The marathon distance makes no sense and needs to be changed

Marathon distance is the only one that makes sense.

The other races should be as follows:

5001 meter track

4993 xc

1567 meters

9998 meters

874 meters

3003 meter flat

3012 meter steeple

You're welcome.

For the next few Olympics, the length of the marathon remained close to 25 miles, but at the 1908 Games in London the course was extended, allegedly to accommodate the British royal family. As the story goes, Queen Alexandra requested that the race start on the lawn of Windsor Castle (so the littlest royals could watch from the window of their nursery, according to some accounts) and finish in front of the royal box at the Olympic stadium—a distance that happened to be 26.2 miles (26 miles and 385 yards). The random boost in mileage ending up sticking, and in 1921 the length for a marathon was formally standardized at 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers).

From History.com article title “Why is a marathon 26.2 miles?”

Uh, it's not 26.2 miles. I have talked to lots of joggers in my town who run the 5K "marathon" every year over the July 4th holiday.

OP is a 3:10 marathoner who wants to achieve sub-3 by shortening the distance.

Make it a nice round number like all of the other race distances. Either exactly 40 km or exactly 25 miles. Both are better approximations of the actual distance from Marathon to Athens, and you'd see a lot more sub 2s.

Bro he is so right. We should also change the mile race to 1500m so we will see more sub 4s. This guy is on some ground breaking stuff ?.

But I bet none of you have a beef with the popularity of 1600 and 3200m. WA doesn't recognize either. Neither does USATF. T&FN admits these are not standard distances for which records are kept. None of you can quote a World or National Record for either. They are non-events.

Yet, message board posters continuously drone on about training for and racing these distances. Some even state PRs. Defenders get on threads about such things vigorously defending the existence of races of these distances. Some even claim they are legitimate events for which records are kept.

Here's the deal. I watch quite a bit of track. I've never in person nor on TV seen a race of either of these distances. Jim Ryan could be considered to be both the greatest American runner and the greatest high school runner ever. He never raced over either of these distances. Neither did Pre. Ditto Rupp.

At least the marathon is universally recognized by all the authorities cited above. The distance is standard. Records are kept for it.

I'd say Jim Ryun was a great runner.

I would prefer US run 1500 m and 3000m, but you know what, my being upset is not going to change anything. It is a vestige of the move from Imperial to metric for track in the US. Heck, I'm thrilled all the distances are in meters!

The distance makes sense to me. It is exactly one marathon unit in distance.

Well considering the marathon at that distance has been around for a long, long time I am willing to grandfather it in.

Also, learn the history of the sport.

Why is a meter a meter? Makes no sense. Why is a foot 12 inches? Every single distance AND unit of measurement is arbitrary. Your argument is pointless.

End the madness wrote:

It makes zero sense. Who the hell thought up of 42.195 km or 26.21876 miles? It's not the exact distance that Pheidippides ran,

I know googling is hard, but how can you know of Pheidippes and not know the story of the marathon distance? Good thing garmin235 did your googling for you.

btw, google Pheidippedes, his story is probably not what you think either.

We should make the marathon 20 miles so I can break two!!!! Please??? That would be so cool for me to break the world record

/s

The marathon was 40 km in the 1896 Olympics, 40.26 km in 1900, 40 km again in 1904, and 41.86 km in the 1906 Games. It went to today's 42.195 km in 1908 before going back to 40.2 in 1912 and 42.75 in 1920.

What's so standard about that? It's as if a "5K" were really 5026m in 2004, 4899m in 2008, 4965m in 2012, 5030m in 2016, and 4976m in 2020/2021. At least the 1600m and the 3200m don't change.

It's a nice round 26 miles and 385 yards.

I blame the king.

Tally ho;

bow to your monarchist overlords.

what?

When a physical activity has rules applied it becomes a sport and a sport is a game.

Since we were kids we came up with rules for our games - the winner is the first one to run to the street corner and back.

Rules are there for safety, fair play, records, reduce chaos and the marketing of our sport.

Why not change the height of a basketball hoop to 9 feet then more people could dunk? Or mandate that home run walls should be 250 feet from home plate so there would be more home runs. Let's make goal posts wider, etc..

The marathon distance is quirky but it's a distance that has been accepted for decades and millions of people around the world have accepted and comprehend. It is unique and has a story behind it. But what about that mile (1609.344m) thing that most of the world doesn't understand ?

Change is good if it truly improves the sport, but I like the distance just the way it is for now.

If you are serious about changing something in sports that makes sense change the title of our major league baseball championship - The World Series!

fyi - If a marathon is measured correctly it is not 42195, it would be 42237m!

Technology makes the marathon distance subjectively shorter than before.

The marathon distance can stay, but the 50km could be promoted as the new standard.

Else we will have:

- more and more marathons decided in the last km (more Dubai style than Wanjiru-Kebede style)

- the same split we already know from track between racers and time trial specialists

- more and more lazy runners breaking 3.

an obvious answer wrote:

Why is a meter a meter? Makes no sense. Why is a foot 12 inches? Every single distance AND unit of measurement is arbitrary. Your argument is pointless.

This is flatly wrong. Not every unit of measurement is arbitrary. see

Many are based on physical constants like the speed of lights, Planck constant, etc

Now the marathon and Smoot's and the Foot i'll agree, those are pretty arbitrary...

Everything should be measured in Smoots!