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Poster: pablo
Subject: RE: 2016 Marathon Trials Standards
Body:

get ugly wrote:

If this is true, the USATF is so idiotic it's not funny anymore. I completely disagree with the idea that the standards should be made harder. They should be made easier--the men's at least. I think the women's standard was about right where it was at 2:46 for the B standard.

They must have some of the stupidest marketing people in the business. If the standards are made easier, then more regular working people will be training to qualify for the trials. In turn, that gets more non-running people interested in spectating marathons because then they could follow their family member or coworker's progress as they try to qualify. And if they do, they will want to watch the event on TV when it happens.

As an example, take the women from Chicago who were trying to qualify this year. Somebody was so interested in their story as working people who also train hardcore for marathons that she decided to make a movie out of them! Here is somebody who is VOLUNTEERING to give the marathon trials more exposure, and it's because the trials were made accessible to regular people who train for the trials.

As of now, most people don't even know that USATF selects the marathon team for the olympics. Hell, most people don't even know that USATF exists. They should do themselves a favor and make the trials more accessible to regular people.

To a certain extent, I'll agree with you. People love to identify with the working class/sub-elite crowd simply because it's where most of us fall into. It gives us something to aim for. Not everyone has the luxury of working part time and training full time...but people love to see stories about their local accountant who works 50 hours/week go out and runs 120 miles/week and just barely qualifies. If they lower the standards, there may (will) be less people like this.

BUUUUTTT....remember when they changed the standard from 2:22 to 2:19? Everyone on here (including myself) was saying it was ridiculous because there would most likely be less than 50 guys in the race. You know what, guys stepped up to the challenge. There are currently 158 men who qualified. Granted, only 82 of them had a sub-2:19 marathon...but still far more than most of us expected.

As someone who is an extreme longshot to hit the OTQ standard in 4, 8 or even 12 more years...it disheartens me to see the standards possibly get stricter. As a fan of the sport, I think it's a good thing.

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