hearing split times of the 70's and 80's. Let the racers race and the times will fall as they will. 2:09 is still a very fast marathon IMHO.

I can guarantee you that they will have pacers now next year.