Marathon Conspiracy Theory

Several people (coaches, athletes, agents, race administrators, and myself) were involved with determining the configuration of the turns.

Regardless of payouts, we should always strive to provide athletes with the optimum racing conditions.

Most of the top courses I have designed and measured included input from similar groups.

and your final sentence! There isn't enough money on this planet to compromise the integrity of my measurements!

I do not believe there was any financial incentive for you. Your pay was the same no matter how fast the race was run.

Did Josh Cox make the same amount no matter how his athletes ran? This doesn’t mean anything shady happened but in a year of “optics” we know that he had a financial interest. He had no business being out on the course making alterations. Do agents do this at Boston or Chicago or New York? I seriously doubt it.

News flash-

The athletics community is a small family and any productive input is always welcome to help improve athlete's performances within the limits of the rules.

I guess you may have never been to a world class invitational track meet where the event organizers and agents/coaches work together all the time.

Explain to me.

I claimed that the optics of an agent that has athletes toeing the line altering the course is ripe for cheating.

Your explanation is that agents are influencers in major track meets. That is a ridiculous argument. You can’t alter the distance on a track.

My question was simple. Did josh Cox have anything to gain financially by the course running fast? The answer is YES. We all know that he was part of altering the course. I’m not saying anything was improper other than the optics.

Question #2 was do agents that have athletes in the field have input to course adjustments at Boston or Chicago or New York? The fact that you answered by telling me about track meets answers my question. HELL NO

There are many races and meets that have Agents serving as elite athlete coordinators., albeit, not the one's you mentioned.

No, it was the real deal, but the election was rigged just like Giuliani said it was.

They also have input in invitational road races as well. All of the top race directors and top meet directors are very much open to constructive input for their events. Everyone I know in the sport works to optimize everyone's performance....why wouldn't they?

I shared my experience. Your shared your opinion. Thank you for asking.

Lol, OP. Stop posting nonsense. Josh Cox, Ben Rosario, et al, organized an outstanding event. What have you contributed to the sport this year?

favorable lanes

pace setters

who's in races, who's not

direction of field events

height progressions

more....

follow the $$ wrote:

My question was simple. Did josh Cox have anything to gain financially by the course running fast? The answer is YES. We all know that he was part of altering the course. I’m not saying anything was improper other than the optics.

Yeah, Cox made the course a bit shorter so that his runners run a "faster" Marathon, so that he gets more money. What he didn't think about was, that a smart axx Letsrun poster found out about it.

That's how it all went down

or not.

No. I do not believe Josh Cox cheated as there are too many checks and balances in place. But yes Josh made a lot of money that day which makes it ridiculous to give him credit for the event. He created an event to get paid it was not about doing something positive for the sport.

I obviously did not run in the event as you will never find an athlete complain about a fast course. The CIM defenders are ridiculous. The same is true with Boston on a tailwind year.

Whilst I am always a fan of opinions/POVs against the status quo (which are always framed up as "conspiracy theories" in order to delegitimize them and keep said status quo), I'm trying to figure out what exactly the issue was.

What exactly would be the issue with trying to make the course faster? If turns were "softened" etc then I don't get it - wasn't that the point of the entire race/s?

If the course was made short you need some proof of this which you don't have - you can't just see snapshots of something on social media and make the declaration the course was made illegitimate. How do you know the course wasn't remeasured and found to be accurate? Again, you don't.

As for athletes making money from sponsors - were you a sponsor that had to "mega" $$$ to anyone? Then why would you care? Runners have the worst "difficulty of sport to compensation" ratio of any pro sport - there are slapd$ck NBA players that sit on benches and make 3 million dollars a year and you are worried that someone busting their a$$ running 140mpw chasing a marathon dream made 20k in a time bonus?

You are on the wrong website brother.

Although the Marathon Project website states that the course was measured and certified, I can not find any documentation on the USATF database for a certified course (of marathon distance or other) at that location.

https://certifiedroadraces.com/search/

Maybe USATF has not posted the approved details of the certified course yet???

The Marathon Project course map states the course is measured and certified via

https://themarathonproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Marathon-Project-2020.jpg

There was too much at stake here and the event too visible to believe the course was in any way short or inaccurate.

Almost all USATF course certifiers are runners themselves, and would understand the need to make turns as easy to navigate for runners as possible. There would be no issues with J. Cox or anyone else providing input into the configuration of the turns if this was done before the course was measured for certification.

Altering the turn configuration after the course was measured for certification is not allowed, and would be reason to question the accuracy of the course.

The OP states there were photos on social media showing turns being altered to make them as fast as possible. Where are these photos, and when were they taken?

The course was certified with World Athletics as required for qualification for the Olympic Games.

When I get some time I will share the entire measurement process for the Marathon Project.

On what date?

The statement that there may be modifications after certification is a huge flag that something fishy happened.

If a course is modified after certification then it must be recertified. The previous certification is no longer valid if changes are made. The is common knowledge to anyone involved in marathon certification. That’s why races that are accidentally shortened by the lead bike making a wrong turn at the start can’t just make it up at the end and claim an accurate course measurement.

Olympic marathon courses have a blue line painted on the pavement clearly showing the certified course. This prevents post certification modifications.

"living in the past"

As a sign of mutual respect to answer your inquiry, would you share your identify - name & email? Most on the forum know who I am.

Anything I post is purely to inform and share with others like myself who are passionate members of the athletics family.