What would happen if there were marathon heats/semis?

Interesting theory... I imagine the 10,000m would become a lot more popular and you'd get a ton of athletes opting out of the marathon.

Dwightarm wrote:

Interesting theory... I imagine the 10,000m would become a lot more popular and you'd get a ton of athletes opting out of the marathon.

The 10,000 used to have heats and finals. In the Olympic Trials too.

Kipchoge would jog the 2:10-2:15 necessary to advance and then pull away from a very game Jim Walmley in the final.

All the top runners would skip the Olympics and go for the big money this fall with all six Marathon Majors being contested. Olympic marathon would be won in 2:10 men/2:30 women

malmo wrote:

Dwightarm wrote:

Interesting theory... I imagine the 10,000m would become a lot more popular and you'd get a ton of athletes opting out of the marathon.

The 10,000 used to have heats and finals. In the Olympic Trials too.

and boy they were a farce they were. Go look at the 1992 trials where 20 people raced for 18 spots. Nothing like watch pros do a 32 min training run. Not like the other years were much better.

For the marathon, I am guessing that something like 215 would be plenty to make the final. So a hard tempo run for the top guys. would be interesting when one heat went out in 230 and the other was a 210.

Dwightarm wrote:

Interesting theory... I imagine the 10,000m would become a lot more popular and you'd get a ton of athletes opting out of the marathon.

Interesting theory? You and the OP are complete morons. Do either of you do more than hobbyjog?

Whey would you need to run heats and a semifinal when there’s plenty of space on the roads. Heats and semis are only required due to limited space on the track.

Kvothe wrote:

Say the athletes had to run a semifinal marathon and then a final. The semi could be the first day of the olympics or something.

What if NFL games were played twice a week or the size of an NBA court was doubled. Both ideas are equally as thought provoking as yours.

How about last man standing, a marathon everyday during the olympics with tighter time limits as the days go on.

Mike Wardian would represent USA.

they go elsewhere wrote:

All the top runners would skip the Olympics and go for the big money this fall with all six Marathon Majors being contested. Olympic marathon would be won in 2:10 men/2:30 women

Yuki Kawauchi would do just fine and then he'd come back and do 3 fall marathons.

Kvothe wrote:

Say the athletes had to run a semifinal marathon and then a final. The semi could be the first day of the olympics or something.

They should have a 52.4 mile ultra, top 10 at the midway point automatically advance to the second half.

Run the semis on the roads and final on the track. Top 5 in each semi advance to finals.

ddidididid wrote:

malmo wrote:

The 10,000 used to have heats and finals. In the Olympic Trials too.

and boy they were a farce they were. Go look at the 1992 trials where 20 people raced for 18 spots. Nothing like watch pros do a 32 min training run. Not like the other years were much better.

For the marathon, I am guessing that something like 215 would be plenty to make the final. So a hard tempo run for the top guys. would be interesting when one heat went out in 230 and the other was a 210.

I was in New Orleans in 1992 and came in late that night as the 10,000 heats were being run. The heat and humidity alone were just hideous. My wife said, "just take me to the airport, NOW!" The runners looked like they were in slow motion. I didn't realize until now that they were on a forced death march to eliminate two people.

Wardian Gold.

The marathon needs the opposite of a semi.

They need to let every athlete under some easy standard in with no limit per country.

Put a few thousand on the line seeded by qualifying times.

What if every athlete could pick one mile of the marathon to rollerblade OR two miles on a Razor scooter?

park bench Paul wrote:

Run the semis on the roads and final on the track. Top 5 in each semi advance to finals.

i like this because it opens the possibility of a lapped runner coming back to win

cookie bear wrote:

Whey would you need to run heats and a semifinal when there’s plenty of space on the roads. Heats and semis are only required due to limited space on the track.

+1. Space on the track vs number of qualified runners attending is why heats exist.

This place has gone soft.

10 years ago if somebody posted something as stupid as this they would have been roasted alive.