should there be a universal time limit for marathons? (Page 9)

Oh for goodness sake, are we still having this silly discussion? Lets move on, people. Put away the dead-horse clubs and stop feeding the trolls.

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I appreciate your suggestion to run a marathon and judge for myself, but that would be quite an involved effort and a considerable distraction from my main sports. Besides, I think I can put forth an opinion on the subject based on my own knowledge of marathoning. After all, I don’t think I need to work in the movie industry to be able to identify bad acting.

BodyCheck, congrats on a fantastic race! I understand that races around here attract lots of folks and the difference between gun time and chip time can be quite astounding (heck, I did the 10K with only 4,000 folks and the difference for me was over 3 1/2 minutes). No, I'm referring to the tail end Charlies who were just walking, hence the announcer pleading with them to run so they could clear the course for the 10K.

I knew about the 20 minute delay, and I knew that meant you all just lost 20 minutes to get to the bridge, hence the WTF? You were long gone by that point, I'm sure! Again, congrats.

Chciago marathon it is 24 mins into the race before I crossed the line. yes I was already 6 miles behind so I had to really run 26.2 miles in the time it takes for the leaders to run 20 miles.

Free beer and pizza is a good reason to finish faster. I barely got food at my tent in chicago marathon and no beer at milwaukee jsut a couple of cookies. Sure they tasted good but I heard alot about the beer so I was disapoint. Since I was driving home from the racetoo much beer + marathon = bad news on the roads.

I run a half in 2:15, so I would take over 5hrs probably for a marathon. I don't think there should be a time limit...let the RD make whatever they make, and that's it. My 10min+ miles wouldn't make me any less of an endurance athlete than anyone else. I would still run 26.2 miles.

what about marathons with no time limit? I guess the RD might be like forget it we are out of here but advertise with no limit? That is the other reason for having a max you can always make it shorter but the idea is that it also does not go on forever or have people not even doing a 30:00 min mile. That is not even walking anymore really.

You'll never see that because RDs have a fiduciary responsibility to provide a reasonably safe race course for people that pay the entry fee. And no RD can guarantee a reasonably safe race course for an indefinite amount of time. They can't tell the cops to police intersections forever. They can't ask volunteers to man aid stations forever. They can't provide EMS forever. Etc, etc.

The bottom line is that course limits are for logistical purposes only, and have nothing to do with "respect for the distance."

Edited by run4yrlif 2006-10-31 9:01 AM

for the people who want to do a marathon within an (almost) unlimited amount of time, there are 12h and 24h races.

you can take all the breaks you want to and nobody will think any less of you if you don't do the whole 26.2. or, if you do feel like you can go on, you can push for another 10 miles or so after taking a good rest.

maybe that's the thing for you, chirunner.

Well maybe that is true but Honolulu marathon will not tell you it. An email from them. Street closing and what not are not always an issue if you they are done in parks, trails, or other places that have no streets. LA alot of people walk on the sidewalk and wait for the light to change to proceed on. Then again that could explain why some people have pretty long times but still does not explain people over 10 hours.

reply from the honolulu marathon.

Aloha,
All participants are allowed to finish regardless of their time. Best regards.


At 08:11 PM 10/23/2006 -0700, you wrote:
>Is there a time limit for your marathon? I have not found one on your
>page. Rem134

yeah I did an 8 hour race. It was fun. I did not stop or takes breaks but I did stop with 5 mins left on the clock. I would not have gotten in 1 more 1/2 mile so there was no point to it.

a friend of mine does 24 hour races and loves them. I do not think I personally could not go beyond 9 - 10 hours at the moment. Probably 35 miles or so is my limit. Then again who knows. I never taken any breaks during a race so I would not know how far I can go if I did.

well I have to apologize to some of the people who did honolulu. my friend who did it said it can be really hot which would slow people down alot. Even 90 degrees at the start of the race at 5:30 am but that is rare for that time.

I will not say sorry to those who brought their cigerettes with them to smoke on the course during the race. Now yes it did not bother my friend too much once he was on the course but standing next to a guy at the start line smoking is not very nice thing and most serious runners do not like that.. He also did not like the people who were standing getting ready for the race carrying a picket basket.

People wonder why I brought up a universal time limit.


if you want to know why I think marathoning is so scared check out this movie. OMG I can not wait to see it.

http://www.marathonmovie.com/home.html

Yes, universal cut-off time should be somewhere around 3 hours in my opinion.

Kidding.

yes

no. walked is ok. m point if it takes you 10 hours can you really call what you did racing or a casual hike.

The difference isn't in the time, it's in how much you actually walked.

Hal Higedon in his book recommends walking through out the marathon because you can still be a 2:45 marathoner and walk some. One of my college professors walked last 6 miles and did a 2:45. does that mean he did not run a marathon? if I run at a 13:30 pace and finish at 5:53:45 and do not stop once does that somehow means I ran a better race. My prof will not do one again because he was on a 2:20 pace and just died at mile 20. I still think that is incredible and he should have kept it up. I even suggested it but he feels he is too old to be able to really race. Sometimes people are too competitve.

The Marathon is not about finishing but to push yourself over this long distance to see if you have the guts to keep it up and finish. If your stopping for a smoke break you kinda defeat spirit of the race. Do not get me wrong 26.2 is 26.2 you can not escape that fact.

even boston had 2 marathoners after 6:30 and 5% or 980 of there finishers came in after 5 hours.

honestly if I BQ I would do it in like 5 hours or so. I would hate to go through all that work and fail at the end. I know the best part of boston is the qualfing for it but you still have to do the race.

I'm pretty sure that if you are running and not walking, even with 10+ min miles, you can say you "ran" a marathon. Maybe not ran fast, but still ran it.

This will be my last .02 on this thread (to the sighs and relief of many I am sure). I took a few days after my last post of this topic to try to think out why I felt so strongly about this issue. Duggar1 and myself were in some pretty heated discussion regarding this and I won't attempt to speak for him or his opinions, but mine came down to this. I believe that ultimately, the marathon is about the participants. Whether they are able to finish in 2:30 or whether they take the maximum amount of time that an RD can keep the race course open, without them, the marathon is just 26.2 miles of pavement and asphalt. The topic of a "universal" cut-off time doesn't allow for the fact that some of us are faster than others, some of us are slower than others. It doesnt mean that the 6.5 hour marathoner has trained any less, or has any less talent, heart or desire to do better or improve themselves and their time as the faster runners. It just a fact of life, that some are faster than others. The important thing is that they are out there and participating, improving their health and doing something positive for themselves instead of sitting on a counch, eating bon-bons and watching Jerry Springer. I have spent a good portion of my adult life encouraging people to get active, whether as a physical fitness program coordinator, trainer or instructor and I am so encouraged to see so many trying to make the right kinds of improvements in their lives.
I do not believe that anyone should have the right to tell someone else that they dont have the right to run an event just because they may not be "fast enough". The RD's typically set the limits for a race due to logistics. I think we all agree that when you sign up for a race, you sign up with the realization that if you don't complete it in that amount of time, the course may be closed on you and you may lose logistic support. We all face that fact though each time we "toe the line". We never know when that person could be us, when we could be the one who is having a bad day, but we all take the challenge each time we race, and that is the right that I believe each and every person who signs up for an endurance event or activity should have, to be able to compete and challenge themselves without arbitrary, artifical and uncessary time limits.
End Rant........

You know, I totally disagree with this statement. What some people lack in talent they make up for in hard work. I would argue there is a vast world of difference between the training done by someone completeing a 6.5 hour marathon and the training done by someone completing a 3 hour marathon. I'm not saying the 6.5 hour dude didn't work hard, I'm just saying that his time is not only a reflection of natural talent.

Having said that, I also totally agree with your following statement.

 

Some might argue that running a marathon can be detrimental to health, due to the fact that people are doing it without proper training, and are pounding the snot out of their legs and joints and such.

I also think that we miss the point that some people just aren't made for running a marathon. So what? You don't see me getting upset that I'm a sucky sprinter. I'm not made for sprints, or hurdles or any of those other types of races. Big deal. So you're not a marathoner, no one's gonna get upset with you over that. Not everyone can be.

I have to ask, even though this has been alluded to, I don't see any sort of direct answer to the question: how does everyone feel about the universal cut-off for the Ironman?