2019 Boston Marathon Elite Field Is Released - 5 Sub-2:05 men, 4 Sub-2:20 women will battle + AMERICAN Sally Kipyego

Was sort of hoping Kipchoge would switch it up this year and do Boston. Pretty strong men's field though. Interested to see how Lawrence Cherono will do.

Completely changes landscape of Olympic Trials. Congrats to Sally. Should be a great race in Atlanta!

Before she withdrew with injury, Kipyego was set to debut in the marathon as a U.S. citizen in New York. This isn't news.

"Also competing for the first time as an U.S. citizen is Sally Kipyego, 32, who won a silver medal for Kenya in the 10,000 meters at the 2012 Olympics and took second place in New York in 2016, when she was one month pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, Emma, in July 2017.

'She’s a big name internationally and if she’s going to be competing as an American, that definitely adds a whole other layer of competition and makes it extremely challenging coming around to any major championship, specifically an Olympic spot,' Flanagan said. 'She’s definitely a threat.'

Looking ahead, Linden said Kipyego could take one of the three spots on the next U.S. Olympic team.

'I think we all know that the team in 2020 is going to be one of the hardest to make, and she’s one more player in that competition,' she said.

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a23695050/flanagan-and-linden-talk-nyc-marathon-prep/

Wow, a stacked field ! Would have been nice to see Kipchoge change his schedule a bit indeed.

A bit worried about Lemi Berhanu who's running Dubai on 01/20 as well, hope he doesn't burn himself out.

much more stacked fields than the two years Rupp ran.

rupp certified wrote:

much more stacked fields than the two years Rupp ran.

It's as if they were trying to fix it to have him win . . .

Hopefully another hurricane comes so that Yuki wins again.

It's as if wrote:

rupp certified wrote:

much more stacked fields than the two years Rupp ran.

It's as if they were trying to fix it to have him win . . .

It's more so that since Rupp isn't running they have more money in the budget to invite a few extra Africans.

snow blow wrote:

It's as if wrote:

It's as if they were trying to fix it to have him win . . .

It's more so that since Rupp isn't running they have more money in the budget to invite a few extra Africans.

ding, ding, ding......someone gets it.

The men's field is pretty honest, but the women's field looks like a setup for an American to win. I would say the best international runners in that field are the two Ethiopian women that ran well at Frankfurt. The rest have ancient PRs mostly from Dubai or have not run well in recent marathons.

Really wanted Boston to spend the $$$ to get Kipchoge. It has to be a money thing right? At this point he has nothing left to prove in London so Boston coulda paid him and gotten a bit smaller of a field. I wonder if he has a multi year contract with London or is doing another Breaking 2 thing. Men's field still looks good and the women's field looks super strong.

Emily Sisson has said she'll debut in the marathon this Spring. So, will she be doing London instead? Or, maybe even a non- Marathon Major?

Will I be considered elite if I manage to finish as top Russian national? That's rather doable because pros are under WADA ban.

Here’s my rant.

Let’s take Braun, Ward, Ritchie and Fauble.

Ward is probably getting about $25,000 to run. The others I’d guess in the $10,000 - $15,000 range. Certainly this monthly helps, but helps for what?

None of these guys are going to run 2:11 at Boston. They should forego their appearance fees and accept a reduced one and run Rotterdam, Tokyo, London or one of the many other fast courses to get a fast time.

You’d think one of them would love to bust a 2:09:59 but to do that, Americans need to get off this hamster wheel of only doing Boston and New York.

Ward can certainly absorb less of a fee and go someplace to try to run fast. Not sure about the others.

Likely it’s just that these Americans outside of the once runner Rupp, know they cannot run sub 5 minute pace let alone a sub 2:10.

Neither Boston or NY tend to be fast courses for yanks, with a few past exceptions, so why not try something different.

It’s been working for the women (i.e. Cragg, Hall) so try something different because I for one am not going to be impressed with a small news blues stating ‘top american was Scott Fauble who finished in 13th place with a time of 2:12:56’

Big ef’n deal.

That’s all.

Have a good run today everyone.

Shawn

Three of those guys have done fast courses in the past year and a half. Braun did Chicago in 2017. There weren’t pacers, but he was at the front going faster than his pr pace for much of the first half. Fauble debuted in Hamburg or Frankfurt in the fall2017. Ritchie has run CIM both 2017 and 2018. Even if conditions were not perfect, those races are PR factories. Even if they go to a marathon in Europe, there is no guarantee that they won’t end up running alone at 2:10 pace.

As for Jared Ward, he’s got a family to support and knows he has a limited numbers of marathons. I don’t blame him for taking guaranteed money now rather than taking less in the hopes that he will lower his pr by a minute, which would probably only increase his appearance fee by a marginal amount at future races.

I know I certainly would take half an amount in exchange for a 2:09:59 on my resume.

Ward is doing fine financially if he’s an associate prof.

Bottom line is outside of rehabbing Rubb, we have nobody.

sub sub elite local hobby jogger wrote:

the women's field looks like a setup for an American to win.

Not really, with Degefa and Assefa in the field. Linden and Hasay (if not injured) will hopefully be in the mix. But I guess a lot will depend on the weather.

Wonders Bred wrote:

I know I certainly would take half an amount in exchange for a 2:09:59 on my resume.

Ward is doing fine financially if he’s an associate prof.

Bottom line is outside of rehabbing Rubb, we have nobody.

I'm not expert, nor do I have any insider knowledge of marathon appearance fees.

Yeah, Ward could probably live just fine on his professor salary. But if he earns $25k at Boston, and the same amount at NYC, I have to think that he is making a big chunk of his yearly income from his two marathons. If he doesn't make the Olympic team in a year, I bet those fees go down by a lot. So in that window between Olympics, I think that money has played a bigger role in which races he has done than you seem to be suggesting.

I would also bet that when you are an American who has been 6th at the most recent Olympics, it doesn't really matter if your pr is 2:09 or 2:11, neither one is really that fast when NYC was won in 2:05 this year. Boston and NYC pay him more than any American man who isn't Rupp (or Meb in 2017) because of his place at the Olympics, not his time. So running a 'fast' time won't change future appearance fees, only making another Olympic team will.

Its also not crazy to think that he could finish high enough at Boston to get significant prize money. Bumbalough was 4th last year, Jason Hartmann was 4th a few years ago. 4th at Boston earns $25k. If he ran 2:09 at London, its hard to imagine Ward would place in a position that would earn him more than a small fraction of that (I can't find prize money past third place at London.)

I just don't see what incentive Ward has other than pride to go after a fast time at a foreign race and forgo significant money running Boston.