WA has told me the Road to Paris list will come out next week.
I don't think the US has much to worry about. Rupp could easily get his WR up into the top 65 of that list with a halfway decent half marathon. I think Fauble will be in the top 65 when the list comes out.
If you throw out all the redundancies, an American man, not Mantz or Young, really only needs to be in the top 200. Kenya and Ethiopia are done after the top 10.
I am considering flying to Orlando and booking a hotel for the Trials. I can understand how the athletes feel but I would rather watch the race in person at noon than at 0700. They want people on the course watching then a later start is best. It will also simulate the Olympic marathon conditions somewhat. I hope it stays at noon, if not I can catch the results at home after a morning run.
Triathletes and fans of the sport don't care about time as much because time often gets thrown out of the window in garbage conditions. You race by effort & it's about winning/getting on the podium. People on LRC will not be happy if this race is in 80 degrees & the best our top-3 can do is 2:11-2:12. Pure running is about the clock, for the most part. I think course/conditions/competing should be more important but it isn't always.
The top-3 will have enough time to acclimate to Paris conditions & focus their training on those conditions after they make the team. When all of the best marathoners in the US get together on the same day, it would be nice to have cool weather & a fast/flat course. I never would have picked Orlando. I would rather see a bunch of sub-2:10s/2:25s & the 3 fastest make the team.
Oh I see. Others sports compete to win but marathoners only race for time so thats why they need perfect temps and course. No wonder we complain no one likes to watch our sport.
I mean, yes, & you could view that as a problem in our sport. In triathlon more races than not are in garbage conditions so times don't matter. In marathoning, everyone goes to the same handful of races to try to run fast. Record attempts and pacers are a given at a lot of races. World Athletics has pumped a lot into world records and record attempts. Do we care more about Jakob winning a race or setting a somewhat obscure world record? The focus is on the clock from the second the gun goes off. Marathoning is the same. Chicago was down to a 2 person race for both the men & the women pretty quickly with people finishing way behind to round out the top-5 & top-10. Until our focus changes, it makes sense that a bunch of athletes are upset about the start time. They've been told that running fast is all that matters. They've been told that >2:11 & 2:25 is slow. But now they're being told they have to run midday for tv coverage. It just doesn't make sense. By all means, go with the bootstraps stuff & say they're not being tough. I get that. But all the best marathoners in the US are lining up at the same time & want to run fast because they've been told that's what matters. USATF should listen to them over the tv stuff.
I am considering flying to Orlando and booking a hotel for the Trials. I can understand how the athletes feel but I would rather watch the race in person at noon than at 0700. They want people on the course watching then a later start is best. It will also simulate the Olympic marathon conditions somewhat. I hope it stays at noon, if not I can catch the results at home after a morning run.
It is great for all qualifiers to be in on the Meeting but if you are a 2:30 female or a 2:13 male just listen. DO NOT SPEAK. USATF did away with B qualifiers because they complained too much. If you have no chance to make the Olympic team then you are invited to someone else's party. You are a guest be happy for the invite.
I am considering flying to Orlando and booking a hotel for the Trials. I can understand how the athletes feel but I would rather watch the race in person at noon than at 0700. They want people on the course watching then a later start is best. It will also simulate the Olympic marathon conditions somewhat. I hope it stays at noon, if not I can catch the results at home after a morning run.
I guess you'll never get to watch a Marathon Major live cuz you're too lazy to get up.
And do you look around for marathons you want to run for one that starts at noon?
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Why are ya'll even discussing this? Shouldn't it be obvious that the starting time and conditions should be the same, or as close to the same as possible, to what awaits in Paris?
What's next? BQ qualifiers shortened a mile or two as to make the target times more comfy?
nonsense about the "fat cats" caring about TV ratings. Who do you think is paying the athletes? If sponsors and media aren't happy then NO ONE gets paid.
As for "health concerns", these are highly trained people who will be FINE. the times just might be slower. Boo hoo. It's a race. Competition is competition, you're all competing in the same conditions. Adapt or die.
A decent portion of marathons do start at 6:30 or 7:00 am. A noon start could potentially mean, if the heat is around 75-77 degrees, which is possible in February in Orlando, that one or two of the top finishers could miss the A standard if they don't have it already. Noon is a ridiculous marathon time.
Everyone keeps worrying about the Olympic standard. Nobody needs to hit the Olympic standard at Trials. We already have over ten women with the Olympic "A" standard. We have two men that have hit the time standard, plus Fauble and Rupp are currently 40th and 48th in the rankings - anything in the top 65 is equivalent to the "A" standard, and it's unlikely they'll fall out of the top 65 by January. Ergo, we've unlocked all six of our Olympic Marathon spots and we can send whoever places at Trials as long as they've got the "B" standard.
So what if Mantz and Young don't finish in the top 3 and the top 3 don't meet the O standard and never did??
The sun in Orlando is far more direct than in the northern latitudes of Paris, so even if the temperature were the same it would be no fun at noon in Orlando. Virtually no one tries to run after ten a.m. in Florida.
Is there a way to measure how 'direct' sunlight is on a given day?
On February 3, 2024 (date of Trials), there will be 10 hrs 53 minutes of sunlight in Orlando. On August 14, 2024 (Olympic marathon), there will be 14 hours and 36 hours of sunlight in Paris.
Does that stat disprove what you are saying?
I don't think that disproves his statement. You have to remember that Paris is basically at the same latitude as Vancouver. It is further north than NYC, Boston, & Montreal. So even though there are more hours of daylight, the Sun hits Paris at a different angle than it hits Orlando.
I don't think we'll have a repeat of the 2000 trials when we only sent one to the Olympics despite having 2 with the A standard.
Given the possible weather, it is entirely possible we'll have somebody finish top 3 but be outside the min olympic qualifications (2:11:30 ?). The assumption spots will roll down to next finisher with the min qualifying, but I don't think USATF has yet made explicitly clear what the selection process is. Thought I heard during the Chicago broadcast Ed Eyestone asked and still didn't get confirmation.
The Time of the Day that is coolest is best, We still need 1 more person to hit the Standard, and hopefully more, give them the best chance to run fast, and hopefully the top 3 go under The Standard AT THE TRIALS, so there is no confusion about who is on the team, as soon as the race is over. (Unlikely I know)
Naw WE may want that, but we don't need it. Does it really benefit the sport domestically at all to send someone else to finish well outside the top 30? I can tell you this, while some of those signatories might have a shot at merely making the team under ideal conditions, none have a snowball's chance in hell of making the podium in Paris, or even the top 10. So why would organizers cater anything to them? Their overriding concern is DNFing at the OT and missing a sponsor bonus. Full stop.
If no one watches a race because it's on at 6am ET, does it actually count? These "pros" complaining about the heat won't make the Olympic Team anyway. They are to weak in the head.