Can we talk about how crazy hard this Olympic marathon course is?

We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.

Yes USA! wrote:

We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.

So USA in the mix?

Manbearpig15 wrote:

Most of the top contenders will drop out by 30k to preserve themselves for a pay day at a fall marathon. We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.

I seent it wrote:

Manbearpig15 wrote:

Most of the top contenders will drop out by 30k to preserve themselves for a pay day at a fall marathon. We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.

Bekele will probably be the only Ethiopian to finish. We certainly know that kipchoge can’t handle a non time trial course- maybe all Kenyans dnf?

Manbearpig15 wrote:

Yes USA! wrote:

So USA in the mix?

As I was typing that I was thinking that means Mantz is a contender.

Manbearpig15 wrote:

Most of the top contenders will drop out by 30k to preserve themselves for a pay day at a fall marathon. We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.

Goldilocks wrote:

Manbearpig15 wrote:

Most of the top contenders will drop out by 30k to preserve themselves for a pay day at a fall marathon. We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.

Instead of an underwhelming winner or overwhelming favorite, I’d like to just see a plain old whelming gold medalist.

PCRF-Guy wrote:

Goldilocks wrote:

Instead of an underwhelming winner or overwhelming favorite, I’d like to just see a plain old whelming gold medalist.

Would it be underwhelming if the winning time is 2:12 and the top five finishers on the men’s side are within 2 min of each other? Or 2:30 in the women’s with the same late race competition? I’d rather watch the competitors fighting for position in a tactical race. That’s one thing that’s unique about the Olympics.

Dudewhat? wrote:

1400 ft+ total elevation gain with max gradient of 13.5%. Then just as much descending to chop up those quads. Seems complete opposite of all those super fast 2:01-2:04 type courses the Africans normally race on.

This smells a lot like Athens 2004 (which had less total elevation gain than this race but was the hottest marathon ever at 86 °F).

All you need now is a heat wave to spice things up and really opens the door for some underdogs to steal the show. I predict this will be the event of the games.

Yes USA! wrote:

So USA in the mix?

PCRF-Guy wrote:

Goldilocks wrote:

Instead of an underwhelming winner or overwhelming favorite, I’d like to just see a plain old whelming gold medalist.

Would it be underwhelming if the winning time is 2:12 and the top five finishers on the men’s side are within 2 min of each other? Or 2:30 in the women’s with the same late race competition? I’d rather watch the competitors fighting for position in a tactical race. That’s one thing that’s unique about the Olympics.

Manbearpig15 wrote:

Most of the top contenders will drop out by 30k to preserve themselves for a pay day at a fall marathon. We'll be left with an underwhelming winner.