We Need a Major Marathon that’s Actually Hard to Qualify For

Olympic Trials. If your American, we already have one.

The World Championships is the WMM that is hard to qualify for.

Except for Brits and Letsrunners, London qualifying times are almost challenging.

We don’t really need marathons at all. They are in no way necessary.

Lol 2:30 isn't hard

Actually now that I got curious, I checked:

Tokyo 2:32, London 2:38, Berlin 2:45, New York 2:53, Boston 2:55, Chicago 2:55

(Unless old or not male)

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.

Fukuoka was 2:24 in 2022, not sure what it is this year but it should be a major

I think the "cutoff" for NY was sub 2:40 this year, because they only accept the top time qualifiers

If you have the money do the fukuoka marathon. That's about the qualifying time.

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.

If your American what?

If your American and you know it clap your hand’s

that's not the time to get into london, that's the 'champs' qualifier, for the national championships.

it's a big target/milestones for decent british club runners.

the good for age time is about 2:55 i think

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.

e.g. Valencia + Fukuoka + CIM + Copenhagen

It presents a lot of hassle with no ROI

Worlds? Olympics?

It was in the low 2:30's.

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.