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Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

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Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#21

Post by philipwhiuk »

erksa wrote: post #11
kibitzor wrote: post #7

Context for those not following running news, The Boston Marathon lowered qualifying times for most prospective runners for 2026 race [0]. Because the Boston Marathon has limited capacity, you can only run if you either: 1) raise $5k+ for a charity (limited spots) 2) run a full marathon below* a qualifying time The reason it's below* is because even if you run under a qualifying time, there may be enough people even…

I can't answer this for everyone, but as someone who has run 5 marathons and is running my 6th in 5 weeks (Frankfurt). Boston has some kind of mythical status among marathoners. You're _not_ really there until you've qualified for Boston. I do not know where this comes from, but what I do know is that QUALIFYING for Boston as a male (33) is a BHAG that's fun to chase after. Boston is the 6th of the 6 Abbot Marathon t…

> Boston has some kind of mythical status among marathoners. You're _not_ really there until you've qualified for Boston. I do not know where this comes from

It's literally because BQ is a tough target time. Even if you don't run Boston it's a mark you're in the top X% (X is a bit hard to calculate). So it's a status symbol. Just like 'Ivy League' or "D1 sport".

Similarly in the UK, it's the London qualifying time known as Good For Age or the more challenging 'Championship Place'.

And it's self-fulfilling. You get the time so you chose to run because you have it which keeps the time hard for others.

The race itself is, I'm told, a pain-in-the-ass because of the logistics but also the profile - despite being net-downhill it's got a nasty hill at mile 20. Plus with the race route being pretty much "26 miles straight, then hook a right", if there's a headwind, there's a headwind for 26 miles. If there's driving rain, it's in your face for 26 miles (see 2018's race).

(As an aside, there's a few tricks for the Abbot Majors to get places [aside from just buying one of the expensive guaranteed tour company places or being an elite runner])

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#23

Post by ggm »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #18
ggm wrote: post #8

Maybe the question is: should you run the Boston Marathon In 2016, a systematic medical review found that the risk of sudden cardiac death during or immediately after a marathon was between 0.6 and 1.9 deaths per 100,000 participants, varying across the specific studies and the methods used, and not controlling for age or gender. This translates to a few published marathon deaths worldwide in a typical year, although…

And what's the sudden cardiac risk for any other given activity. "Cardiac Risk in the Young" is a legitimate problem regardless of running a marathon. And what's the cardiac risk for no exercise at all? You're not controlling for the fact you have to exist.

I'm not here to argue for not doing marathons. It's safer than walking out with a risk of thunder, its a bit less safe than walking by a bee hive.

I do note that every marathon runner I know (thats about 5) carries some burdens afterward above and beyond simple post-race injury: there is an effect on your health, it's multi-dimensional, and it goes on a while. They enjoyed the run so I guess it's a fair exchange. Knowing when to stop is part of the process I guess.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#24

Post by philipwhiuk »

ggm wrote: post #23
philipwhiuk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's the sudden cardiac risk for any other given activity. "Cardiac Risk in the Young" is a legitimate problem regardless of running a marathon. And what's the cardiac risk for no exercise at all? You're not controlling for the fact you have to exist.

I'm not here to argue for not doing marathons. It's safer than walking out with a risk of thunder, its a bit less safe than walking by a bee hive. I do note that every marathon runner I know (thats about 5) carries some burdens afterward above and beyond simple post-race injury: there is an effect on your health, it's multi-dimensional, and it goes on a while. They enjoyed the run so I guess it's a fair exchange. Kno…

> I do note that every marathon runner I know (thats about 5) carries some burdens afterward above and beyond simple post-race injury: there is an effect on your health, it's multi-dimensional, and it goes on a while. They enjoyed the run so I guess it's a fair exchange. Knowing when to stop is part of the process I guess.

People bucket-list it. They don't prepare properly, they train through injury because they want to do the race they spent money on, or they just think they can wing it (not helped by TV shows and celebrity comments). And they get injured as a result.

It's not hard to run a marathon and not get injured. It's just lots of people think they can shortcut hard work.

I've done 9 marathons. The only long lasting sports injury I have is from skiing.

I'm tired of anecodotal data being unacceptable in any field except running, where old wives tales and crappy studies replace actual data, which is that, if you train properly, running is beneficial for your health and there's no actual contraindictions.

Why is it we A-B test button colours on a marketing website but we accept folksy knowledge for serious topics.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#25

Post by jerlam »

ggm wrote: post #8

Maybe the question is: should you run the Boston Marathon In 2016, a systematic medical review found that the risk of sudden cardiac death during or immediately after a marathon was between 0.6 and 1.9 deaths per 100,000 participants, varying across the specific studies and the methods used, and not controlling for age or gender. This translates to a few published marathon deaths worldwide in a typical year, although…

The Boston Marathon is not open to the general public - you cannot simply "choose" to run it like you can other marathons.

It's likely that more people suffer health issues from overexertion by trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon, because it's a difficult goal. Once you're already running in the Boston Marathon there is less drive to push yourself over the limit.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#27

Post by tmulc »

erksa wrote: post #13

> Our mission is to understand fitness so you can achieve your athletic dreams. Recently, athletes have been gathering lot of data, but nobody has been able to fully leverage these sources to help people become more fit. Strava has an entire data scientist dep devoted to analysing the captured data. They also publish a lot of their thinking around Relative Effort (RE) and other performance metrics. Where do you diffe…

I can't say to much because we are trying to keep our methods stealth, but I think it's better to be last than first in this race. Strava isn't the only company in this field: Garmin, Kaizen, and AI Endurance are just a few. For a while, our race predictions were a lot more accurate than the biggest of these (Garmin, which has a lot more data than Strava), which is probably telling of the difficulty. There isn't an obvious company you go to to tell you about your fitness, but if there was we would have never started our mission.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#28

Post by [deleted] »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #24
ggm wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not here to argue for not doing marathons. It's safer than walking out with a risk of thunder, its a bit less safe than walking by a bee hive. I do note that every marathon runner I know (thats about 5) carries some burdens afterward above and beyond simple post-race injury: there is an effect on your health, it's multi-dimensional, and it goes on a while. They enjoyed the run so I guess it's a fair exchange. Kno…

> I do note that every marathon runner I know (thats about 5) carries some burdens afterward above and beyond simple post-race injury: there is an effect on your health, it's multi-dimensional, and it goes on a while. They enjoyed the run so I guess it's a fair exchange. Knowing when to stop is part of the process I guess. People bucket-list it. They don't prepare properly, they train through injury because they want…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#29

Post by pimlottc »

erksa wrote: post #11
kibitzor wrote: post #7

Context for those not following running news, The Boston Marathon lowered qualifying times for most prospective runners for 2026 race [0]. Because the Boston Marathon has limited capacity, you can only run if you either: 1) raise $5k+ for a charity (limited spots) 2) run a full marathon below* a qualifying time The reason it's below* is because even if you run under a qualifying time, there may be enough people even…

I can't answer this for everyone, but as someone who has run 5 marathons and is running my 6th in 5 weeks (Frankfurt). Boston has some kind of mythical status among marathoners. You're _not_ really there until you've qualified for Boston. I do not know where this comes from, but what I do know is that QUALIFYING for Boston as a male (33) is a BHAG that's fun to chase after. Boston is the 6th of the 6 Abbot Marathon t…

BHAG = big hairy audacious goal

https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/bhag.html

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#30

Post by kibwen »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #21
erksa wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't answer this for everyone, but as someone who has run 5 marathons and is running my 6th in 5 weeks (Frankfurt). Boston has some kind of mythical status among marathoners. You're _not_ really there until you've qualified for Boston. I do not know where this comes from, but what I do know is that QUALIFYING for Boston as a male (33) is a BHAG that's fun to chase after. Boston is the 6th of the 6 Abbot Marathon t…

> Boston has some kind of mythical status among marathoners. You're _not_ really there until you've qualified for Boston. I do not know where this comes from It's literally because BQ is a tough target time. Even if you don't run Boston it's a mark you're in the top X% (X is a bit hard to calculate). So it's a status symbol. Just like 'Ivy League' or "D1 sport". Similarly in the UK, it's the London qualifying time kn…

I've always thought it was a real shame that the Boston Marathon is so mythical, because there's a much more symbolic potential route: start at the Old North Church in the North End (the "one if by land, two if by sea" place), through downtown/the common/Back Bay, then take Mass Ave all the way to the Lexington Battle Green (site of the first battle of the revolution), and that's almost exactly half a marathon in distance while more-or-less reenacting the Midnight Ride.
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