the boston 1983 stats are great but useless without comparison to other years, I mean boston is point-to-point so what was the wind direction, temperature and humidity on that day? 10% lower humidity yet overcast would be a massive boost - how about other years?
does anyone know where this web "fact" comes from:
"only 2 percent of people who've ever run a marathon will break 3 hours"
what is the total number of people who have run one and number who have broken three - then what is the "1 percent" number?
regardless of gender or age, the vdot to break each time
3:00 54
2:50 58
2:45 60
2:30 67
2:20 72
2:15 75
those are some very significant vdots
from what I have observed, even an "all downhill" course is only good for a few minutes tops but I guess if people are borderline that's what you need - as many here know, running downhill for three hours is not as easy as it sounds, very hard on not just the hammies but more so the quads, I'd much rather have a very flat course than downhill