Wired's Nicholas Thompson on Boston: "It’s a terrible course if you want a personal best." Agree or Disagree?

perfect info. from a qualified guy. with experience.

there should be a separate forum for people that have some idea what so ever.

further.

there should be one forum for basement dwellers and then another for like, people with some clue

maybe have run sub 15 min 5k gets you in. or sub 412 mile.

maybe youve coached someone like that.

something.

basement dwellers of a feather must stick together. and stay in the basement.

and the rest can learn something

basically if you want to know what boston penalty is, just compare like 10 top guys over the last 20 years and compare with other courses. stats.

it appears that boston has a 2 to 3 minute penalty over the fastest courses.

somebody else can do the math properly

I've run dozens of marathons and my fastest time was run at Boston.

Leaving aside the weather, Boston is a fair course. What makes it hard is that it ruthlessly punishes mistakes.

NYCM is harder.

grox wrote:

The course is not eligible for records, it does not comply with the IAAF rules. You cannot set a PB on it. Basically, it is not a marathon.

Yep, but most people don't like to hear that, because it's sooooo historical.

Several things making more-- and muddier-- debate. Terrible course or terrible race if you want a PB are two separate, but related arguments.

I do agree with OAT here. Best setups for me for a PR would avoid point-to-point courses, big changes in elevation (including "helpful" downhill drops), logistical hassles of an event race, and season-location combo, and day/time of day.

Some people thrive in the Boston Marathon environment; I certainly do not. One time, long ago, was plenty.

As someone who has run Boston 19x and run sections of the course 100s of times, my opinion is that Boston absolutely is a PR course.

The problem is that the course has a higher variance than flatter courses. At Boston a small error in pace or form early on can hurt you tremendously later in the race. You won't find this issue in flatter marathons. There is less margin for error at Boston. Thus, you'll see a higher percentage of runners blowing up at Boston than at flat marathons. I'd also suspect you'd see a pretty high number of people PRing as well.

When your pace and form are spot on, I think it is faster than a flat course. I've set two PRs there (as well as having my two slowest marathons). From anecdotal evidence from myself and other runners, it takes a couple of tries to nail down the right personal strategy. When you get it right, it is a fast course.

And someone earlier said something about the last 5 miles not being beneficial even though it is mainly downhill all the way. Pure BS. If you've run it correctly (and trained well, of course), those last 5 are a breeze. It feels like you are flying. However, if you've run it poorly, they can be more challenging than the Newton Hills.

Congrats - that's a great time. You said the weather turned out to be pretty good ... that's the first I've heard a Boston 2019 runner say that. From afar, seemed too warm and humid, especially based on the parameters in your article. Guessing that the key was managing your effort for those 16 miles.

So refreshing to read a running article by a good runner in a non-running magazine. I figured it was gonna be the usual running perspective from a 4-5 hour marathoner like you see in RW. ! When I read it, I was like this guy makes some good points.

Congrats on the PR and giving Masters runners hope!

What shoe was the Wired guy wearing? Did he use the Vaporfly elite flyprint $350 version? I haven't seen that colorway. Was it a Vaporfly even?

I suppose, but 41% (10856 finishers out of 28632 finishers) 2019 Boston Marathoners finishers qualified for next year’s Boston Marathon. Besides one outlier race, marathons have their best chance of qualifying for scoring a BM Qualifying time at the home race.

BlackSwanGroup262 wrote:

I suppose, but 41% (10856 finishers out of 28632 finishers) 2019 Boston Marathoners finishers qualified for next year’s Boston Marathon. Besides one outlier race, marathons have their best chance of qualifying for scoring a BM Qualifying time at the home race.

What are the stats for re-entries? I suppose if I lived in MA, I'd run every year. But as an out-of towner, it's too freaking expensive. Interesting that the number of BQs at Boston is down this year from last.

BlackSwanGroup262 wrote:

I suppose, but 41% (10856 finishers out of 28632 finishers) 2019 Boston Marathoners finishers qualified for next year’s Boston Marathon. Besides one outlier race, marathons have their best chance of qualifying for scoring a BM Qualifying time at the home race.

Pretty certain that 2019 Boston had only 26,737 finishers;)