What's your PR, OP? Ever break 5:15 for the Mile? That's 2:17.
What's your PR, OP? Ever break 5:15 for the Mile? That's 2:17.
It's obviously easier to make the marathon trials than other events in athletics. Everyone knows that. They let an 10X as many people.
But it's still extremely competitive. It takes 1 in a thousand talent to even be in the conversation for marathon trials. Then comes training hard, staying healthy and being fortunate enough to have a good race.
it is true wrote:
A 2:18 marathon is a pathetic cutoff compared to 1:46, 13:25, 3:37.50. It's a complete joke of a time any decently talented runner could hit if they try
Why so bitter?
'Slightly more serious hobbyjogger version'... A 2:18:00 is a universe away from 3 hours. And as other people said, you aren't limited by lanes on a track or the width of a track like the track events. The world championships field looks pretty pathetic, there are fewer than 80 runners, and a majority of them are a 'free entry' for their country or barely hit the time and nowhere near the top sub 2:20 women or 2:05 men, so there are massive gaps between the runners only a few miles into the race. I'm glad the olympic trials isn't like that.
I think it was trolling, but a 2:17 is significantly weaker than track events. still a very respectable time - but it wouldn't medal as a female in a lot of WMMs.
I 100% concur with the premise, and offer myself as anecdotal evidence. After college, in which I wasn't even AA, I still clung onto "the dream" for whatever reason. In my mind, I had no chance at any of the track qualifying times, but I did think it would be cool to be an OT qualifier, and the marathon was so much more doable. So, I trained for that for a few years. It is just like a BQ, only slightly more "serious" for people who are a little more talented than 3hr marathoners. I even remember having the internal conflict whether or not to "race", knowing full well that the sub2:10 guys are on a whole different level than the 2:20guys, or just running my pace and passing the carcasses of better runners for the last 10 miles. Going out at 51-52 min at 10m would literally be the end of my race with only 16 more miles to go, so that would be beyond stupid. Finishing in the top 20-30 against a lot of guys much better than me felt dishonorable. lol
Anyhoo, given how little people know about running and what is actually good vs not good, I can understand good runner's frustration with people like me. The general public will view anyone under 6min pace as almost the same as Kipchoge, so to people who are very talented and working hard to approach Kipchoge, or worse people who run the 5 and 10K in which people have NO idea whatsoever on what is good or not, people like me look like absolute posers. I remember internally scoffing at BQ guys because I could put in a BQ performance any day of the week.
The main point is that no matter where you at, running is a sport where you have to intrinsically find value in whatever you're doing. If you are looking for pats on the head and "well-done's" from anyone else (no matter how good you are), you are in the WRONG sport!
OP is a poor man's version of a serious hobby run-walker version of world-record troll.