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If You Can’t Outrun Oprah, Should You Pay More for Your Marathon?
(October 23) At what point does a marathon stop being a marathon and become a walk in the park? It’s a debate that’s has raged for years and is being renewed after a recent article in the NY Times :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/sports/23marathon.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hpw&adxnnlx=1256285072-eeOpkzY9/PeDf657t8gJGg
At issue is how slow is too slow when it comes to running a marathon? No one knows where to draw the line. No matter where you set the bar someone will be upset.
Many argue you need not draw a line at all. John Bingham, aka The Penguin from Runner’s World fame, has made an entire career out of filing dispatches from the back of the pack. His insights are often humorous and inspirational. By getting people off the couch and on their feet he gets more people running. I firmly believe this benefits the whole sport. Today’s "back of the packer" is tomorrow's "mid-packer" and dedicated runner.
The Times article points out an interesting trend at work - as more people participate in marathons, the slower the average times:
Trends show that marathon finishers are getting slower
and slower — and more prevalent — according to Running USA, a nonprofit organization that tracks trends in distance running. From 1980 to 2008, the number of marathon finishers in the United States increased to 425,000 from 143,000.
In 1980, the median finishing time for male runners in United
States marathons was 3 hours 32 minutes 17 seconds, a pace of about eight minutes per mile. In 2008, the median finishing time was 4:16, a pace of 9:46. For women, that time in 1980 was 4:03:39. Last year, it was 4:43:32.
This isn’t just a philosophical debate. For years Bingham has made a valid point that back of the back runners fund a lot of the races and fuel interest in the sport. While Bingham’s point is a valid one, it ignores an economic truth. There are significant costs involved in keeping a course open. Chris Burch, the race director for the Des Moines Marathon tells the NY Times:
“It is a huge budget item because you have to pay municipal
So how do you appease the "back of the packers" and solve the financial issue? One solution is this: those that spend more time on the course, pay a higher marathon fee. Runners typically use a credit card to register for a marathon. I’m sure a computer program can be drawn up to charge your card an additional fee based on your chip time. Adding an addition $2 dollars for every fifteen minutes out on the course past a designated time will help cover the costs of keeping the course open and keep fees low for ALL runners.
services, like police, fire or trash, and volunteers have to stay longer,” he said. “But it’s not a simple decision. Those back-of-the-pack runners are income for the event, too, and they’re just as important for everyone. There’s a feeling of ‘I paid as much money as the other people to enter, so I should be treated the same.’ ”
But again the problem persists – where do you draw the line?
Here’s another solution: it’s well known that Oprah Winfrey ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 1994 with a time of 4:29:15. Perhaps the “Oprah line” is the logical place to start. Institute a sliding scale of $2 in additional fees for every 15 minutes past the time of 4:30:00 – forever now known as “THE OPRAH MARK”.
For many marathoner’s the holy grail is qualifying for Boston – to qualify for Boston is to “BQ”. Now we’ll have “BO” (beat Oprah). I can can already hear the chatter amongst runners:
“I was hoping to run better, but then I pulled an Oprah. It cost me an extra $5 in marathon fees.”
“I’m not a fast runner, I’m on the wrong side of the Oprah line.”
“I’ll never qualify for Boston- I’m just hoping to BO.”
“He’s really bummed, he missed BO’ing by 15 seconds.”
Oprah has motivated, inspired and solved countless problems for her millions of viewers over the years. Now she holds the solution to one of the longest raging debates in running. Is there anything she can’t do?
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