DFW running club mark 3!! ALL ARE WELCOME!!

Alias_Omega

Been onto the phone, returning number with a letter. If i start in Zone K, morale will be 0 and i may well run the event.

Running past walkers who are 5-6 wide isnt funny, feel like i just want to plough through them.

RichOneday_2

"Powersong" – An innovation that Nike has introduced to Bupa GreatRun events. Powersong is special section of the course, usually situated close to the finish and designed to give runners a vital extra boost. Lines of loud-speakers along the side of the road create a tunnel of wall-to-wall sound playing motivational music tracks.

OMG - its a giant Ipod that you cant escape from!:p:rotfl:

willstewart

RichOneday wrote: »

Its more likely the case that there are a lot of people who claim to be faster than they are, Alias.

It sums up why the big races are really not worth bothering with any more - the likes of the GNR and LM used to be the pinnacle of the sport that you would work towards. You could be sure of getting a good race and have a high chance of pb potential.

Now, far from being the ultimate aim these races are the first port of call for people who havent even run a half marathon before or in some cases havent run any sort of race before. So they are just packed out with tens of thousands of walkers and very slow runners which just creates hassle and just about guarantees that there is no chance of pbs except at the very front.

And I can see it getting worse yet.

As an example, if you're looking to do a half for the first time and you look at past results of say the GNR and the oldest half, Freckleton, you will see that at Freckleton there were 17 runners taking more than 2:20, at GNR there were 14,000!

So, on the basis of safety in numbers, the GNR will attract all the slow runners/walkers. And for the reason that everyone else wants to at least to get a properly run race they will be more inclined to do the less hyped races.

So paying through the nose and all the accompanying hassle at the big races just make them less attractive to regular runners. They're only worth doing if you can get an 'invite' entry of some sort so that you can at least get a free flowing run.

I did the Moray marathon last year (Elgin, Scotland) and there were 129 finishers out of maybe 130 entrants. I came 100th with a time of 4h11.
Something like London would have got me ahead of maybe 20,000+ people with that time.

I also did the Milton Keynes half last month and found that, for parts of the course, way too crowded. I just couldn't get any space to run at the pace I wanted and was all over the place - far harder to run at a slower pace in my opinion.

I've done a few smaller runs recently and it's great having space around you, especially if it's a 5 mile or 10km and you want a half decent time. Nothing worse than spending the first mile or two hemmed in and then finding you having to run near impossible sub-5 min/miles to get the time you wanted.

Seen many a race where people are walking 100m into the race after starting near the front and it's not crowded. Sometimes people just stand at the nearest available space regardless of ability.

With a lot of chip-timed races, you might be better just standing at the back, waiting half an hour until everyone is gone and then getting a nice clear field in which to run how you want to. Sure your gun time will suck, but you've a better chance of getting a good line-to-line time which is what counts for most of us who aren't ever going to see the front of a race.

RichOneday_2

Alias_Omega wrote: »

Been onto the phone, returning number with a letter. If i start in Zone K, morale will be 0 and i may well run the event.

Running past walkers who are 5-6 wide isnt funny, feel like i just want to plough through them.

And that is the problem in a nutshell, Alias. Its all well and good encouraging everyone to take part but, as a result, very few people can get a proper run out of the event.

There really should be two events - one where you have to prove a recent time of sub 2:00 for instance and then a second mass event with no qualification.

Road races have to be of a certain size to survive with all the costs involved, but as soon as they achieve any sort of size they become 'non-races'. Hence, the quickly declining standards.

RichOneday_2

Willstewart - couldnt agree more!

The smaller races are so much more relaxed and friendly whereas the big events that are effectively 'fun runs' are anything but fun!:rolleyes:

The true spririt of the sport is alive and well at the smaller events but you can feel it being marginalised very quickly. The general public think that its all about this non-competitive stuff that they see on their tv screens. And this, in turn, prevents young kids getting motivated by the excitement of the sport.

RichOneday_2

willstewart wrote: »

With a lot of chip-timed races, you might be better just standing at the back, waiting half an hour until everyone is gone and then getting a nice clear field in which to run how you want to. Sure your gun time will suck, but you've a better chance of getting a good line-to-line time which is what counts for most of us who aren't ever going to see the front of a race.

We were discussing this very idea while hanging around at the start of the FLM this year.

Its certainly not worth getting stressed if you're late getting to the start as it wont make any diffrence to your chip time, and may even help it!

However, my only real experience of this scenario was at the GNR a few years back when a group of us were held up on the Metro travelling form South Shields to the start in Newcastle. As a result we missed the start by 20+ minutes at which point just about everyone had got over the start line.

My finishing position that day was about 1400th, just outside 1:30. But I can assure you that I have never had a race that took so much mental effort to just find somewhere to put your feet. Overtaking 33,500 people is an experience but I wouldnt recommend it.:p

willstewart

The Reading Half Marathon isn't bad for a big event. Had 2 PBs there even though the field seems to grow year by year.

The Moray marathon, for example, is excellent value as well. £18 to enter and that gets you a t-shirt, medal, some food at the finish and then there's the water stations en-route and tea/sandwiches etc in the town hall at the end.
Has a half-marathon and 10km later in the day using the latter stages of the same route.
Great scenery, plenty of space to do your own thing (although more like a training run as you can be apart from others for quite a bit) etc.

Far better value than the £50? for the GNR which is just about a "fun" day out rather than real running (and that's not including all the getting there and back, hotels needing to be booked sometimes a year in advance etc).....assuming you get in at all!

RichOneday_2

Now here's an interesting stat:

In total, there have been in the region of 1,000,000 finishers in the GNR since it started in 1981.

Now you would think that it would be pretty simple to fill the race each year with previous participants if the sporting element was actually a factor.

However, in this year's event there will be 36,400 first timers, ie 70% of the total. Where does this stat come from? From the GNR when promoting themselves to their sponsors.......it shows where the priorities lie.

We all knew that the GNR and LM were focussed on filling the events with newbies who are far more gullible and profitable but it is interesting to see the stark figures proving the point.:rolleyes:

willstewart

It could be that a lot of people just want to do it the once?
Same with London. It's one of these events you really want to do after watching it on tv, yet after doing it and seeing how much it costs in the end, or you've done a marathon / half, achieved your goal and that's it.

RichOneday_2

Indeed!

Considering that most newbies will target London as their first effort at a marathon by default they are first time marathon runners not just first time Londoners. And first time marathoners are very rarely adequately prepared or advised realistically about the nature of their undertaking.

I would find it hard to believe that the LM stats are much different to those for GNR so the LM organisers are deliberately packing the field with the least qualified people to cope with the demands of the event.

By doing so, they know that a lot will never run a marathon again. But do they care? As long as they can repeat the process the following year they're quite happy.

So, out of all the boxes that are completed on an LM application form I would suggest that the one with the highest significance is :

Have you run the LM before Y/N?