Quite a good comparison, less than 4% of all golfers will ever break 80 and about 3.5% of male marathon finishers break 3 hours
I'll quibble with this slightly. Keep in mind they get that stat from golfers that keep a handicap. By definition they're far more serious than the average golfer. So overall the number that break 80 is a lot less than 4%. Just think about that for a second. On average 1 out of 25 golfers coming through the 18th hole at the local muni broke 80? I don't think so.
So I'd say the comparison between the two is closer to mid 80's. Maybe even 90 if you used slope/rating to standardize the scores of the people playing from 6000 yards on a dog track every weekend.
Discus? Well if we think logically about this the world record for the marathon is 2:00:35. That is roughly about 67% of 3:00:00. The world record for the discus is 74.35 meters. If we apply that same percentage to the discus we would get a throw of around 49.8 meters. There are other factors, I’m sure, but this would probably be a good starting point.
Did you have any other throwing events that you wanted to compare to a 3 hour marathon other than the discus? Shot put? Javelin? Hammer? What about other track & field events? Just use that 67% factor and you’ll get a rough idea.
Quite a good comparison, less than 4% of all golfers will ever break 80 and about 3.5% of male marathon finishers break 3 hours
I'll quibble with this slightly. Keep in mind they get that stat from golfers that keep a handicap. By definition they're far more serious than the average golfer. So overall the number that break 80 is a lot less than 4%. Just think about that for a second. On average 1 out of 25 golfers coming through the 18th hole at the local muni broke 80? I don't think so.
So I'd say the comparison between the two is closer to mid 80's. Maybe even 90 if you used slope/rating to standardize the scores of the people playing from 6000 yards on a dog track every weekend.
Yeah but people run 0-2 marathons a year usually, while serious golfers play dozens of rounds. If you adjust it to "have broken 80 in the last 6 months of playing" then it's more directly comparable to marathon running
Are you biking this century by yourself or in a pack?
Riding a century under 4 hours by yourself is about like running a 2:20 marathon.
Riding a century under 4 hours in a pack on a flat course is probably easier than running a 3 hour marathon.
Not true. A sub 4 century on any normal road course is not easy, peloton or no peloton. Id rate it more like a 2:35 marathon. Yeah you could concoct some scenario where you ride the entire time in the draft on new asphalt on a Nascar racetrack and then you could probably do 100 miles in 4 hrs averaging under 200 watts but that's just not how cycling works in the real world.
Also 4 hrs by yourself on a roadbike solo is more like a 2:12 marathon.
That is why I said a FLAT course regarding the cycling event. Maybe I should have said drafting a flat course with a strong tailwind the whole way.
The point is that the difficulty of a century on a bike can be wildly variable. Probably more so than the difficulty of any road marathon course.
Discus? Well if we think logically about this the world record for the marathon is 2:00:35. That is roughly about 67% of 3:00:00. The world record for the discus is 74.35 meters. If we apply that same percentage to the discus we would get a throw of around 49.8 meters. There are other factors, I’m sure, but this would probably be a good starting point.
Did you have any other throwing events that you wanted to compare to a 3 hour marathon other than the discus? Shot put? Javelin? Hammer? What about other track & field events? Just use that 67% factor and you’ll get a rough idea.
You must be new on Letsrun.
Nope, not new. I’ve lurked here for years. I just happen to think that “discus” is trite and not even the least bit funny.
If that is the sort of lame humor you like, have at it.
Purdy points has a 2:59 marathon equivalent to around 5:20 in the mile and 18:20 in the 5k, so going off of how competitive those times are in high school, I'd say it's roughly equivalent to 1) scoring 3-4 points per game coming off the bench in a rec basketball league with players as good as varsity high schoolers, 2) scoring 10-12 points per game in a rec league with players as good as JV high schooler, or 3) dropping ~20+ points per game in a league of players who never played at a competitive level.
3 is such a good, round, number that people intentionally target. A lot of other sports don't have the opportunities to compete past high school/college in the same way as an amateur. Triathlon is an obvious comp but distances tend to not be exact. You could put out 4:30 & 5:00 on 2 different days on 2 different courses in a 70.3 & finish in the same place against the same field. Sub-3 is where the pointy end BQ was for a bit so it's similar to the fastest age groups that can qualify for 70.3 Worlds imo. Times would range from sub-4:30 to 5ish. It's not a 1:1 to just say a time but sub-4:30 on a decently fast course would be ~right.
Swim in the low-30s or sub-30/bike sub-2:30/run anywhere from sub-1:30 into the 1:30s = ~same amount of talent as a 3hr marathoner in triathlon.
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