Time to Boycott Marathons

exactly.

I mean i better not play pickup basketball(Tim duncan will get offended) or soccer (Beckham will get offended), and forget football I don't want TO and Chad johnson making fun of me and being offended by it.

I know when i run at Central Park Fam is always yelling at people walking " Don't bother your insulting my sport" LOL

I say that as long as they place 5-10% of the total revenues from the race into prize money for the competitive runners, let them all come and participate, the walkers, joggers, gallow-walkers, pogo stickers, jugglers, clowns, babies, old folks in walkers, skates, dogs, ferrets, and freaks. The more the merrier. Just make them start behind competitive guys and make sure the course doesn't take competitive runners back through cloud of slowest freaks late into the race (i.e as many half marathons/marathons combo's have a problem with).

SportsPsych wrote:Elite athletes realize this and are insulted when non-competitive people try to play off their activities as sport.

I can't think of a real Elite athlete that cares in the least. The only people whining are a bunch of wanna-be's whose egos are too fragile. They're scared they'll get passed by some 70 year old grandma pushing a stroller when they crash as usual in a race.

MTH wrote:

Just make them start behind competitive guys and make sure the course doesn't take competitive runners back through cloud of slowest freaks late into the race (i.e as many half marathons/marathons combo's have a problem with).

And that is the problem - Most marathons try to cram in so much other crap and races that the logistics of designing a course without interrupting ALMOST the ENTIRE city. Thereby putting a drain on the police, paramedics, some businesses, and traffic that the course winds up a cluster-felch.

You then get walkers (I thought marathons were about running) who have NO CLUE about staying on the outbound side of the street bottlenecking those on the return. I have seen it happen and have had to do the dodge as a result.

It also allows WiJu's to cheat.

(I had no idea that this post would cause such a shart-storm of argument. But I am enjoying you dinks go at it - thanks)

A question:

Lets say there is a marathon, and it's stated that the course closes 6 hours after the start.

What is the harm in requiring that all entrants show they have completed a half marathon in say, less than 2 hours 45 minutes?

This wouldn't exclude anyone,it would easily attainable for anyone training for the event and ensure that even walkers have the minimum fitness required to cover the distance.

That's a joke, right?

I wonder if Halie G., Meb, and Tergat have a web site where they talk about how they wish they could get rid of all these 2:20 "marathoners". After all, they're so slow they're an insult to the real marathoners running 2:04, right?

I agree with Mr. NO Name

I mean I was thinking of trianing for a marathon but Abdi called me said he is insulted if i dont run 2:10 so i sgreed not to to it

CMamcms wrote:

What is the harm in requiring that all entrants show they have completed a half marathon in say, less than 2 hours 45 minutes?

Who keeps track of all the "verifications"? What do you do about marathons that you sign up for months in advance? If someone did a 2:45 half last year, is the time still good? How far back to you go? Do you make everyone run a 2:45 half in the 5 weeks before their marathon so you know they've trained lately? Do you keep their money from registration if they run a 2:46? What do you do if the only half in the area is the same day as the marathon? Did you even think for more than about 2 seconds before suggesting this?

Seriously - start your own and have standards.

Some race director out there must have the testicles or ovaries to start up a race with some kind of qualifying standards and make reaching the standard a badge of honor.

3:00 for 40 men

3:15 for 40 women

Finishing is not winning!

Also, I will not volunteer for any of these charity marathons or marathons with big charity finisher divisions. I volunteer to help out with races frequently, but I WILL NOT VOLUNTEER AN ENTIRE DAY TO WAIT AROUND FOR PEOPLE TO FINISH WHO HAVE NOT ADEQUATELY PREPARED FOR AN EVENT AND CANNOT FINISH IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME!

hmmm something happened with my post above

300 for under 40 men

315 for over 40 men

315 for under 40 women

330 for over 40 women

Did you even think for 2 seconds that Boston manages to do it every year? How do they manage it? Are you saying NY or Chicago isn't capable of it?

Spare me the "I'm an over worked former race director" act that you so love to show around here. There is no reason to act like a cock.

CMamcms wrote:

A question:

Lets say there is a marathon, and it's stated that the course closes 6 hours after the start.

What is the harm in requiring that all entrants show they have completed a half marathon in say, less than 2 hours 45 minutes?

This wouldn't exclude anyone,it would easily attainable for anyone training for the event and ensure that even walkers have the minimum fitness required to cover the distance.

Surely, you are not so dense as to need this answered?

You are free to start such a marathon. However, do not dictate how another RD should run his/her race.

there is some threshold where you get some respect - it isn't at 5 and 6 hours.

in ethiopia, you are either a fast runner or your are not - there isn't this business of 210lb joe smith jogging / walking 26 miles in 5 hours. the rest of the world is not so pc as the u.s. and joe smith would in most cases be laughed at and ridiculed for "trying to be like haile" ... or tergat - sorry, just the facts.

This whole thing bugs me on many levels. Running is one of the few sports (in fact I cannot think of another that fits this criteria so widely) where your average or even above avg runner can so often be on the same course at the same time as the best in the world.

The other interesting thing is that I have talked to a lot of truly elite runners (Olympic caliber, not letsrun posters) and cannot recall a single one of them bothered by a person walking a marathon. I remember the comments by Grete Waitz when he "ran" NYCM with Fred Lebow and how tough it was to go that slow and the respect she gained for the people who are out there a long time.

If you are so gung ho for time standards and keeping marathons open to only the fastest, then you are free to start your own marathon. I am betting that the time standard will be 1 minute slower than what you can run for a marathon.

CMamcms wrote:

Did you even think for 2 seconds that Boston manages to do it every year? How do they manage it? Are you saying NY or Chicago isn't capable of it?

So you're really suggesting that everyone that runs a marathon needs to run a half BEFORE REGISTERING for a marathon? You really think there's no "harm" in that?

Considering all the whining about race costs it seems quite silly to think this is a "free" solution, or even remotely practical for more than a few races.

It's a solution for an imaginary "problem", which is really about people afraid their dick's going to fall off if they're on the same race course as a slow person.

So what is your 'line in the sand' for an acceptable marathon time to be allowed to enter into our prestigious, exclusive world 'o' running?

luv2run wrote:

I remember the comments by Grete Waitz when he "ran" NYCM with Fred Lebow and how tough it was to go that slow and the respect she gained for the people who are out there a long time.

If you are so gung ho for time standards and keeping marathons open to only the fastest, then you are free to start your own marathon. I am betting that the time standard will be 1 minute slower than what you can run for a marathon.

Not sure if you are addressing this to me as you seem to be in a real posting fit right now - To the point that you are referring to Grete Waitz as "he".

I am actually against walking divisions for any races regardless of distance. It is a running race. Pretty low down for a race director to suck out more cash and entry fees by creating a walking division. You and all the other "well just start your own marathon if you don't like it" debaters can go on over to LetsWalk.com

As to time standards. If I want to limit a run to sub 2:30 marathoners I'll just do it with my training partners so I don't have to hear you cry about being excluded.

So anything slower then 2:30 you consider "not fast enough"?

So what your saying is no walking in any race? Thats great they should have their own races. next you'll want them to have their own schools LOL