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I think you'd have the following problems though...
1. The main reason Boston is so prestigious is that it is the world's oldest marathon. Any new race you recreate would need to build that up over decades.
2. The many large cities in the USA means you can have 3 or 4 really high profile events - Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Outside of London we don't have the comparable population centres.
3. One of the appeals of FLM is its location. Despite my northern bias I couldn't think of anywhere as prestigious to run in the country.
4. If you placed the time qualifications like Boston and had it in, say Birmingham or York then you'd have maybe 1000 club runners doing it. The size of the field makes FLM prestigious as well.
Having said all that we could do with a really high profile autumn marathon in this county. Lots of forumites have done Dublin or Amsterdam this autumn, or smaller events like Nottingham, Cardiff, Abingdon. Agree that for many people travelling abroad is too expensive / too much hassle.
Maybe one of these could give itself a shot in the arm by trying to rebrand itself as you suggest.
The only problem I can see for a marathon is that with those sort of times it would cater for the same people that already get GFA's at London. So the serious club runner who maybe isn't all that quick might end up having the same gripes as now?
Maybe if you have slower qualifying times you would get a bigger field but of serious runners only who have trained, prepared and raced over the distance before?
Could the Barnsley marathon be resurrected?
Most towns the size of Barnsley had their own marathon I'm told - Huddersfield etc. That was in the `running boom' of the 1980s.
There seems to be a thread under events for a race where everyone had to dress as a gorilla? Do people in Yorkshire go in for that sort of thing? Actually, if my Mother in Law is anything to go by I would think not. She's from Rotherham.
As this thread has turned all nice and friendly don't get me back onto running in costumes!
Actually we do have a club xmas handicap run in fancy dress. I tend not to do it an work out the handicaps instead. Might go as 118 man this year though if I can get away with it
Its good to hear that your club is starting up these new events. I wish you loads of luck with that. For beginners I think 10K is a good distance to aim for. Will you be allowing fancy dress and dogs or is that just for XMas time?
At Xmas time it does worry me that some of my (male) clubmates like to run throught tough ex-mining villages dressed in a pink fairy outfit!
So here goes
I seem to be hearing more and more about people using races as training runs. If a race is full or likely to be full (eg Cabbage Patch 10) is it reasonable for people to run it who are just "training over the distance" and are running at a certain heart rate as part of base training?
This seems entirely against the arguments put forward by runners on this thread that races should be for racing and not for just "jogging round"? Or are these people exempt from the normal criticisms on the basis that they are serious runners....
My initial reaction is that people running races as training runs are doing so as part of an overall athletic goal so have some justification for being there.
However I don't tend to do this and would choose a lower profile race if I did.
What makes me cross is the number of people who enter popular races with nothing more than a vague intention of actually running them and don't even turn up on the day.
Did you see Grumpy old men, I thought they were brilliant and I would be proud to be classed in the same pidgeon hole! It's essentially a sense of humor based on irony and the ability to be able to see the, sometimes idiotic, actions of the 'masses' being manipulated by the establishment, marketing, technology, TV, newspapers etc, etc.
It's being 'individual'.
Yesterday I had the misfortune of arriving late to a 10 mile race. Thanks to the organisers (Stragglers) we (me and my wife) were allowed to start 13 minutes late. We started catching up people at the 4th mile, and then we were passing the kind of people that are hijacking our sport:
- Disabled
- Veterans
- Beginers
- Youngsters
Some of them were at the limit of their abilities. Some of them were running comfortable as they were running with friends and family.
Who should be eliminated from our sport?
Maybe we should forbide all of them to run so the country can have a bronze medal at the Commonwealth's games.
I don't really seem to have a problem with getting places for races (FLM might be the exception !), so I see it as a bit of a non-issue. All you have to do is be a bit sensible and plan your races ahead. And if you aren't doing that, then you aren't a very serious athlete. I'd think Paula has a very good idea of her races for the next year or so now.
And we must encourage beginners and youngsters to run, or there won't be a sport to talk about in a few years.
is that relevant to the thread?
maybe you didn't understand what i meant due to my English. I don't mind to explain it if you like to.
Also agree with Erratic.
With regards big events being clogged up with poor ability runners....appart from FLM then there wouldn't be any big events without them. If you discourage people of limited ability or people having fun and dressing up then during the rest of the year a lot of the races would not get filled and you would be in danger of loosing some events. I have never raced in an event where the field are all good runners and for someone like me, who usually finishes mid field I would not like to run in such an event.
I did my first GNR after only 8 weeks training....but if it hadn't been for that I would never have taken up running as a past time...it still took me another 2 years to get the courage up to run a much smaller event as I worried that I would finsih towards the back...as it happened I was very pleased to finish somewhere in the middle, if I had been last I would not have been back.
I would just like to clap those people on the back who finish in the last 10% they deserve as much respect as the top 10% of finishers and without them the sport would suffer.......
enough of this running snobery please!
I agree with you wholeheartedly on where people stand at the start.
I disagree with the idea that people shouldn't run if they aren't going to try their hardest and with the idea that people shouldn't run in "silly costumes" (although I acknowledge that it was BR who said that not you)
In the end I suppose the whole problem is about as solveable as M25 traffic flow! The solution is simple (keep your distance) but the human population just can't see it!
NO, NO, NO please don't go there (the argument that is!.......... on the other hand the M25 as well!!).
I might make the point about yesterday's race a bit strongly, but i saw yesterday, people at the end pf the pack, really giving it all. They are also the kind of people that a lot of times are inspirational, as much as the top runners can be.
They deserve my admiration, and all the credit to take part on a race. And they were not doing for charity, they were running just for the pleasure of doing it.
But I agree we should try and sort out the starting problems.
BTW I don't have any issue with people using races as training - I just wanted to point out that not everyone has to run their hardest in a race. I don't think I could do it myself though - too competitive by half!