Let’s start with with easiest distance to follow, the marathon. One note for the next couple of posts. If I have information that needs to be cited, there will be a “source” link at the end of the respective sentence that you can click. Also, those articles/websites will have more detail on that point of this discussion.
Pro marathoners will usually do two per year, one in the fall and one in the spring. You may get someone who will do three or more, but two is a standard number. There are six marathon majors. In alphabetical order they are: Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, and Tokyo. Berlin, Chicago, and New York take place in the fall while Boston, London, and Tokyo are in the spring. (Tokyo is in February, so winter may be a better designation.) Most of the recent world records have been set at Berlin but London is a flat and fast course and has also seen world records (Berlin source; London Source). Both Berlin and London are considered “fast” marathons where there is a legitimate attempt to set the world record. Boston (whose course is not world record eligible) and New York are considered more tactical. In other words, while time is important, the focus is more on strategy and maintaining your place (Marathon source).
You might wonder about the difference between a tactical versus fast marathon. Aren’t they all fast? Yes, the majors are all fast. But, even if the course is world-record eligible, the first goal of the elite runners is to win. It’s simply that a flat, fast course that is world record eligible will lend itself more to record pursuits.
There is a saying that a marathon has two halves, the first 20 miles and the final 6.2. For many runners, mile 20 is where you hit the wall and you hope to maintain your pace over the final 6.2. For many professionals, while there is strategy and jockeying for position in the first 20, the final 6.2 is where the most intense part of the race happens. Usually the leaders who will be contending for the win have broken away from everyone else and quite a lot can still happen among them. If a runner doesn’t have as much closing speed, maybe they try to push sooner in the race to create a gap over the other athletes earlier. If they have good closing speed, maybe they hope the pack stays together a little longer and then they use their superior speed to break away closer to the end.
For a major marathon on a fast, world-record eligible course, there is always hope it will be a good race and that a world record will fall. However, a number of factors can affect the pace including how well any hired pacers perform and weather conditions. If hired pacers go out too fast, the lead runners may use too much gas early in the race to get to a world record or, if the pacers start too slow, the leaders may not be able to make up the time. Since the first goal is to win, the leaders will use their judgement. It does them no good to be on world record pace through mile 23 and have to drop out. It’s much better to win and then hope for a record next time.
On weather conditions. Several days leading up to a race, you can start to see whether the conditions will be favorable for it to be fast. This past year, the weather was forecast to be warm for the London Marathon and thus a world record was less likely (London weather source). I was still up to see the end of it, just in case, but there was no record. Boston was going to be windy and rainy. In those conditions, all bets are off. Professional runners won the race, including a former second overall Boston finisher, but it was a grinder and you could be sure no course records were going to be set that day. In fact, 62.5% of the elite men’s field and 56.25% of the elite women’s field dropped out (2018 Boston source).
Ahead of time, the major marathons will release their roster of the elite field, which would be professional runners who have been invited to run the race and are expected to contend for the win. This can tell you what to expect. In the spring of 2017, Eliud Kipchoge participated in the Breaking2 project and was not going to be at London, which changed the dynamic of that race (Breaking 2 source ). For the 2017 New York Marathon, Shalane Flanagan was predicted to potentially win the race (New York source). You never know how a race will play out, but seeing the rosters and pre-race analysis will tell you some baseline expectations.
There are many other marathons out there, some small, some mid-sized, and some large ones. Dubai, in January, has the largest prize purse and some of the world’s best have run there (Dubai marathon source). The other smaller and large marathons may not lure in the type of talent you see at the six majors, but there may be newer marathon runners there who are primed to jump to the next level.
How do you actually watch the marathon? This is trickier. Not too long ago, many of them had free live streams. Now, a lot of the majors have switched over to subscription streams, though residents of the area where it’s being held can often watch on a local news station. (Their servers do recognize whether your computer is actually in the area, so you can’t simply visit the local website and get access.) However, they also have Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, and if a local radio station is covering it, you may be able to tune into that station via the internet and listen in. That’s what I did for London this year.
Given that there are only so many major races to watch and that the elite marathoners do two per year, the marathon is one distance that is relatively easy to keep track of, as far as running goes.
This post is not quite marathon-length but to keep the pace reasonable, sprints will be next time…
Running food review of the week: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): Honey Stinger Fruit Smoothie: This one is pretty good. I ate it around 5:30 one morning before a quick early run and while it didn’t have the texture or temperature of a smoothie, it had the flavor and that’s good enough for me. Even better, on an empty stomach and downed with a glass of water, it went over just fine GI-wise. I was a little tired when I started but once this gel kicked in, I felt much better.
List of sources used:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Marathon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Marathon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a20854533/so-close-kipchoge-runs-a-2-00-25-in-the-breaking2-attempt/
https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2017/11/new_york_marathon_shalane_flan.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-43836614
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/04/trying-make-sense-crazy-2018-boston-marathon/
http://www.dubaimarathon.org/