Comments for MarathonJunkie

Comment on Olympic Games or Wine Tasting? by Mark

Mark — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:06:22 +0000

great article Junkie. Thx for sharing. 10,500 athlete’s for the world. Interesting.

Comment on Olympic Games or Wine Tasting? by Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:59:44 +0000

There should be the IOC standard as it is now, and as it works now, but there should also be an automatic standard that if a country has more than 3 athletes below that tougher standard they can send more runners (perhaps have a tiered system.)

Comment on Let Them Eat Cake by Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:00:36 +0000

That’s one of the reasons for putting on low-cost local races. One of the races I direct is a popular area 10 miler in the middle of the Winter here in Maine. Despite the problematic weather and tough training conditions, we’ve had to cap the race at 800 people because the town won’t let us put it on with more people than that. Despite the demand, we keep the cost down to $15 (although if you want a shirt we do sell them at about 20 cents above our cost which doesn’t even cover the volunteer shirts who get them for free.) $25 if you get a shirt is still less than a lot of local 5ks with a fraction of the people and service to the runner. (This year we actually put the race on at a loss – 3/4 of our runners didn’t have to pay to enter the race due to having to cancel it 3 times last year, so we didn’t charge folks to run it this year if they wanted to transfer their registration despite the fact that we didn’t keep any of that money.)

Comment on Let Them Eat Cake by Haggie

Haggie — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:54:43 +0000

Great article!! You mention the big cities but the same “inflation” has hit the rurals as well. I had participated in the Canadian Death Race for 5 years and on the last year the race director sold the race to North Face. When North Face took over they required a $100 increase to the registration fee bringing it up to $350 per person ….. not per team. You are looking at 1000 to 1200 registered participants with NO refund due to injury and no option to switch to a team. Their policy is “too bad, so sad.”

Comment on Let Them Eat Cake by jen

jen — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:33:28 +0000

Totally agree. Horse shit is right. I am from a small city in Sask, Canada. My group puts on a half and full marathon. We charge $40 for which each participant gets chip timing, beautiful medal, full hot meal and a technical race item (sugoi toque this year). Any money left is donated, we want to encourage people to run, and also give free entries to certain youth groups who cannot afford to run. These races don’t promote our sport in a way. Lower income people can’t even enter a race and get a medal because the prices are so outlandish, very unfortunate. I say RANT away, and all of us should ban together and RANT!!!

Comment on Olympic Games or Wine Tasting? by Mike

Mike — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:02:04 +0000

Very interesting and thought provoking rant. Would be interesting if they let all qualifying times run the marathon regardless of country – I mean the Boston marathon boasts 27k runners and they seem to manage; how bad would ~100 be? That’s truly an offering of the best of the world, but the marathon is a “unique” olympic sport as it could easily accommodate a few hundred competitors, while other events like the 200m butterfly would be constrained by space and resources within the pool, even if you posted a qualifying time.

All that said, I have a gut feeling that African nations will take 2 of the three medals in the men’s Olympic marathon with a wild card taking either the silver or bronze.

Thanks for making me think…

Comment on Olympic Games or Wine Tasting? by Marathon Junkie

Marathon Junkie — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:25:36 +0000

If your country sets a standard for the games, call it an A standard. and you hit you should be allowed to go. As for “real team sports” that’s a tougher call. I think each country should be allowed to send as many athletes as the feel will do the job. If you have 50 great basketball players and your country wants to pay to send all 50, put them on a plane. Those countries with talent should send bigger teams. We could split up the Olympics like we do State Championships. Div 1,2,3 etc… Countries with a certain population compete in a specific division. But clearly this will not work as countries with the biggest populations do not have the best athletes. And we can’t go by S.E.S either. I like the time standard within your country idea and then send your best if they hit that standard. Currently it sits at 2:15 for the men.

Comment on Let Them Eat Cake by Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:16:17 +0000

This blog is just awesome. My thoughts: unless your surname is Mutai why bother with the World Majors. Besides the ridiculous cost of the entry fee…Does anyone really like sitting outside in the cold morning air for 3 hours (that’s longer than it takes MJ to finish one) before a race, paying $350 for a $150 hotel room, and feeling like you are at a mall on Black Friday instead of race expo to just get a freaking bib? No, I didn’t think so. I’ll see you all at a small race soon!

Shannon

Comment on Olympic Games or Wine Tasting? by JP

JP — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:54:02 +0000

Hell Ya! Chuck tells it like it is! I would love to see a huge field of everyone who meets the standard set by the IOC. This standard should be stricter, and it should eliminate “elite passengers” from weaker running countries. I’m Canadian and I’m excited we have 3 athletes going, but not at the expense of 100+ faster Kenyans! Let’s push the envelope and see how fast these guys/gals can actually get! The Olympics is about the showcasing the “best”, it not supposed to be some “back-slapping-let’s-all-get-along-sing-along”!

Comment on Olympic Games or Wine Tasting? by Anders Forselius

Anders Forselius — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:51:37 +0000

Agree!!!