Pissed about the Trials standard? Email your association.

No, you should let your association know that you are going to man up and train harder to meet standards that the Africans meet daily.

Is there a large contingent of people who are pissed about this? I for one think it's needed. 2.19 is not that absurd. Why should we let the field keep getting bigger?

I wouldn't advise that if you live in the Pacific Association. If people think that Glen Lattimer is bad (I have no experience with him) then you never met John Mansoor. If John was running USATF the Trials qualifier would probably be set at 2:10. I wouldn't rock his boat if I was you (if you know how to float it that is a whole other matter).

getithere wrote:

Is there a large contingent of people who are pissed about this? I for one think it's needed. 2.19 is not that absurd. Why should we let the field keep getting bigger?

To encourage more people to try? I thought the idea was for the sport to grow.

getithere wrote:

Is there a large contingent of people who are pissed about this? I for one think it's needed. 2.19 is not that absurd. Why should we let the field keep getting bigger?

If for years you had a dream of running 2:22 and suddenly it disappeared, you'd be a little upset too

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

getithere wrote:

Is there a large contingent of people who are pissed about this? I for one think it's needed. 2.19 is not that absurd. Why should we let the field keep getting bigger?

To encourage more people to try? I thought the idea was for the sport to grow.

I don't understand your comments. Try what? I agree with you as far as the sport growing. I just don't know what you are suggesting?

just some guy wrote:

getithere wrote:

Is there a large contingent of people who are pissed about this? I for one think it's needed. 2.19 is not that absurd. Why should we let the field keep getting bigger?

If for years you had a dream of running 2:22 and suddenly it disappeared, you'd be a little upset too

when I was trying to qualify for the marathon trials in 1984, the standard was 2:19:04....I was only able to run a 222, and crashed and burned a couple of times, shooting for 218. Why should the standard be weaker than it was over 20 years ago? Shouldn't it be tougher, if anything? Shouldn't today's runners be faster than their parents generation? The problem is with the runners of today, not the standard. Try running 100-120 mpw first; before you complain. (esp. if you are some 70 mpw guy who can't figure out why you can't run 2:19.

Of course today's runners should be faster!

But standards don't make them faster, competition does. If you're excluded from competing, you don't benefit.

The reason that other races/teams have standards is because of limited resources, not because the people in charge think that standards make people fast. Colleges have a certain number of scholarships, Boston can only fit so many people on the course, running groups only have so much money. Through the process of competing with each other (rather than an arbitrary standard) these runners get faster.

Hansons didn't get to where they are by saying that they are starting a group for superstars. In fact, they don't seem to have had very much success with their one attempt to draw a big time talent to the program, which only validates their method of developing the talent, rather than recruiting it. However, now they have lots of interest in their program, it has become much more competitive to get in, because there are more people competing for limited resources.

If the trials were unmanageable or if slower runners were getting in the way, I'd be all for a tougher standard.

By the way, I'm not a marathoner and I have nowhere near the talent of the qualifiers. I just think that this is wrong. I've seen this attitude in many sports and activities and it never works. You can't legislate improvement from the top when people are already intrinsically motivated.

Anyway, back to the point of this thread: my purpose in emailing my association is just to let them know that I think this is a big deal. If enough people do this, there will have to be some more discussion. Remember, we are the USATF.

just some guy wrote:

If for years you had a dream of running 2:22 and suddenly it disappeared, you'd be a little upset too

If that is your dream you can still go out there and try to run 2:22

Your dream just became 2:18.59. So did mine.