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Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

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Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#41

Post by canucker2016 »

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…

The carbon-plate shoes (starting with the Nike Vaporfly, then AlphaFly) have resulted in faster race times. The Boston Athletic Association is reacting accordingly.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#42

Post by JojoFatsani »

thenipper wrote: post #36
mauvehaus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend who is something like a 6-hour marathoner and has run Boston a couple times for charity. The experience is pretty subpar to hear her tell it. The college students are pretty intoxicated by that point, the organizers are starting to clean up the course and move the runners to the sidewalks, and the course is full of trash where they haven't cleaned up yet. The porta-potties don't have a lot to recommen…

I used to live on beacon st in Brookline. Every year the marathon was a nightmare. Drunk people on my stoop. Trash everywhere. It was wicked cool to see the old timers and charity runners running even after it got dark. Would always give them a big cheer as they came by.

As a spectator, I’ve always had a great time.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#43

Post by canucker2016 »

voidfunc wrote: post #40
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…

Not a marathon runner but live in Boston and I have been told the route is fairly high difficulty due to hills in particularly challenging stretches. Not sure how true this is but one of my coworkers ran it competitively last year and he got wrecked by the elevation changes.

The course is deceptive.

The first couple of miles are downhill. You're also running with a very large densely-packed group who are just as fast as you. It's very easy to get sucked along to run much faster than you planned for the first few miles.

The Newton Hills, esp. Heartbreak Hill, are near where many people will hit the proverbial wall, distance-wise. Having to go up ever-steeper hills at the same time can be really taxing.

There are so many things that can go slightly wrong, and when you have to endure those slight inconveniences for 26.2 miles/2+ hours, it can feel like an aerobic Chinese water torture.

The year I ran, we had a tailwind, so I had an relatively easy time of it.

Great friendly crowds.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#44

Post by InitialLastName »

jimbob45 wrote: post #38
philipwhiuk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes yes, discount the fact he'd just finished a battle and ran over 100 miles to get there in the first place. > He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days, and then ran back. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) to the battlefield near Marathon and back to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen[8] "We win!"), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen ("h…

Are those numbers even possible with the resources he’d have had at his disposal? How could he have fueled properly for that effort?

> How could he have fueled properly for that effort?

Clearly, he didn't.

It's hard to get specifics, but that doesn't seem impossible for a pre-industrial, highly trained runner (several hunter-gatherer tribes seem to be capable of those sorts of distances over multiple days, and he was as close to a professional distance runner as existed at the time). Remember also that he isn't running through uninhabited territory; there would likely have been multiple opportunities (pre-established supply depots? well-known locals?) where an official representative of a major local power would have been able to acquire food.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#45

Post by vineyardmike »

tmulc wrote: post #27
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 o…

I wish you luck, because I think this space is about to get a lot more crowded.

That said, I suspect that Strava and Apple (and likely even Google) have more data than Garmin. Maybe quality of data is lower (garmin is higher % athletes?).

There are a lot of companies planning or starting to tell you about fitness. Oura and Whoop and now Fitbit are happy to give you basic training readiness info. Google will help you plan runs, Apple will give you “training load”.

I’m not sure what your target market is, but don’t forget to look broadly. Garmin is favored for training athletes but fitbits and Apple Watches are favored for casual workouts. If you’re trying to train models on metabolic or other physiological training ability, don’t forget to look at non-athletes or early-athletes.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#47

Post by azgl »

canucker2016 wrote: post #41
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…

The carbon-plate shoes (starting with the Nike Vaporfly, then AlphaFly) have resulted in faster race times. The Boston Athletic Association is reacting accordingly.

Here's a good roundup of the science for anyone who is curious -- https://www.doctorsofrunning.com/2020/04/footwear-science-ev...

My favorite part: "Despite all the evidence and research I have laid out above, it should be noted that only certain people seem to get benefits from the foams, carbon fiber plates and other technologies associated with these shoes. Research has come out just recently that the actual benefit derived from each subject varies greatly based on individual factors (Herbert-Losier et al., 2020). These performance changes can be as great as 10% (or more) in some people and for others may actually be detrimental. So as much as we talk about the percentages gleaned from the research suggesting how much certain elements contribute to changes in economy, remember that each person is unique in that effect."

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#48

Post by tmulc »

vineyardmike wrote: post #45
tmulc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

I wish you luck, because I think this space is about to get a lot more crowded. That said, I suspect that Strava and Apple (and likely even Google) have more data than Garmin. Maybe quality of data is lower (garmin is higher % athletes?). There are a lot of companies planning or starting to tell you about fitness. Oura and Whoop and now Fitbit are happy to give you basic training readiness info. Google will help you…

Thanks! In my experience in these things, there are only handful of people with the right ML background implement the products well (it tends to be a blend of domain knowledge, researching ideas in the correct way, and engineering to make the iteration loop fast), and I think our team has that. Hitting the right audience like you mentioned is going to key, too.

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#49

Post by cafard »

canucker2016 wrote: post #43
voidfunc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a marathon runner but live in Boston and I have been told the route is fairly high difficulty due to hills in particularly challenging stretches. Not sure how true this is but one of my coworkers ran it competitively last year and he got wrecked by the elevation changes.

The course is deceptive. The first couple of miles are downhill. You're also running with a very large densely-packed group who are just as fast as you. It's very easy to get sucked along to run much faster than you planned for the first few miles. The Newton Hills, esp. Heartbreak Hill, are near where many people will hit the proverbial wall, distance-wise. Having to go up ever-steeper hills at the same time can be…

(To be read in a grouchy old man's voice.)

Come to Baltimore and check out Satyr Hill. It is very easy to leave your legs behind and not realize that until you have four to six miles to go and no energy.

(But what do I know? I haven't run Baltimore since 1984.)

Re: Show HN: Will I run Boston 2025?

#50

Post by jfengel »

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…

Wow, they lowered them again?

A while back I thought maybe, just maybe, if everything went in my favor, I could qualify at 3:10. Then they lowered it to 3:05, and that might as well be the far side of the moon.

According to TFA it's now 2:55. There is no way in the universe I would ever run a sub-3 marathon. (I'm no longer in that age bracket, but the time for my bracket is similarly impossible.)

That's fine with me. It's awesome that so many people are running marathons that the most prestigious one is utterly full. It's a really absurd hobby, and the best thing about race day is all of those people going "Wow, we're about to do something incredibly stupid together."

There are plenty of other fun marathons to do. This year mine is gonna be the Dramathon -- which will end with bottles of scotch.

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