Test of Will in Brutal Marathon Conditions-Perfect for a 40 something mother & full time nurse from Jersey

This is one of my favorite letsrun threads of all time. Nice call! Congratulations to Roberta on an amazing accomplishment!

From Runners World article on the race:

"Both Groner and Dimoff chose to participate in a study being undertaken by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), and they swallowed electronic pills that measured their core temperature during the race, an effort by by the sport’s governing body to understand more about the condition of competitors racing in extreme heat.

“It’s good data for the sport,” Groner said. “I’ll do anything for research. I’m a nurse!” "

That's cool. But I wonder if they tried the "electronic pill" on a training run, as in "don't try anything new during a race."

Among the top 10 finishers, nine (all but Groner) ran ~11-15 minutes slower than their PBs. Groner was 9:35 off her best. In those conditions, a significant accomplishment.

Wouldn't that be doping? We don't truly know the side effects of electronic pills on the human body and performance. Tainted, IMO.

BlueNorther wrote:

From Runners World article on the race:

"Both Groner and Dimoff chose to participate in a study being undertaken by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), and they swallowed electronic pills that measured their core temperature during the race, an effort by by the sport’s governing body to understand more about the condition of competitors racing in extreme heat.

“It’s good data for the sport,” Groner said. “I’ll do anything for research. I’m a nurse!” "

That's cool. But I wonder if they tried the "electronic pill" on a training run, as in "don't try anything new during a race."

Is her nickname really “Groner the Grindr”???

Wu Ming wrote:

Among the top 10 finishers, nine (all but Groner) ran ~11-15 minutes slower than their PBs. Groner was 9:35 off her best. In those conditions, a significant accomplishment.

Very impressive performance for her.

Does anyone know why the field for the race was so small? Surprised that more than 60 whatever people didn't want to run. If WC's ever wants to attract top talent maybe federations need to offer an appearance fee like the big marathons do.

40 years on this planet and I finally get something right-thanks Roberta!

joedirt wrote:

I'll be amazed if half finish.

Bingo

6th out of 30?

Roberta is a very disciplined and intelligent runner. This result is no surprise. Good things are still to come.

Roberta is a native of Western PA attended and ran for Seneca Valley HS here. I saw her win the Brentwood Firecracker 5k on this past 4th of July when she was home over another local native Margo Malone.

I'm surprised only 41% dropped. Still the highest rate of DNF at any WC or Olympics and about double the mean (Tokyo is next at 38% and Moscow is the only other above 30 % at 33%) and the slowest time of any WC (about 6 minutes slower than the mean). So basically the worst conditions ever at a WC or Olympics. Hopefully none of the athletes have any lasting effects.