Return of the Marathon Project

As a male who has ran between 2:20 and 2:30, I was initially excited about the announcement of a “sub elite” race. However, after looking at the course and the field (1,000 runners all within a four mile loop), this is a no go. The open race will be a giant cluster.

I'm sure we all did the math on this... Ben will be grossing 540k for one race with minimal expenses for hosting a road race in a small confined area. Take out a few grand for prize money and all the other expenses, and I'm sure he's making a hefty amount. This seems a smart business venture and a lot less stress than managing NAZ elite year round. Good for him and his wife! I'm sure other race directors wish they had his credibility and execution to make about 1/4 million for one race!

His wife will continue her job with Hoka.

So much hate on this race. The course is obviously very fast. Noah Droddy ran 2:09.09 here in 2020?!? That’s still crazy to me

Who da fook is that guy?

I would never sign up for this race to drop a few min off my mid 2:30s PR while having the privilege of running around a giant parking lot but to play devil's advocate....you're strongly underestimating the costs of putting on an event.
You don't realize how quickly dropping 10K on porta potties, 30K on street closures, etc. adds up. At the end of the day he might take home 30K - 50K as a fee for producing this.

Most event participants are so ignorant to the production costs it's slightly infuriating.

The sport needs this and I would like to see it succeed.

This is poised to be a race for ATHLETES that actually give a f**k about performance - not scenery, vibes, content, or chasing the clout of running six far flung marathon races at a four hour pace. A race that isn’t usurped by narcissistic influencers and their e-bike riding camera crews. An event without stupid gimmicks like live music, people going for costume records, cheerleading teams, and cartoon characters. A flat and fast course with good weather unconcerned about local landmarks and tourist traps. A place where dedicated amateurs get treated like real athletes. As elitist as it sounds, we really need a race focused on athletic excellence, not another bucket list item, ego trip, or inspirational story vehicle.

Don’t like boring courses? Don’t enter! Too slow to make the cut? Train harder! Too old to be fast? Life isn’t fair.

Best of luck to Rosario on this endeavor.

Don't care. Running is a participation sport, not a spectator sport. A bunch of pros running a closed loop isn't interesting. The 20,000 people outside of the top 100 finishing a road race is what is interesting but I ly if you are one of them.

I thought it was great back in 2020 and I respected what Ben Rosario did for the athletes. Now that he was let go from NAZ this feels like a money grab for Ben.

Is it the same course as last time? Where is the new course map?

Overall very glad to see this back, though agreed it’s a bummer it could be just outside the qualifying window

Course map is on the marathon project website. Another question I have is, how are they going to support bottles for 1,000 runners (non pro race)? 100 tables on a four mile loop? I just don’t see how they can offer a “professional” experience for a field that large and diverse. Keep in mind my comments are only related to the non elite race on Saturday, not the 200 person pro race on Sunday.

Dang you get comped hotel for Chicago and New York? I know people running 2:10-2:12 who get ignored by them.

This would be for those who are chasing a qualifying standard and have had enough of the "crowds/experience" of Chicago or Berlin or Houston or any standard city race that caters chiefly to completers. Japan's annual marathon performance lists coming chiefly out of their domestic races on fast courses have put the US to shame for a while now. And that's with Chicago, CIM, and Houston already existing. A notably fast course and a total focus on performance has been needed to help US marathoners catch back up to the rest of the world. This event caters directly and only to the performance runner, it's a scaled-up McKirdy Micro. I'd bet Ben and his crew have done their research and know their demographic. Old school LRC would have been all over this with interest and excitement.

gee, what a lot of hate from you guys. So somebody wants tries to try out something new to improve American distance running, and give people another option to try to run fast (god knows our marathoners need to figure out how to get faster to be globally relevant)

... and of course the thing is a business venture. Why would anyone take the risk of building something new if they can't hope to make money off it if it works?

I say it's exciting that Rosario is trying this. I think we'll all be excited about it this time next year, and I wish him well with the new venture.

Yeah but it's shared with another athlete. I doubt these runners get "ignored", but probably no appearance fee or chance at prize money like they can get elsewhere. I did get ignored by Boston saying "come back when you've run 2:13." Maybe if they've run 2:12 at CIM/Grandmas, other races view that similarly as running 2:16 at Boston/NYC/Trials.

I agree I'm excited to watch how it goes and hope it goes well. Another great race helps everyone.

I completely agree with all of this, but the decision to have 1,000 people running the non-pro race completely destroys all of the positive aspects that race could have had--any improvement in your chances at hitting a goal time from the flat/fast/non-mass appeal nature of the race is going to be completely wiped out by the fact that you'll spend the entire race dodging crowds.