McKirdy MicrOTQ Marathon

29:35 vs 29:11 wrote:

Saltyslowdumb wrote:

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

It's not like you're talking about going from 2:04 to 2:02 or 2:02 to 2:00...2:16 is still a very respectable time but – via WA points – 2:18 is the equivalent of 29:35 10000; 2:16 is 29:11. That is an easy improvement to make.
If anything, having the time faster will mean people train for 2:15 instead of 2:17. Much of it is a mental block anyway.

saltyslowdumber wrote:

29:35 vs 29:11 wrote:

It's not like you're talking about going from 2:04 to 2:02 or 2:02 to 2:00...2:16 is still a very respectable time but – via WA points – 2:18 is the equivalent of 29:35 10000; 2:16 is 29:11. That is an easy improvement to make.
If anything, having the time faster will mean people train for 2:15 instead of 2:17. Much of it is a mental block anyway.

Have you improved from 29:35 to 29:11? That's 4:46 to 4:42 pace

Have you improved from 2:18 to 2:16? That's 5:16 to 5:11 pace. Those conversions seem weird to me too.

If you've already been training pretty hard those are quite large PRs. Certainly not unheard of, but still quite large improvements. Not easy if you're already well trained. Which, I would argue, most people chasing an OTQ are. I'd bet the vast majority are guys who ran competitively in college, switched to the roads after graduating, and then moved up to the marathon after two years. Most of the people who ran the standard at McKirdy seemed to be around 26 years old and followed that trajectory.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who can realistically run the standard. You'd want to do it as early as possible. It removes the stress, because you know you have two more full blocks to do it if something goes sideways.

The people who will qualify later likely fall into two groups: Those with the ability who are currently injured, and those who are really close but need to find a little more fitness. Given how big of a PR 2 minutes is at this level, I just don't see a world where there are two hundred people who fall into those categories. But again we will see. We can complain about large fields when there are actually large fields

different situation wrote:

saltyslowdumber wrote:

Have you improved from 29:35 to 29:11? That's 4:46 to 4:42 pace

Have you improved from 2:18 to 2:16? That's 5:16 to 5:11 pace. Those conversions seem weird to me too.

If you've already been training pretty hard those are quite large PRs. Certainly not unheard of, but still quite large improvements. Not easy if you're already well trained. Which, I would argue, most people chasing an OTQ are. I'd bet the vast majority are guys who ran competitively in college, switched to the roads after graduating, and then moved up to the marathon after two years. Most of the people who ran the standard at McKirdy seemed to be around 26 years old and followed that trajectory.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who can realistically run the standard. You'd want to do it as early as possible. It removes the stress, because you know you have two more full blocks to do it if something goes sideways.

The people who will qualify later likely fall into two groups: Those with the ability who are currently injured, and those who are really close but need to find a little more fitness. Given how big of a PR 2 minutes is at this level, I just don't see a world where there are two hundred people who fall into those categories. But again we will see. We can complain about large fields when there are actually large fields

Those are not "quite large PRs" at all. Better weather or a race with more competition can make up more than 25 seconds in a 10k or 2 min in a marathon, without even a little bit of an improvement in fitness.