Kyle Merber complains about time trial marathons

Someone needs to complain about Kyle merber.

So he doesn't have a problem with time trial marathons. He has a problem with time standards as a qualifier. Your thread title is clickbait.

I genuinely don't understand why I keep hearing that time trial type marathons aren't racing. A race is to see who can get from point A to point B the fastest. But we want slower runs? It makes no sense.

I <3 Kyle. There probably wasn’t much for him to write about this week. The time trial marathon was is a boing event even if it is nice for the participants he is right it isn't very exciting for fans maybe thats okay tho if it leads to more exciting trials and has nice split cash prize

That one 90 degree turn could get very sporty with a pack

The weather delay he was talking about was a callback to the Trials of Miles half at RLSP (the one he competed in) not McKirdey. They almost pushed the date, as ToM had it sanctioned for Sat or Sun, but stuck with the original and ran through the sleet/rain/wind. 3 guys hit their OTQ.

also would like to add that I felt as if Kyle gave the race more praise than criticism. This thread loves to cherry pick…

This is only one extrapolation away from tactical races. Some people dig tactical racing. Sad!

Obviously he wasn't there watching the races unfold lap after lap. There were pace charts posted for each split per lap and people spread out around the 3 mile loop cheering. The finish of both races was exciting with the announcers counting down the last couple of minutes under the standards and people killing themselves to make it. It was a great finish, a lot of happy people celebrating. And the women's winner ran one of the FASTEST debut's off ALL-TIME. They did a great job with the fluid bottles and logistics were easy. The bottom line is you don't need all the bells and whistles to run fast. Just a nice course, weather and opportunity. Distance runners train every day miles and miles without fanfare and get the job done.

Kyle's complaint is a classic example of a "first world problem"

The disdain for Merber isn’t surprising because he is eating LRC’s lunch. The man writes a weekly newsletter, while holding a full-time job, that provides more reporting and information than the Brojos and Gault can muster. He has connections and access to relevant voices in the sport and his takes are most often measured and thoughtful. No wild proclamations and manufactured anger to draw podcast listeners and message board clicks. As Let’s Run increasingly becomes a site where old men bray and bellow for the amusement of other old trolls, The Lap Count rises above as a pleasant means of staying up to date on the world of elite running.

Makes no difference. Either way, American Marathoners are the B team on the world stage.

I was told basically this by a friend who was there. I'd like to see more of these- in a park, get spectators, concessions available, music. It could be a fun atmosphere. Obviously it wouldn't work for a mass marathon but it's still a positive concept.

Upvote 100x

That is always the theme, that we suck.

Meanwhile outside of Kenya and Ethiopia, we always have a good team internationally. (Still miles behind them, agreed). We always hear about the great Japanese marathoners, but seems they can't compete on the world stage for whatever reason.

They could make the 3 big domestic marathons have a special standard like World Athletics does. It’s what top 5 there is worth the same as the 2:08:10 standard, so maybe they could make the top 25? Top 50? Get an OTQ in NY, Boston and Chicago. I am honestly not sure of how quick the drop-off is.

I also think Kyle is maybe reaching a tad because marathon for all but the very best IS time-trialing unless there are no pacers or substantially faster runners. We can romanticize the best marathon duels but unless there’re no sub-2:12 guys in the field the 2:15-2:18 guys will be time trialing the whole way as the faster runners maybe dabble and negative split.

A race is to see who can get from point A to point B first and of course whoever does that fastest wins. But in these time trial races getting to the finish first is not the main goal. Achieving a certain time is. Remember when they'd have the 10,000 meter track races at Stanford in the early season so that people could get their Olympic standard or their OT standard times? No one really cared about their place. Everyone running would much rather come 5th in 27:20 than first in 28:10. I suppose you could call it racing because you're racing the clock but in a true race place is the priority.

You left out the part where I ask, "Is there another option?"

Really this section was intended to invoke some conversation so thank you for starting the thread - it definitely was not a complaint about the event!

Right now this format is super effective for helping athletes qualify for the Trials, but what happens when the world's best athletes skip Majors to run these types of events instead? I see positives and negatives to that reality. I'd be curious to hear opinions.

Exactly. If you don't want a time trial to be a duel, then people need to run faster. SImple as that.

Not knocking a 2:12 performance at all, but they shouldn't be disparaging people running faster by calling it a time trial. A time trial is still a race, its just a different tactic.

LRC always leaves things out. It’s a selective choice to shape their hate.

thank you for being you, Kyle

Thanks for the reply! Admittedly I’m biased since I competed in the McKirdy event, and I felt some of your points were unfair since you weren’t there. No disrespect!

I agree with your main commentary and would love to see more competition/race style events. One way to encourage that could be a points-based qualification system accounting for overall placement and relative placement to other US marathoners.

And yeah, I made the thread title a bit click-baity to get a good discussion going