Why is Boston a World Marathon Major?

ScottEvil wrote:

You're underselling how strange it is for a 38 year old to beat a bunch of much faster runners in their primes.

So how did they stage Meb running a 30 second PB at that age?

ScottEvil wrote:

3) Lagat and Collins have the PBs to back it up.

Meb is an Olympic silver medalist and NY marathon winner. To imply that he's some also-ran makes you sound like an ignorant goon.

Get educated.

Boston just seems weak becasue

-Rojo

Telling someone to get educated...then you misspell "because"!

Step it up!

Because the weather was perfect for anyone who came to run a fast time. It just so happens the men (save Meb) didn't show up.

The women on the other hand:

Even Joanie took advantage of the great conditions, becoming the fastest 56-year-old woman in history with her time of 2:52:11.

1runnerboy wrote:

How is it Boston is a world marathon major event? Paris, Rotterdam, Seoul and several others have far more competitive fields and depth of top finishing times, both men and woman. Wind aided times are not recognized as world best, of which Mutai's 2011 win in 2:03.

Being a WWM has more to do with prestige, which make's Boston arguably the greatest marathon in the world. Someone can create a marathon tomorrow, in a resort area, completely flat, tons of pacers, with low entry fees, no cut off time, large beautiful participation medals, with Exxon Mobil as a sponsor, pay high appearance fees and boat loads of prize money and by your standard we can create a WWMs practically overnight. Btw, in terms of elite depth Boston does a good job.

Ah, this thread is either loaded with trolls or getting super silly. 1. The marathon is indeed a race of the "mind" as well as the body. Meb ran smart. And still barely got away with it. 2. Ummm, you mean the Rita Jeptoo who has been outed as a drug cheat? Oh, and her training partner ran well? Hmmm. This in a race paced by Shalane, so really off the normal charts for how the women's race goes in Boston. 3. And Joanie, Joanie tends to own the fastest time for a woman her age every time she runs a marathon, so that is an invalid valid point. :-) Knew her eons ago and it's no surprise she is timeless. That's like saying hey, it must have been perfect weather, Ed Whitlock ran the fastest time for a man his age. What a shocker!4. Meb ran smart. He peaked on a good day in good conditions, with lots of motivation (the bombing, his age, Nike seemingly writing him off) and he got lucky (others not attentive until it was too late and thus not running smart with a marathon mind). Meb's silver proved he is a racer more than a time trial runner. Which is what makes me respect him as much as I do.

ScottEvil wrote:

Adjudicating between these stories is tough. Evidence for the fixed story, to me, is how improbable that an American wins a competitive marathon and how disneyesque it seems that it happened the year after the bombing. Evidence against is how freaking hard it is to coordinate a conspiracy like this and how there's usually at least one pair of loose lips.

There is nothing to "adjudicate" as there is no evidence the fix was in. People keep writing this crap and saying things like Meb's win is questionable because it was "disneyesque," which strikes me as laughable. If the BAA and John Hancock were going to buy a Disney ending, wouldn't they have arranged for a win by the white, blonde, Massachusetts native who had been pumped up on 60 Minutes, rather than the 38-year-old immigrant with a funny name?

Look at the pre-race press release. They promote Flanagan as a favorite to win and drop a mention of Meb in with the rest of the also-ran Americans.

How could they plausibly imagine that the plan you describe would work? Meb went to the front in New York in 2013 and limped home to a 2:23. Were the Kenyans supposed to start jogging if he slowed down? Why risk telling 10-15 athletes you are going to engage in a conspiracy? Why spend tens of thousands of dollars to have Dennis Kimmetto to join the race fresh off his 2:03:45 course record in Chicago and then offer him $100,000 to lose? Where is this $1.5 million in bribes coming from in a race that clearly has less money available than London? if they'd been told to "make it look believable" why would Chebet surge to just 8 seconds back before fading?

The idea of that specific race being fixed on behalf of Meb on the off chance that he would run a PB at age 38 is beyond absurd.

Meb ran smart, the other men didn't, and therefore Meb was lucky. I think we can all agree on that. Meb was also lucky in his competition since he was by far the most veteran BAA runner there that day. The poher guys didn't know the course like he did. The guy who almost caught Meb was incredibly fit- he split 30-35k in 14:57 to Meb's 15:27, and the next downhill 5k in 14:29 to Meb's 15:12. He was 1:21 behind Meb at 30K!

2014 was a day when age and experience beat youth.

lotsa1%ers wrote:

$$$

Wrong!

$,$$$,$$$s is the right answer.