It would be a "minor" marathon if the field was limited to few thousand men and few hundred women. Big event marathons require big fields to get support from cities for the courses and sponsors to pay for big name athletes.
Make the men faster than the women 2:10 and women faster than 2:20.
we don’t want the hobby joggers involved at the majors.
The non majors can have, them and anyone higher 100 finisher points finishers internationally (50 men and 50 women) from last year can part in the majors this year. Obviously certified course only.
A training buddy and I were talking about and adjacent topic recently - is there scope for a few marathons to band together and form a competitor to the majors with a slightly less mass approach. Probably not the most commercially sensible decision an RD could make.
A training buddy and I were talking about and adjacent topic recently - is there scope for a few marathons to band together and form a competitor to the majors with a slightly less mass approach. Probably not the most commercially sensible decision an RD could make.
Unfortunately this just isn't economically feasible. You need the masses of 4:00+ runners to subsidize those at the front, not to mention the huge logistical undertaking of closing down a city.