Very excited for McClain and Talbi to each get the top American spots. Both are very fun athletes to root for, especially Jess after all she's been through. What a phenomenal close getting that 5th place right at the end.
It’s an amazing run - but bear in mind it’s also 22.7 > 24.8 - which has a substantial downward incline for most of that entire length. Add in a direct tailwind and the buildings creating a wind tunnel. I’ll bet most people running down Beacon today who have run in the past will say it was like you were being carried compared to other years.
O’Keefe running in the Olympics really annoyed me but she won me back as a fan when she was so gutsy in NYC and clawed back time after time. Hopefully she figures out how to be a little more durable with training so she stops getting injured.
Fwiw big downhill section + the tailwind. It's still crazy fast & people can interpret that however they like, but to the is Boston a fast course conversation -- yes, when the stars align. 2011 + 2026 are the 2 best years in the last 15 years. 2026 you get good conditions + super shoes. Boston is generally slower than a flat major due to late start time, logistics, lack of pacers, and, oftentimes, sub-par weather. It's a flyer when cool & the wind isn't hurting. That doesn't happen too much where you can just lock into whatever you trained for on this course. Going to see lots of PBs for amateur runners &, honestly, whatever, because people running Boston most years aren't running to potential & might have weaker PBs due to that.
I think that last part is an odd take. I thought that I had seen data that most people don't run as well at Boston as they did to get there. They run the BQ at a flat, faster race with even splits or even negative and then take that into a notoriously difficult course with variable weather and generally don't beat their seed time.
Fwiw big downhill section + the tailwind. It's still crazy fast & people can interpret that however they like, but to the is Boston a fast course conversation -- yes, when the stars align. 2011 + 2026 are the 2 best years in the last 15 years. 2026 you get good conditions + super shoes. Boston is generally slower than a flat major due to late start time, logistics, lack of pacers, and, oftentimes, sub-par weather. It's a flyer when cool & the wind isn't hurting. That doesn't happen too much where you can just lock into whatever you trained for on this course. Going to see lots of PBs for amateur runners &, honestly, whatever, because people running Boston most years aren't running to potential & might have weaker PBs due to that.
I think that last part is an odd take. I thought that I had seen data that most people don't run as well at Boston as they did to get there. They run the BQ at a flat, faster race with even splits or even negative and then take that into a notoriously difficult course with variable weather and generally don't beat their seed time.
Boston is a victory lap for a lot of qualifiers. They pushed and sacrificed to PB in order to qualify and that was their peak.
Jess McClain has arguably one of the most frustrating career stories. 4th at trials and healthy in Paris only to sit out so O’Keefe could limp over the start line to have Olympian attached to her name. Led off course and missed getting much deserved credit for crushing US half marathon champs. Today running a stellar marathon only to get her doors blown off by finishes “too good to be true”. The fact that she still keeps showing up and being consistently awesome is a testament to her character. She has had to absorb some disheartening circumstances.
Yeah, I don't blame her for keeping her day job. She's got real grit.
She has a job at a “foundation” when I last checked. Not a real job.
Fwiw big downhill section + the tailwind. It's still crazy fast & people can interpret that however they like, but to the is Boston a fast course conversation -- yes, when the stars align. 2011 + 2026 are the 2 best years in the last 15 years. 2026 you get good conditions + super shoes. Boston is generally slower than a flat major due to late start time, logistics, lack of pacers, and, oftentimes, sub-par weather. It's a flyer when cool & the wind isn't hurting. That doesn't happen too much where you can just lock into whatever you trained for on this course. Going to see lots of PBs for amateur runners &, honestly, whatever, because people running Boston most years aren't running to potential & might have weaker PBs due to that.
Yep, all that. Lack of pacemakers leading the fields through ideal splits for each section of the course has far more effect than many here understand or acknowledge.
Looking at Clayton Young's time this year vs last year gives you an idea of the conditions boost. 1:23 faster and last year he was probably in a little better shape So course was around 1:30-2:00 faster?
Lokedi's best 5K on the track is 15:13 indoors at Boston in 2020. She ran a 14:48 5K at the end of a freaking marathon today.
Why is this difficult for people to figure out ? 5000m on the track is no longer lucrative. There is no incentive to run on the track anymore or train for train for track events. The last time Lokedi set her record was in 2019 or 2020
Anyone catch Laura offer in the results? Formerly Laura Ziegler. 2:37 and change. Haven’t seen her name pop up since university of Colorado days. Not a bad comeback for being in her 40s…
It's not eligible for any records no matter what. And if you've ever been to Chicago you know how the wind is there.
I've run Chicago once and Boston 5 times. Boston is not easy at all. I'm not saying it should count as a record but like I said, the times are more comparable than you think other than maybe the tailwind today. There's a reason why Boston has much slower times on average than flat courses.
Boston is a relatively net downhill course. The reason so many runners think it is hard is because you haven't trained for the downhills. My training partner ran Boston once and said it was easy compared to our usual marathons in the west, but he was well trained for the downhills.
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