The OT Marathon will start at NOON February 3rd in Orlando

But think of the tens or even hundreds of people that don’t want to get up early to watch it on tv!

You're right it should be a behind closed doors time trial with only Jerry Schumacher allowed to watch.

More catering to the mythical and nonexistent "casual fan" that hurts the actual athletes

They don’t want interrupt the soccer moms at the farmers market on lake eola

90 th percentile high temp for early Feb is low 80s. Could be a hot mess. More shoulder shrugging than accountability.

Why is this a bad thing? The whole point of the Olympic Trials is to select the best team possible to represent us at the Olympics. At the Olympics in the marathon it will be hot. Therefore we need to see who can adapt to the heat the best to get the best team possible together.

They’ll obviously be acclimated to heat and humidity in August, no need to force that in February.

Kinda sucks it won’t be possible for anyone to grab the Olympic A standard here at this race which is what makes it the most exciting to me. Little chance for upsets in the sense we would send someone “unknown”. Basically the Olympic A guys will race for top 3 and everyone else it doesn’t matter, not ideal for PRs or anything

There’s no need to run the A standard at the OT 🙄

What were the ratings for the last Olympic Trials Marathon?
I can't imagine they are very good at all, to be honest.

Heck, they should have timed it with the Daytona 500. Put the trials at Daytona Motor Speedway. Friday night. Under the lights on the 2.5 mile oval. Granted NASCAR fans aren't exactly known to be running fans, but it would all but ensure spectators and TV Ratings are probably going to be better on a Friday night in February than on a Saturday at Noon.

Well zero American men have the A standard at the moment, which means that unless somebody gets it this fall, there's a very real chance that we'll have nobody at the Olympic marathon. My understanding of how the system works is that running the standard just unlocks a spot for the country, so for example if one guy gets the standard, then only the Trials winner would qualify, regardless of whether or not it's the same person.

Even if getting the standard wasn't an issue, starting a marathon at noon in Florida is complete malpractice.

And we don't even know the course yet, huh?

Idiotic. Florida is a great state for many reasons, including their beautiful winter weather, but it's insane to have a 26 mile race start in the middle of the day when it's already hot and will be increasing.

This is actually a really good idea.

As of right now three US men need to step up and run 2:08:10 or faster to get the OT marathon positions released. If no American male runs 2:08:10 or faster there is a decent chance the US won't be sending any men for the OT marathon.

It doesn't quite work like that... read through the qualifying system here: and here: .

worldathletics.org

Qualification system published for Paris 2024 Olympic Games | PRESS-RELEASES | World Athletics

As was the case for the Olympic Games in Tokyo and the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, the qualification system will be based on a dual pathway of qualification

Open link

https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/63a1742ced7e871d1a269206.pdf?_gl=1*10cw6u0*_ga*MjkzNjg3Njg5LjE2ODA0NjE1NTA.*_ga_7FE9YV46NW*MTY4NzgwMjEyOC4yNi4wLjE2ODc4MDIxMjguMC4wLjA

First, multiple American men have run under the standard of 2:11:30 on a legal course since Nov. 1, 2022 (my understanding is Boston counts for world rankings but not for time qualification, someone correct me if I'm wrong):

Teshome MEKONEN 2:11:05 Houston

Elkanah KIBET 2:10:43 Prague

Futsum ZIENASELLASSIE 2:09:40 Rotterdam

Abbabiya SIMBASSA 2:10:34 Prague

Leonard KORIR 2:09:31 Paris

Second, the U.S. should almost definitely have three men placing high enough in the "filtered" world rankings to qualify.

Third, "Any national Olympic committee may choose to reallocate a quota place to an unqualified athlete, provided the athlete in the qualification window has achieved at least a 2:11:30 (men) or 2:29:30 (women) performance."

ETA: To summarize, for an American man to be able to go to the Olympics he will either have to be ranked higher than the 65th quota spot or have a 2:11:30 to be eligible to replace a quota spot. The point is the 2:08 that people are referring to doesn't matter that much.

letsrun.com

World Athletics Announces Toughest-Ever Standards for 2024 Olympics

LetsRun.com

The standards are the hardest ever for a major championship. It will take 2:08:10 or 2:26:50 to qualify automatically in the marathon.

Open link

Exactly. If you don't like it, just don't run it. Unless you are a 2:11 Marathoner you have no chance to make the team anyway.

But we know the distance, yeah!

And, under my direction, the local organizing committee has already started soaking cotton rags to hand to the runners past 30K.