WTW: The Decline (In Importance) Of The Dubai Marathon + Hardly Anyone Showed Up At USA XC

Most weeks, we try to make the sport more fun to follow by putting the prior week’s action in perspective for you.

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The Decline In Importance Of The Dubai Marathon / Show Me The Money

You may not have realized it but the Dubai Marathon was held on Sunday (Saturday night in the US). For the record, 23-year old Bute Gemechu won the men’s race in his debut in 2:04:51. In the women’s race, 25-year-old marathon veteran Bedatu Hirpa, who won the 2015 World Youths in the 1500, took the lead after the 26 mile mark and won the women’s race in 2:18:27 – her first sub-2:21 clocking in her 14th marathon finish. Considering I used to regularly watch the live stream of this race, it struck me that I barely knew it was happening and had no interest in watching it live. Why?

Because the race isn’t nearly as significant as it used to be.

On a superficial level, Dubai doesn’t appear to be that much different than 10 years ago. For the 12 straight running of the race, the men’s winner hailed from Ethiopia and he ran in the 2:04-2:05 range. But 2:04-2:05 in the year 2025 isn’t what it was a decade ago.

Take a look at the following chart which shows you where the Dubai winning time ranked on the season-ending marathon list in the last 3 editions of the race before super shoes arrived on the scene (2013-2014-2015) as well as the last 3 editions of the race.

So why haven’t the Dubai winning times improved with super shoes? The answer is simple.

Money.

Between 2008-2012, Dubai offered $500,000 in men’s prize money each year and between 2013-2018, it was at least $400,000. Since 2019, it’s been less than 200k (it $168,000 last year and remember $400,000 from 2013 is the equivalent of more than $541,000 in 2024)

The reason why I had little interest in watching Dubai this year is because it’s a less significant race than it used to be.

In case you are wondering, here is the same chart for the women.

*2:04:51 would have ranked 26th in 2025
**2:18:28 would have ranked 21st in 2024

Ethiopia! 🇪🇹

From 1st to 20th, every podium spot in men’s and women’s #DubaiMarathon was Ethiopian!

✔️Bute Gemechu blazed through the men’s marathon in 2:04:50, in first.

✔️On the women’s side, Bedatu Hirpa clinched victory with a stunning 2:18:27 finish! #GiancarloColumbo pic.twitter.com/CKYlg1lhxp

— Running Network (@Running_Network) January 12, 2025

*Ethiopians Bute Gemechu (2:04:51) And Bedatu Hirpa (2:18:27) Win Dubai Marathon *Results

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In compiling those stats, it was interesting to realize that only one man in all of 2024 broke 2:05:00 twice in the year. Deresea Geleta (2:03:27 in Seville, 2:02:38 in Valencia) – meaning 2:05 still isn’t a time to be joked about. Now an Olympic year is a bit of an anomaly as many of the very best marathoners don’t get two cracks at a fast one. For the women, three women broke 2:17 twice on the year (Tigist Ketema ran 2:16:07 in Dubai and 2:16:42 in Berlin, Alemu Megertu ran 2:16:34 in London and 2:16:49 in Valencia, and Sutume Asefa ran 2:15:55 in Tokyo and 2:17:32 in Chicago).

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If No One Shows Up For A National Championship, Does It Still Count? / Friendly Reminder: A World XC On US Soil Is Now Less than 365 Days Away!!!

A depressingly small US cross country championships were held over the weekend in Lubbock, Texas – which USATF hilariously described as being “just a short drive from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.” For the record, the DFW airport is over 330 miles from Lubbock, Texas which makes it 5.5+ hours if you are averaging 60 mpw.

The  dominant winner of the women’s race – which had just 17 competitors – was former Colorado runner Carrie Ellwood (née Verdon, 23 second margin of victory). The winner of the men’s race – which had just 28 finishers – was 2021 Olympic steeplechaser Benard Keter (9 second margin of victory) as only 3 runners even finished within a minute of him.

When someone who never finished in the top 100 of the NCAA xc championships is winning a US title by 23 seconds, you know the level of competition isn’t great but it should be pointed out that Ellwood has improved a great deal since college as she now sports solid PBS of 15:18/31:37/2:31:51.

 

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Moving forward, USATF MUST needs to do the following.

1. Announce the location and host of the championships well beforehand – we’d prefer at least one year out. The date and location of this year’s championship weren’t announced until October 16, 2024.
2. Strongly consider combining the USATF Club championships with the US XC Champs.
3. If you don’t do #2, consider scrapping the US xc championships in non-world xc years all together. We at Letsrun.com have always said we don’t need more races – we just need more races that matter. We certainly don’t need a cash-strapped USATF spending money on more races that don’t matter.

Looking ahead to next year’s event, the rumor is that USATF is going to hold Club nationals the day after Worlds on the World xc course in Tallahassee. We like this idea. We at LetsRun.com want the 2025 World XC Champs to be a celebration of running getting all of the Club xc runners a reason to be in Tallahassee for Worlds is a good start.

Of course, considering club nationals is normally held in early December, making Club Nats the US selection race for World xc would also work as Worlds are on January 10th so December 13th would work great as a selection race date.

There’s a nice discussion of this whole topic on the messageboard: MB: USATF Cross Country Championships looked so dead today.

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Other Results / News of Note

• MB: Emma Coburn runs indoor mile – sets facility record (4:33 at altitude in Boulder)
• MB: Colin Sahlman Ridiculous 600/400 double He ran 1:17.24 to win the 600m (NAU school record) and doubled back to win the 400m in 48.63.
• Texas A&M’s Auhmad Robinson’s Runs 32.34 For 300m (#3 NCAA All-Time) At Home Meet
• Euro Round-Up: Former Euro 800m Champ Mariano Garcia Runs 1500m PB Of 3:35.87 In Spain The Netherlands’ Menno Vloon clears early season pole vault world lead of 5.82m in France.
• Sweden’s Andreas Almgren times finish to perfection, wins Valencia in European record of 26:53, while Kenya’s Hellen Lobun (29:30) takes women’s crown It was quite windy as Almgren went 13:43-13:10. Olympic triathlon champ Alex Yee ran 28:08 as he gets ready to debut in London.
  *MB: Valencia 10k 2025 live thread
  *MB: Andreas Almgren runs 26:53 European record in Valencia 10k! New European record! 13:43 1st half – 13:10 2nd half!
  *MB: Olympic triathlon champ Alex Yee (27:54 pb) to run Valencia 10k this weekend as he preps for London Marathon debut

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Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum.