No offense intended. I am going on a twenty five year old memory here. My recollection is that it started as a very small, relatively elite event. Then it was rerouted to take in all five boroughs and it became a big event.

If my memory is correct, you are comparing apples and oranges (no pun intended). Also note that the median time went up 40 minutes from one year to the next. That must reflect the change I described above, since it is way too big to be random or measure an incremental annual change.

It would not be reasonable to compare the NYC marathon with the US Olympic qualifier, an invitation only event, for example. I don't think it was that extreme, but my memory says you are comparing events that were the same in name only.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for the advice Fleck. In a typical year I only run 2 10k's and I have never run a half marathon.

In Mercedes, I crossed the 20 mile mark at 2:18:35. At the time I figured I could run a 41 minute 10k and break 3 hours for the first time. No dice. I gave it everything I had and came up 3 minutes short.

I will now start doing long tempo runs.

Thanks...

I bet a lot more than 5% here have run sub 3. I am chopped liver as far as athletes on this board are concerned, and I did this way back when.

I'll add something quick before I turn in: Mileage and frequency, of course. Plenty of people can pull 3 to 3:30 marathons with a few 40-50 mile weeks and 2 or 3 20-milers. I'm one (3:04 PR). My friends who have run well under 3 hours (2:40ish) put in 80 mile weeks and might average 50-60 mpw for several months. That's a lot. Good luck!

Thanks

Indeed, I never really had a good go at a marathon. It is my one regret from a long time involvement in running and triathlon. The marathons that I did do, were always a bit of an afterthought at the end of the tri season or in the spring just doing them as a long hard run trying to hold 6:00 min/mile pace. I often thought that if I took 6 - 8 months and really worked on it that I could get down to 2:30, but I never did that. The closest I came was I did Around The Bay 30K in Hamilton one year after a big running focus and I went 1:44, which would work out to around 2:28 - 2:30 for a marathon.

The sidewalks of Aurora were "snow-capped" here in the Toronto area this morning!

Fleck

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

My suggestion would be to run more 10K to 1/2 marathon events. If you apply proper pacing, these are great ways to push the tempo envelope and make you more effcient at about 6:00 min/mile pace and slightly faster.

When I was racing seriously, I made sure that I did a 10K or a 1/2 Marathon race almost once a month year round outside of tri racing season. It was my benchmark of how fit I was( the clock does not lie), but it was also a great workout.

Fleck

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

[reply]Anybody know what percentage of the Marathon-population actually runs sub 3-hours? I'm guessing between 5-10%.[/reply]
I just bought the 'Marathon Special' edition of the German Running magazine. There the published Sub-3 hour number for some Marathons:

Rotterdam 398 runners = 4.9% of all finisher
Berlin 1257 4.5%
London 1158 3.6%
Chicago 681 2.1%
Boston 328 2.0%
New York 489 1.3%
Rock'n'Roll 97 0.6%
Medoc F 33 0.4%

Felix

---

http://www.weilenmann.ch.vu

No wonder it's only .4% at the Medoc. You have all the local products (foie gras, ...) at the aid stations.

This is my dream marathon, if I ever did one, that would be this one. :o)

Again, more stats to show that the Euros are studs and North American athletes are lame. Even in a "stacked" race like Boston (OK, so it is a tough course and was hot last year), with guys having to post qual times, only around 400 (granted, it is around 1000 in a normal year). Regardless, the numbers don't lie as you can see from Berlin, London and Rotterdam. Arguably, there are likely less >4 hour finishers in the Euro races (ie no team in training/running room learn to run clubs) attempting to do marathons. Its still relatively hard core over there, compared to the mass participation/walk-runners you see in many marathons in North America (this is a good thing for the sport).

Rotterdam is in april. Lots of oxigen.

You are comparing apples with oranges. You can not compare results of the 70s with now.



The best cycler of the moment, lance Armstrong, now wins approx. 7 races each season. Eddy Merckx won 1/3 of all the races he started.

But Eddy wasn't into running...

---

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fuck a duck and try to fly

I've kind of turned back to running full time and figure if I can't get down to 2:30 this fall, I probably need to concentrate on tri's more or just start racing bikes full time.

It is all in perspective.

[reply][.reply]Anybody know what percentage of the Marathon-population actually runs sub 3-hours? I'm guessing between 5-10%.[./reply]
I just bought the 'Marathon Special' edition of the German Running magazine. There the published Sub-3 hour number for some Marathons:

Rotterdam 398 runners = 4.9% of all finisher
Berlin 1257 4.5%
London 1158 3.6%
Chicago 681 2.1%
Boston 328 2.0%
New York 489 1.3%
Rock'n'Roll 97 0.6%
Medoc F 33 0.4%[/reply]

I have done Zurich Marathon and remembered this thread. Here are the number for http://www.zurichmarathon.com :

Zurich 2005: 383 runners = 6.9%
Zurich 2004: 377 runners = 6.5%
Zurich 2004: 269 runners = 5.8%

But Zurich has a 5hour limit that gives higher percentage Sub 3-hour finisher.

Felix

---

http://www.weilenmann.ch.vu