http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/232693/
It's sad that it's come to this.
It's sad that it's come to this.
What's a "mary" and "half mary"? Are those types of cocktails or something?
It's sad that you call them "marys".
Marathon numbers wrote:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/232693/It's sad that it's come to this.
___________________________
Why?
Why are you surprised?
5k's are the most common race today, whereas it was 10k's 30 years ago.
America is always looking for the faster and easier way to do things.
I belong to a local catholic church.In church people find the quickest and easiest as well.
While most of were expected to dress somewhat respectful in church, while growing up - many now wear shorts t-shirts and flip flops. Most also walk right out the side door after receiving communion.
So 1/2 marathons are run more often than full marathons. So what? At least they are running. Don't forget the high rate of obesity, kids staying inside on nice days etc.
I can proudly say as 50+ year old, it was not this way when I was in high school.
Mick Lovin wrote:
Marathon numbers wrote:http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/232693/It's sad that it's come to this.
___________________________
Why?
Why are you surprised?
5k's are the most common race today, whereas it was 10k's 30 years ago.
America is always looking for the faster and easier way to do things.
I belong to a local catholic church.In church people find the quickest and easiest as well.
While most of were expected to dress somewhat respectful in church, while growing up - many now wear shorts t-shirts and flip flops. Most also walk right out the side door after receiving communion.
So 1/2 marathons are run more often than full marathons. So what? At least they are running. Don't forget the high rate of obesity, kids staying inside on nice days etc.
I can proudly say as 50+ year old, it was not this way when I was in high school.
I agree. However, you also have to add that many have just begun to run that never did in years past, so they can do a half right now, but cannot go a full. Add in the time it takes to train for 26.2, and people who want a challenging race will opt for the shorter of the two to avoid compromising family time.
Let me get this straight, for years the Letrun nattering nabobs have been complaining that people are doing marathons when they should be doing shorter races first, and now that they're actually doing that it's sad?
The sea yields to knowledge wrote:
What's a "mary" and "half mary"? Are those types of cocktails or something?
He referring to what you refer to as a 'thon. Half 'thon and full 'thon.
But what about Bloody and Hail? C'mon get wit it.
Mick Lovin wrote:
Why?
Why are you surprised?
5k's are the most common race today, whereas it was 10k's 30 years ago.
America is always looking for the faster and easier way to do things.
I belong to a local catholic church.In church people find the quickest and easiest as well.
While most of were expected to dress somewhat respectful in church, while growing up - many now wear shorts t-shirts and flip flops. Most also walk right out the side door after receiving communion.
So 1/2 marathons are run more often than full marathons. So what? At least they are running. Don't forget the high rate of obesity, kids staying inside on nice days etc.
I can proudly say as 50+ year old, it was not this way when I was in high school.
This post really doesn't have much to do with reality.
From the article:
In 2011, there were an estimated 1.6 million finishers in 870 U.S. half marathons. There were 518,000 finishers in 367 marathons. Both participation numbers were records, according to USA Running.
So people aren't running halfs instead of marathons, but people who weren't running marathons before are getting out and training to run a half -- and when you were younger, those people would have been doing 5Ks/10Ks or not running.
How is this a bad thing?
its not surprising. i consider myself a "pure marathoner" and even i will run more halfs than fulls in a given year. this is common amongst the very best too. many elites will run 1-3 halfs as tune ups for their goal full.
It's much faster to recover from a half that a full, and much easier to train for so lots more participants.
Blame it on Ironman. Since they started pushing their 70.3 crap, Americans have gotten weak.
I also think this is fine, maybe even a good thing. Maybe the half marathons will start to draw off a lot of the charity runners and the marathon will start to be the race it was 30 years ago. I'll also be pleased if we get some more races that are neither 5ks nor marathons. I wanted to run a few 10ks this year. I live in kind of the boondox, but, still, what I learned is that there is only one within a one hour drive of me per year. And not many more, maybe 3, if I'm willing to drive 4 hours. No 10 milers either. For whatever reason, I can't put the training together to run a decent marathon anymore, nor can I do the speedwork to run a decent 5k - at least without getting injured. Those mid distances are ideal for guys like me; and I think there's quite a number.
I would almost expect the LRC reaction to be more along the lines of "Good! People should conquer the half before they move up to the full." Isn't that one of the prime LRC complaints - too many people participating in marathons without really respecting and preparing for the full distance? There should be a whole lot more people doing halves than fulls and they should only move up once they are really ready.
Good. I have no interest in racing marathons, which sucks because they're the majority of competitive races. 8k-10 milers are really the sweet spot of fun, fast races.
Yeah and what's with people racing the 60 meter?!
VF Runner wrote:
I would almost expect the LRC reaction to be more along the lines of "Good! People should conquer the half before they move up to the full." Isn't that one of the prime LRC complaints - too many people participating in marathons without really respecting and preparing for the full distance? There should be a whole lot more people doing halves than fulls and they should only move up once they are really ready.
Second this. Weed out all the ill-prepared people running marathons. Leave the marathon to the real runners.
Agreed. When looking at the general running community, averaging no more than 30-40 miles per week, what's not to like about it? I suppose PT's and foot docs will see less buisiness.
A half Mary is the assistant who's magician flunked the "cutting a girl in half" training. A full Mary was much luckier.
Marathon numbers wrote:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/232693/It's sad that it's come to this.
Indeed. 5k fun runs will soon become even more popular than half marathons. Wait...
Nothing wrong w/ HM, but they need to impose a time limit, like 2h30m. I don't think it is possible to "run" a HM any slower than that (that would be walking).