U.S. Marathon Olympic Trial Scrapers

9/10

Well, it's the closest thing there is to a race with all of the 200 or however many best Americans participating, so proving you belong in that group and seeing how you measure up would be a big deal .

It's all about the social media content.

"Belonging" by finishing 2 miles back?

2:17 runner here but by no means an influencer. Motivated to get in the best shape of my life and try to finish top 100. Might not be realistic, but why not try? The Orlando heat could be an equalizer and cause many to have an off day or drop out. As for the influencer group, I can’t stand them much either. However, people like me are “big” on the local running scene. I secured a small local sponsorship and am obligated to make social media posts. Maybe these influencer types are doing it for contractual reasons or to secure some funding for the hobby. Many in local running scene care and are interested. Sure, most running influencers are cringey.

Some people enjoy pushing their limits and competing to be the best of their abilities, no matter if they are medal contenders or not. You know, the sorts of things competitive runners do... Yes, you are a dick.

I'd kind of go with you being a dick based on this post. But let's look at the business of why someone would enter a race if you have no chance to win it? If you take that idea to its logical conclusion would reduce those 10,000 to 40,000 (or whatever) fields in mega marathons to what, ten, twenty open men and about the same number of women. Maybe double those numbers if the races have age group divisions.

Nearly everyone who enters races does so knowing they aren't going to win and needs to find other reasons for doing it. Sometimes those reasons are purely personal and usually involve being faster this time than you were the last time you raced that particular distance or placing as high as possible, maybe to help your team win or place well. Sometimes it can be to achieve a goal. People who spend years trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon certainly know they aren't going to win once they've gotten there. I spent years trying to qualify for an Olympic Trials marathon and I knew that if I managed to do it I wasn't going to make the team. But I would have loved to have been in a race with the 100 or 200 fastest marathon runners in the country to see where I'd have placed and would have hoped that stimulated me to an even better time than my qualifying time was.

Scraping 2:18 to qualify is much better than trying to run 2:15 and blowing up for someone on the fringes and not qualifying.

A lot of the fringe qualifiers will take 2 or 3 mins off of their PB on the day because they have nothing to lose as well as a great competitive field. Getting competitive off of 2:15 sounds much easier than getting competitive off of 2:18. In the future some of these will be near the front.

You're doing it by choice, you're an influencer or at least trying to be one.

Most definitely not trying to be one. I’m posting once a month which I’m contractually required to do in order to not pay back the $2000 that was given to me. Once the contract is over, the posting stops.

Hopefully you can be the Michael Block of next year's Olympic trials.

Same as any other influencer, buddy. They're not giving you $2K because you're actually good, it's because you agreed to be used for their marketing purposes. Like a tool.

You’re right—I agreed to be part of the marketing. The $2000 covered my shoes for the year. It was worth it in my book. A no brainer. You’re wrong on the idea of me trying to be an influencer. Influencers try to amass as many followers and sponsors as possible and post frequent content. I don’t even post reels. Just a picture and recap of a race. Pretty boring content honestly. Takes no effort on my part. If you were in my position and could use some help financially, would you do anything differently?

How seriously Americans glorify a sub 2:18 mark is a smoking gun in itself for why they aren't competitive on the world stage.

If I qualified last then my goal would be to finish better than last. If I qualified 100th, my goal would be to be better than 100th. If I qualified 20th, I'd be aiming for top 10. If I qualified 10th, I'd be trying to be top 3. If the only goal for people in the olympic trials is to make the olympic team, then why do that if you're not even going to win at the olympics?

I have a very good friend who was a 2:17 guy back in the mid 80's. He ran in the Olympic Trials with as much chance of making the team as those of us not running.

But, you know what? This guy ran 2:17. This guy ran in the Olympic Trials. He is one of the most unassuming, humble people you will ever meet. But, our running community thinks he's so cool and recognizes that he accomplished something that a very, very small percentage of the running world can accomplish.

That's more than enough to make it worthwhile.

And, TBH, if I could somehow make money, get free stuff, whatever, by posting on Instagram, I would. And if you didn't like it I wouldn't expect you to be "influenced" by me.

I hope you're trolling because if you're not, then you are, indeed, a dick. (and the Van Dyke kind).

Have you ever been to the marathon trials in person? I've gone to watch four of them across different decades and they always have a glut of runners well off the pace, sometimes many miles behind the leaders, who eventually just start hamming it up for the crowd, waving, blowing kisses, stuff like that. With YouTubers in the mix I assume you'll see runners with selfie-sticks recording their journey to DFL along with the hams. But a standard is a standard is a standard. If you beat it, you have the right to run, even if I'd rather see those who do make it at least take the race a bit more seriously than many do each time.

Who do you see that's glorifying a sub 2:18 marathon? Respecting such a time is far from glorifying it. I thin k nearly all of us who follow distance running seriously recognize it for what it is; a much better time than maybe 99% of the world's marathon runners can do but far from world class.

Ok, so if you qualified right on the edge, you would not go to the trials. Got it.