Overly pacemaking has ruined the marathon

I absolutely agree, except for the part about the shoes, which I generally see as a natural, healthy evolution.

Stop pandering to people who aren't running fans

You are quite delusional if you think that removing pacers will make random people care about Marathon running

True but read through letsrun- if someone gets top 5 at Boston people will talk about how slow it was.

We have to get over the obsession with times and bring back the love for racing.

When I was young, I didn't care what their times were- I loved the race and when an American would win or get top 10 or 5 it was exciting.

I imagine you're young and quite naive but overly confident in your knowledge.

I'm old enough to remember when the NYC and Chicago Marathons on ABC,CBS, NBC had higher ratings than any football except the playoffs and Super Bowl and any baseball except the World Series.

Rotterdam was live on a Saturday featuring Salazar, DeCastella, Lopes, etc. on ABC.

The way it was presented was much better than it is now. There were no real pacers- they may have had one run the first half.

This post is absolutely spot on. Racing is about racing, not doing some kind of time trial. The obsession over time is becoming a serious drag on the sport. Time trial marathons are a tragedy for the sport of running. Do away with the pacers please! What makes it really crazy is when track meets have time trials for the 800 meters! Of course the runners basically ignore them so no harm done.

I meant when 800 meter races have PACERS. (not time trials)

Let's be honest....anytime there is ever a move made in a marathon, the coverage is either at a commercial break, profiling a 4 hour jogger, or interviewing the push rim winner. They have an uncanny ability to miss every move made in a marathon.

I agree with you though. Pacemakers are lame. I think the same about rabbits on the track.

There's not much pacing in 5000 on track and it often is quite dramatic. It is also under quarter hour. Nevertheless only the diehards watch it in full. Even the fans of the sport often tune in only for the finish or the recap of the more interesting moments. Marathon lasts about 10 times longer.

Fast times however attract mass participation and mass participation attracts sponsors. When the races reach field size of about 1-2% of a city population, they become a very big deal, like everyone knows about it, all hotels and restaurants are full, everyone is happy except for the mandatory weekend warrior cursing runners for the street closures. All of this gives running as a sport more momentum. Yes, maybe making it less fun to watch, I feel you. But running myself, and with other people, has always been way more important for me than watching elites run.

I am completely with you here and a little surprised to see so many others are as well mostly because of all the complaints you see here when big races are tactical and won with "slow" times (e.g. Centrowitz's Olympic Gold.) The only thing I might question is whether marathons would have more fan interest if you took rabbits away. But I wouldn't swear they wouldn't either.

There is always the Boston, New York, olympics, world championships (I'm sure there is more). Plenty of unpaced marathons to watch in my opinion. I like being able to see both.

I'd like to see those numbers. I was around back then and, although I enjoyed those races, I don't believe the ratings were higher than Sunday football games. the duel in the sun should have been as highly rated as ANY other sporting event!

Running as a culture, in general, needs to ditch the obsession of times outside the track.

HS xc courses are pancake flat, marathons orgs are competing for the fastest course, the tinman are making calculators to figure out what you’d run in dry conditions. All stupid.

the NXN boys race the other day was probably the most exciting race I’ve watched in a while, and it had nothing to do with the times.

id rather watch people suffer through an epic course and see the last runner standing, any day.

David Moorcroft - 5000m WR - 13:00.41 on 7/7/1982; zero pacemakers, held the lead from gun to tape.

Pacemakers if used, should be used for the first half of the event only to set the tempo and then be escorted off the course/track.

Why do we need pacemakers at all?

Or why not limit them to at most 1/3 of the race?

Why the obsession with times? If you are so obsessed with times, just let pacemakers also join the race in the middle.

Also pacemakers reduce the chances that runners who slow down will catch up. Every little bit of competition is lost.

I would reset WR and consider only these that have no pace making or limited.

Dropping behind a hit leaves almost no chance to catch leaders who are still with pacers.

bring back competition! More pacing, less duels.

Enough of this pacecrap

Maybe elite women Marathoners are being helped too much? Men don't have hired pacers past 25K. Elite 1500m runners don't usually have hired pacers pacing past 900m. Elite 800m runners usually don't have pacers pacing past 500m. What is the fastest male Marathon sans rabbit? Can men race sub-2:04 Marathon without pacers?

So why do they need to be helped for 25km? why even more than 10km? Why at all?

This is a competition, not a time trial.

Bingo