Return of the Marathon Project

You're kidding, right? You don't know how this works at all. It's 1000 people with pace groups on a 4.26 mile loop. There's a sub-2:45 (men) and sub-3:15 (women) guaranteed entry standard. Any non-qualifier runners come from a descending order list. There should be little if any overlap occurring in the citizens race.

Right...and what do you expect will happen if, as one could expect in a race where the primary appeal is running fast for an amateur, all 1000 of those people are clustered in a similar pace range to each other?

The way it reads on the website plainly says it's the 1000 fastest entries, not just someone that wants to pay the fee.

Personally, no interest in the amateur event but I'll definitely drive over to spectate the pro event when this happens.

Don't totally disagree but weather can be an issue at all of those races minus Indy. The southwest is pretty reliable in being cool & not humid in December. Seems pretty ideal. Anything geared towards developing US talent should feel like a win. Plus this race will put in some real money that some of these races could do a little more of.

I've been pitching something sub-elite geared for years. This seems great but would like more info. It's hard for non-elites to get the elite treatment. I think there are a lot of people who would like the idea of going for a PB with like minded athletes on a (record legal) loop course with frequent aid stations & opportunities to see family. I do think what they've outlined does go well past what happens to sub-2:45/3:10 types at majors. NYC puts police/fire runners at the front of wave 1. Chicago has a huge range of paces in its front corrals. Boston is good but the start is super narrow and it takes a few miles to spread out. This is a chance to just focus on the race. The pre race logistics won't be bad at all compared to getting to a major city start line & unnecessarily stressing out pre-race.

The people racing on Saturday will stick around to watch the pros on Sunday. Would almost want to see them go with slightly softer standards if they don't think they can fill 1k off of Sub-2:45/3:10 & sub-1:17:30/1:30. Dk who is signing up & then waiting to see if they're in.

Odds are they won't be there's no good reason to expect that. It's 500 men and 500 women and there will be natural separation within those groups. I'd expect the highest plurality of entries will be clustered around the OT marks and 10' slower, but there will certainly be a variety there given the price and being a new event in the fall calendar near the dates of CIM and Houston.

The $500 price tag, while not great, is hopefully going to help a lot of elite athletes get paid & still costs way less than some other endurance events out there like Ironman. For the $$$, I would want the Gold Wave Marathon to start earlier. Everything stated is geared towards helping sub-elites run fast. Don't understand the 5k going first & starting 70min later than the pro marathon the next day. I get that they want the 5k runners in & out but now you're sacrificing a good running hour plus.

What does his wife do w/Hoka? Can she help promote the race?

Post of the day. Good to see reddit pick up on it too, they have a good running subreddit.

Reactions to The Marathon Project Return

Mantz / Young: I don’t care

2:09 guy: This could be fun if the incentives are worth it. Boston and NYC don’t allow me to run a world class time and Chicago is hit or miss with poor organizational skills for elites.

2:12 - 2:17 guy: A race that I know I will get into, don’t have to play with elite field politics, and can get a pace group that suits me.

Say what you want about Rosario. Of course there is money to be made. But I think most of us that care enough to read this thread are tired of the influencers and BS that is increasingly being found in the majors. This is a good thing.

Absolutely NOT

Why are you saying it's outside the OTQ window? For 2016 the window opened 8/1/13. & for 2020 the window opened 9/1/17. I would assume Ben Rosario is in contact with USATF & planned the race accordingly.

Why are you saying it's outside the OTQ window? For 2016 the window opened 8/1/13. & for 2020 the window opened 9/1/17. I would assume Ben Rosario is in contact with USATF & planned the race accordingly.

you're assuming usatf is smart enough to realize this. i agree with ur take tho

That's if there will be an OTM for 2028. Considering that World Athletics wants to have 30% qualify by a standard and 70% by rankings there's a good chance that the USA may not have any men hitting the time standard thereby making a OTM somewhat irrelevant months before the rankings period closes. Regardless, having domestic races where runners can get fast times is a good thing.

Ben Rosario yesterday on X:
“THANKS SO MUCH to all of you who registered for The
@MarathonProj yesterday!! We were overwhelmed by the response. Sign-ups from 5 different countries!! Fastest entry 2:07!! We even received volunteer and pacer applications already!!”

USATF & USOPC will want every opportunity to market the LA games. I could see them finding a way to sneak it into or shove it onto LA if they have no better viable bids. They'll run the course right down the goddam Venice beach boardwalk if that's what it takes.

Everyone knows sub elites want a fast American spring race. In fact you can search LRC and find several threads of people asking what they should run in the spring to OTQ and it’s just like.. roll the dice that Boston has a tailwind, do grandmas in June, and other random not-great suggestions like Eugene.

Why is this sandwiched between CIM and Houston? And as close to Christmas as possible?

IMO put it in March or April. Start it at 7am to help keep it cool.

As a NorCal guy and a father of young kids, I’m doing CIM and family Christmas stuff the weekend before Christmas. And if I’m really gunning for a PR then I’ll tack on Houston before I take a full recovery and start a new buildup.

a march or april would be ideal

April can be too warm in the Phoenix valley.