Its time for Valencia to be added to the world marathon majors

I think the runners would agree. Drop New York or Chicago.

Valencia wants nothing do to with the majors.

Spoken like a true white European.

Over 50,000 people ran New York in 2023, its one of the most popular marathons in the world with 148 countries represented.

New York has a shallow elite field though. Most of the 50,000 people are taking over 4 hours to finish. Just having a lot of people doesn't make it a major marathon. Valencia has a greatly deeper field.

China might be next

worldmarathonmajors.com

Chengdu Marathon Announced as Abbott World Marathon Majors Candidate Race

Race to begin long-term, multi-year evaluation process

Open link

Chicago should be dropped as the USA alone should not have 50% of the "world" majors. Boston and NYC are more culturally and historically significant by far. But now that the WR is back to Chicago that will make it a lot harder to drop

Why does everything have to be at the same level for it to be important? Valencia gets more attention here than Tokyo and I think that's a good thing. It has its purposes, which is to run very fast. Like Dubai has a purpose, which is to make money.

You kids need to be watching the backroom politics of WMM...

Ask your (Ironman-branded) triathlon friends if the Chinese involvement has been good to them.

Tokyo should be dropped in favor of Valencia.

I saw a Burger King in the background during the race. That would be the clincher for me. I'd surrender a victory position for two Whoppers.

Let the fun runners have the WMMs.

I like the idea of Valencia being the competitive runner's choice.

No. If anything, a non WMM race holding the same level of prestige, attraction and quality of fields is great to break up the 'monopoly' Abbott have on elite marathoners so to speak. Especially given some of their more questionable decisions, havnig some serious competition is good so they don't get too complacent.

Well said. Want to run a sub 60 or a sub 2:05? Go to Valencia. Great course, conditions and coverage.

Size does not matter as referenced by my name. New York having 50,000 is irrelevant.

To be a WMM there is a process. And a race is NOT invited. Case in point is Sydney which applied and is getting closer to be accepted. They will likely need to make some course changes though. But as for adding Valencia, there is nothing to 'add' since they have never applied.

Boston should be dropped, because it's course is not record eligible

get rid of at least one of the American marathons and add a race in Africa.

Europe 2, USA 2, Asia 1, Africa 1. Seems about right based on the popularity of running all over the world. Yes Africans dominate but only a few countries, so 1 is enough for them. Maybe give the Chinese one just based on their population size.

To me it should be about a lot more than just fast times, though. Number of runners and spectators/atmosphere are very important too, and watching Valencia there were barely any crowds.

Not happening. It's a WA platinum label race, which is all that matters for competition. World Marathon Majors is basically a hobbyjogger brand now - winners' prize money has been reduced from $500,000 to $50,000.