Yes, from the women's side it's great.
Good for them.
Elite marathoners get to choose one fall marathon.
You have, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Shanghai and a handful of others with elite competition.
All of these choices dilute all of the fields.
Plus you don't have the Olympic medalists in these races this year because it is an Olympic year.
I understand liking pure racing over time trialing.
But in the marathon especially, it is finishing time that helps determine who is elite.
If we saw Kipchoge vs. Bekele in a tactical 2:11 race, that would be great.
But the reason it would be great is because they both ran 2:03 flat this year.
The catch-22 is that you need the fast times to determine who is great before you can determine if a slow tactical race was elite.
Elite marathoners run twice a year and you really don't want half of your races being slow paced.