Rory Linkletter: Two sub 2:09s in a month's span

Does it matter? The elites are running 2:03 now.

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If I was named Rory Linkletter, I would go to Japan just for the fun of them trying to pronounce it

So, I guess my first question (other than "Who the f$&@ is Rory Linkletter?") is: "Why the f$&@ would an elite race 2 marathons in a month?"

Discus.

Erm. Oops. 😂

I haven't followed Canadian Running very closely lately.

But my second question remains: If this guy wants to succeed, why do this?

Edit: I posted wrong info.

(To the downvoters, I read somewhere that he ran 4 marathons last year, and 2 x HM a week apart. Clearly this was wrong info, so I corrected myself. Isn't that a refreshing thing to do at LR!?)

The time itself isn't the most impressive part it's that it's a month apart.

I do think the shoes are very helpful. but that advantage will even out over time.

Appearance fees? My guess is Ottawa is willing to pay a decent amount for top Canadians to race.

Why not? If the time between marathons is used wisely, you can maintain the same level of fitness from one marathon to the next and also earn a good financial reward. The risk of injury doesn't significantly increase if you know how to take it easy between the marathons. It's unlikely you'll beat your personal record in the second marathon, but finishing second in a fairly big marathon is still a major achievement.

C.J. Albertson finished 3rd in 2:08:55 improving on the time he ran at Boston.

With the super shoes, doing a marathon now is more like doing a 30 km training run at marathon pace in the old shoes. Plus the better fueling strategy during marathons speed up recovery too.

Hmmm.

I dunno.

This guy is running well, and I wish him all the best.

Great payday? Congrats.

But if Marathon races just a few weeks apart is now fashionable for elites, I'm worried about long term prospects.

I guess you can make a living being your country’s best marathoner, even if that country is Canada.

The "month apart" thing shouldn't be at this point. It is attempted so rarely by top athletes that we have little idea how difficult running two of them within a month really is. We also have no idea what the long term effect this will have on guys like Linkletter and Albertson.

Derek Clayton enters the discussion

His 2024 Chicago and New York were three weeks apart

Interesting. My memory is foggy, but wasn't Clayton a "one hit wonder"?

I can't help feeling that this is like throwing eggs at a wall, hoping for something to stick.

If Linkletter run 2:05/2:06 in the Fall, I will (gladly) take some kicks.

It actually doesn't take a genius to figure out that running two marathons in a month is very taxing on the body and on the second one you might do slightly worse, but 2:08 mid is still a very impressive time.

If that was your knee jerk first reaction, then you’re fairly out of touch. Might explain now some of your really poor takes in threads.