Should we at LetsRun start hyping the World Athletics Platinum races just as much as the Abbott Majors?

London, Berlin, and who cares?

The right answer wrote:

London, Berlin, and who cares?

Berlin has never been as close to as deep as London. Sure, faster times have been run there, but New York has tended to have deeper fields and better races.

London, New York, and Valencia are the only marathons that matter as competitive races. Maybe Dubai as well.

Berlin needs a deeper field, right now, it's a time trial for a single superstar, not a race.

\ Some of these comments are interesting. I got a text from a letsrunner after we published our Berlin Bekelearticle ane he wrote the following:

Aj LRC visitor texted :

Perhaps I'll leave a voicemail for the pod, but for something I don't even consider a hot take-

I'm indifferent to w[quote]Aj LRC visitor texted :

That commetn is very interesting. Back when I went to college in the 1990s, my ATM password was HaileG. I loved the guy. But when he was runnign all those WR attempts in Berlin, I didn't care at all. Berlin wasn't a race on tv in the US, thefields weren't deep and I didn't care really. I'd have much rather Haile race a field of competitors in NY or Chicago.

But what's weird is I'm kind of super excited for Bekele. And I didn't use to love Bekele but I'm totally into him getting the WR. Not sure why as I didn't love Bekele when he was on the track. like I did with Haile.

Don't really care about the WA plantium label but I would hope WMM to remain as 6 races, maybe replace Chicago by Valencia. Among the currenct 6 WMM races, Chicago is the most boring one - it does everything decent but I can't remember anything special about the race weekend.

Expand my knowledge and abilities. Actually the article is very real.

Isn’t the a ATM PIN numbers not letters? Do you play dumb intentionally?

What is your PIN currently?

If you cover them it will give them more visibility and hopefully make them bigger, allowing for more prize money, and requiring other races to increase their prize money to get good athletes. It's good for the sport. So please, cover them.

As for you being worried they will dilute the other ones, I wish something else would happen. I wish big half marathons would become a contributor to the scoring of the abbott world marathon majors, so that these guys have to run some halves if they want to win. With the current situation, these guys only run 2 marathons, a fall and spring. And they rarely race head to head. Whoever can manage to win both of their races by dodging competition will win the scoring system. But if you added in a handful of half marathon races that also scored some points, you'd have some of these top marathoners racing more races to score points in the half. This would make some half marathons bigger events and that would be great.

So, it is the same list as the WMM except they swap Amsterdam and Valencia for Tokyo.

All the WMM stuff and platinum this and that haven't really changed anything. London is still the biggest and best marathon for elite competition. Berlin is a time trial race for WR attempts. NY is the best of the rest, but tends to put too much money behind getting past winners to return. Chicago, Boston, Tokyo, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Valencia, and Dubai are pretty much interchangeable, but Chicago and Boston get more coverage because of the history and prestige.

Would it matter?

Precious Roy wrote:

Chicago, Boston, Tokyo, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Valencia, and Dubai are pretty much interchangeable, but Chicago and Boston get more coverage because of the history and prestige.

Dubai might be as fast and competitive as some WMMs, but doesn’t carry the same appeal, intrigue or respectability. Generally it draws a whole horde of no-name up-and-coming East Africans (mostly Ethiopian) hoping to use a breakthrough performance as a springboard to legitimacy (like solid appearance fees at the WMMs). It’s also boring as all get out visually, all flat out-and-backs with little to no crowd support, no Wellesley or Chinatowns or historic monuments that I can recall.

Chicago was awesome until ~2015. The elite results in 2014, when I ran it: 1. Kipchoge 2:04:11 2. Sammy Kitwara 2:04:28 3. Dickson Chumba 2:04:32 4. Bekele 2:05:51 5. Me 2:52:10–the closest we’ve gotten to a great Kipchoge/Bekele Marathon duel. With its course being so much faster than NYC (and Boston most years), I would love to see the elite fields rebound to their former glory (think Joanie, Steve Jones, Khalid Khannouchi)—it could be the most competitive marathon of the fall season if that were the organizers’ priority, I’m sure.

The easy and best answer is to go ahead and hype the non-WMM Platinum races and see what the response is. If the overall response is tepid or derisive, then you have your answer.