McKirdy MicrOTQ Marathon

If you want to make the trials sustainable, there should be a mass participation race behind it. (Both bids get close to that with a mass race the next day). As for why there are so many qualifiers, it's not the McKirdy and Marathon project. Most of those qualifiers came from CIM, which 1. Had perfect weather. 2. Had a lot of people wearing the PUMA Fast-R. Those things are like the Vaporfly back in the day, worth a good four seconds a mile, which makes a difference at those margins. And to those saying well it cheapens to accomplishment, you have to have elite calves to last a marathon is those things.

Also CIM is a net downhill course unlike McKirdy and the Marathon Project. Obviously only a hand full of pros will have a shot making it to the OT but people forget the host city and USATF need as many runners as feasible to make the trials a profitable event.

As pointed out people are front-loading their OTQs, so there won't be THAT many more qualifiers. There are numerous examples of athletes who squeak into the Marathon Trials, and they manage to pull off a miraculous race and qualify for the team or finish in the top five or six. Pretty inspiring stuff - grows the sport.

Without a quality and larger field of runners plus their supporters, families, local press coverage of the local hero qualifying for the OTQ, there is little to no promotion. No city will generously outlay the hundreds of thousands of dollars to host a USATF event without some solid revenue generation. And many very good post-collegiate runners will simply give up running and leave the sport because there is simply no carrot.

You lack vision.

As for the Garmin whiner, did you wear your watch on your inside or outside wrist? You should know from loop workouts that factor alone can render a different distance measurement.

I wore my watch on my outside arm (left), but the course had a few left turns; it’s not like going clockwise on a track with all right turns. I’m not whining; that’s exactly why course certifications are not based on GPS, because it’s not precise. And for the record, it wasn’t a Garmin!

I coach a 2:15 guy that has qualified for the trials a couple of times. He did not run in this race, but I can tell you that the big marathons in the USA (Chicago, Boston, New York) won't even give him a bib number, much less an elite start or personal bottles. So this race is exactly what those people need to have a chance to run well with some course support, while not having to take out a loan just to compete in a fast race overseas.

I also coached a guy that ran the this course years back who has competed in all of the global marathon championships in his career. He liked the set-up and simplicity of the course and aid stations, parking and start. The logistics were athlete-friendly (and weather permitting) and an opportunity to run a quality time. It served it's purpose. It would be similar to the Marathon Project in Arizona.

To each their own.

The number of qualifiers will at least double, and likely triple. The MicrOTQ is going to be a much bigger race in 2027, that's a fact.

There's a high likelihood that the USA Men's Olympic Team is set in stone before the Trials race even starts because less than 3 people are going to hit the Olympic Standard. That means the entire race is pointless.

USA should select their team based on how people place at World Majors against top international competition. Get rid of the Marathon Olympic Trials.

Not going to happen. The marathon trials is the quintessential event in American athletics. It is THE super bowl of distance running. Want to get selected based on ranking? Move to Cyprus or find a Greek ancestor.

65 men qualified last cycle with a time 2:16 or under. I think it’s unrealistic that over 340 men qualify this cycle with a time that is two minutes faster. But that’s just me and time will tell.

I started training because I like running and was moderately okay at it in the past. I really got serious when I realized I could maybe, just maybe qualify for the Olympic trials. I punched my ticket at McKirdy last week.

I can tell you I wouldn’t be running these times without this goal. Period. It’s a massive motivator. There are many like me. A good many of them won’t make it. I’ve had more than five people reach out saying they have the same goal, and if I’m being honest I think only one of them has a chance. It’s awesome they’re putting themselves out there and trying.

As for the course discourse, I’m very confident I could have run 45 seconds faster at CIM. Their cutoff for bottles this year is 2:20 and they’ll certainly have some big name pacing a 2:15-2:16 crew. Don’t know much about grandmas but likely a similar deal. Neither are record eligible courses like McKirdy is. Both have time trial sequences setups for OTQ hopefuls.

And none of this matters because the committee says it’s okay, haters be damned

So quintessential that no cities ever want to host it and the ones that do host lose millions of dollars.

Well nearly double that have already qualified for 2028 within the first 7 months of the window, with likely 20 months left in the window.

With significant advances in shoes, fueling, bicarb, and training, 2:16 is not very hard nor impressive.

Posts like these should require a Strava profile link, so we can laugh at your insane projection

Shoe technology is saving 10+ minutes per marathon.

5:34 pace to 5:11 pace, only difference is shoes! Unreal cope my friend

Are there really? Can you give a couple of examples? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not aware of people making the team, at least recently, who "squeaked" into the Trials.

I do agree that having a fairly large number of qualifiers at the Trials is good for the sport, even if most of those folks have almost zero chance of making the team.

I'm not that poster but here are some examples:

2020 Makenna Myler finished 7th in a big pr after running 2:32 at a McKirdy race. Her debut and previous pr was in the 2:40s.

2012 Ricky Flynn finished 13th after running a half in the 1:04's - he was a d3 stand out but wouldn't have had a pro career without that race.

2024 - Jonas Hampton was 8 after running 2:14 in Chicago. Though he did beat some big names in that Chicago race. Not exactly squeaking in, but he'd only broken 2:20 twice at the time.

None of those validate that guy's claim of top 6 though.

And a woman who ran 2:32 didn't "squeak" into the Trials either.

Apparently reading comprehension is lacking here.

I have now said multiple times that I have no issue with this race conceptually or in practice as far as the actual OTQ crowd goes. They deserve their shot if they can't close the deal in a real race.

My issue is mainly with people who are not REMOTELY close to the OTQ using the event as a cheap way to get an impressive looking PR that they would not be able to run under "real" race conditions. i.e. getting sub-2:30 but you had an official pacer, bottles, a gimmicky loop course a la Kipchoge's first breaking-2 attempt, and a large pack to run with that you'd get virtually nowhere else in any other race. In other words, laaaaame.

And no I am not from those areas.

Is this concept difficult to grasp?

So, is CIM a real race for your standards then? I would argue it’s easier to get a better time at CIM compared to McKirdy.

You are of course entitled to your opinion. But, in my opinion, these kind of events feel more like a "real" race than a marathon like New York on London. The runners in these events are there just to compete and do their best. I like the marathon majors and would like to do more of them, but they are very expensive and many of the participants are there primarily for the experience of seeing the city and just happy to be a finisher and that's who those races cater to. Which I think is totally fine, but it's also nice to be at a race where everyone is equally serious about the "racing" part. I've found events like this to feel more like what I remember being at a college XC or track meet to feel like.