Becoming a 6-star WMM finisher--is it worth it?

Hobby-jogger medalist!

(seriously, has any elite finished them all?)

im close friends with a girl who did this by the age of 30 or something like that. It is stupid to me, but it means the world to her.

She has gotten a lot of great trips out of it though, and returns to most of the places more than once. ALways schedule the trip to go for at least a week after the race.

If you are in the US, this is no problem. half of the races are here, and require no more than a day or two off from work. The other races will be done over a period of a few years, so taking two weeks for each of those vacations is no problem. THe trips are expensive. Like any other nice, international vacation.

Isn't it somewhat difficult to get into the non-American marathons as a foreigner? I think they tend to have pretty limited foreign entry requirements. Maybe running a certain time helps?

I mean, if you have time, money, and desire, this could be a fun thing to do. Setting arbitrary goals is good to yourself traveling and make some memories. I'm trying to visit all 50 state high points and it makes for some interesting travel experiences.

I did more research. Some of these people do it and dump the kids on the grandparents, etc. It does sound more hobby-jogger-ish than I thought. (But when I first heard of it it seemed even more difficult than a simple BQ).

It appears a lot of runners are upper-middle-class with great jobs nowadays. I don't run into runners that work retail/hourly shift jobs that often.

Even in the "Running is not Cancelled" FB group, most of the runners are in STEM-based jobs (i.e. lots of $) and have 9-to-5 jobs and a steady schedule, which enables them to find time to train and do things like WMM or related things like ultrarunning.

I thought about doing it, but the real hassle is trying to get entry into all of the events. At the time I was roughly a 1:25 half marathon/ 3 hour marathoner, so for things like Boston and Chicago, I think it was enough, but as I recall it wasn't fast enough for NYC nor London. I didn't even look into Berlin (at the time, Tokyo wasn't a WMM).

With COVID restrictions and unknown future, and the fact that in the 10 years since I had the idea, I still haven't run a single WMM...I doubt I ever run all of them at this point.

London is by far the most difficult to get into. THe others you can get into just by being fast. if you are doing the charity thing for all of them, ya, that would be very hobby joggerish.

Tokyo can be tough to qualify for as an older man. No age standards like Boston; just a straight 2:45 across all ages. I can still go sub-3:00 at age 47 but I am NOT getting down to 2:45. People complain that the Olympic Trials standard and Boston standards are far easier for women but Tokyo is even worse I think. Men - 2:45, women - 3:30. Compare this to Boston's fastest age group: Men - 3:00, women - 3:30.

London's "Good for Age" times are not fast. I think they may even be easier than Boston. However, they only apply to UK residents, not foreigners. This makes London almost impossible to get into unless you are either elite or a charity runner. I think they lottery has a less than 10% chance of acceptance.

Bottom line is the biggest deterrent to doing all six is MONEY. If you have money to spend you can basically pay your own charity fees and cover the extreme costs of flights, hotels, registration fees, etc.

For the record, I've only done Boston and Berlin and will be doing Chicago in 2022. I'm sure I'll do NYC one of these years but I doubt I'll ever get to do London or Tokyo.

Nothing hobby jogger about this endeavor.

You think a hobby jogger will go through the effort to either fundraise, time qualify, or self support 6 different marathons around the world? Tokyo is harder to qualify for than Boston, lottery based entries require a luck of the draw, USA WMMs require you to travel across the nation to run 26.2 miles. People who care this much about marathon running are not in it to show off or d*ck swing. It requires years of work and just the same amount of training.

Why do you have to be in Marathon shape year round? You don’t, you train for each one the same as you would for any other marathon. The only difference is year round they’re not so out of shape they can’t run a marathon within a typical training cycle.

People who work 9-5 non retail jobs still have to save money for those trips, they still have budgets to stick to, they still have to take off work. Do they “drop the kids off on grandparents” or do they have their family help while they continue their passion? While missing their kids at the same time? Do they get off without a hitch or does their boss take note that they’re missing work for leisure?

Think about the international WMMs. You’re in a different nation; sometimes one where you don’t speak the language. You think every attendee has a translator with them? Or they’re fluent enough in a L2 to get by on a fitness vacation?

People who 6 star have my upmost respect. They worked hard for it, why shouldn’t they be proud of that?

why judge? wrote:

Nothing hobby jogger about this endeavor.

You can take a hobby extremely seriously. And a lot of these people who run WMMs do.

It's a rich person's achievement. Seems like a lot of money to lay out for a little medal or a few social media posts.

I believe my friend who did all 6 went the charity route for London. She got her dad to pay for it!

those who do not qualify for any, but just do the charity thing are definitely hobby joggers. It is not an achievement of merit.

if you qualify for all of them, this is a different animal.

Sara Hall completed the six world majors. Her manager talked about her completing it and having a special medal ceremony at NYC. I think Joan Samuelson is going after it too.

\o/ wrote:

Hobby-jogger medalist!

(seriously, has any elite finished them all?)

A former world champion won his age group in all six of them as a masters runner.

Does putting effort into fundraising not account for anything? I mean actually fundraising and not paying for the charity requirements out of pocket.

If you’re rich, anything is possible. It’s not difficult in the traditional sense. You think these 50 year old’s with the 4 hour marathons QUALIFIED to run any of these races?

I guess if you ask others if it worths it then it's likely not worth it for you.

The easiest way to get into all six is to be able to hit the qualifying time so you get guaranteed entry, well, except London.

Finishing all six doesn't really mean much to me but it was a great experience to hit the road in those different cities and suffer.

If you want to do a subset of the six majors, I recommend Tokyo and Boston.

Rick Sanchez wrote:

It's a rich person's achievement. Seems like a lot of money to lay out for a little medal or a few social media posts.

Nope. Virtual. Run each from home!