What rabbited marathons essentially do is ensure that the favorites always have a pack to run with at the start of a race. For reasons that are both physical and psychological, running alone is always harder than running with a pack. By giving these athletes pacers to draft off of, race coordinators are effectively giving the best runners in the field a significant additional advantage over those elites who don’t have anyone setting a prearranged tempo for them. Race organizers usually hire rabbits in the belief that fast times will bolster the overall prestige of their event.īut here’s the rub: even in a stacked race like the London Marathon, only a select contingent of elite competitors have a shot of running a world record. the Olympics or IAAF World Championships.) The idea is that this will increase the likelihood that said top elites will run a quick time-preferably a new world record. (Pacers are not permitted at “championship-style” marathons-i.e. They are used in many big-name races, including World Marathon Majors like Berlin, London, and Tokyo. Might as well get the griping out of the way now.įor the uninitiated, pacers, or “rabbits,” are world-class runners tasked with leading the top elites out at an agreed upon pace. But when I do, I fear that I’ll be compelled to gripe about one aspect of elite-level marathoning that has always struck me as unfair, and detrimental to world class marathoning: the use of pacers. I’ll be waking up early on April 22 to watch the race. “This is a truly mouth-watering prospect,” he said via press release. Event director Hugh Brasher felt the same way. This year, the lineup is enough to make any distance running fan salivate. Farah! Are you kidding me? No disrespect to Boston, but, when it comes to bringing in high-wattage talent, the London Marathon is in a separate class. Once again, the English capital did justice to its reputation for hosting the world’s most competitive annual marathon. Last week, the London Marathon announced its elite athlete fields.
0 kommentar(er)
