Marathoning's Minors

Not the majors, but in the same league

March 1, 2010

Perhaps it was mere coincidence, but one couldn't help but discern the underlying symbolism of the New York Yankees winning the World Series just three days after the ING New York City Marathon had effectively closed the books on another season of major league marathoning. And for an observer of baseball and running, the similarity was almost too obvious to ignore: Big market, big money teams, or races, have essentially spent their way to the top of their respective games.

Just as the Bronx Bombers locked up their world championship by outspending the rest of the major league teams, it seems the Big Five of the World Marathon Majors–Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York–have relegated other races to an existence as the marathon equivalent of the Minnesota Twins or Milwaukee Brewers, destined to mostly futile attempts to compete with the big boys, or resignation to being second-or even third-fiddle races in this new world order of international marathons.

But those who aren't part of the WMM "elite" don't feel like second-class events, and exhibit none of the negative outlook expressed, justifiably, by fans of teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"There's room for everybody," says Jos Hermens, a European-based agent for many top African runners and a consultant to several top marathons such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam. "There are so many good runners now that it's impossible for the Majors to take everyone, even if they wanted to," he continues. "London, for instance, goes after the big names, but they don't want to have 30 elites, even if they could afford it–it would create an overload and the race probably wouldn't be as exciting." With such self-imposed limits and only two or three Majors each half-year season, that leaves plenty of talent to go around to the other "semi-majors."

"What's happened since the introduction of the Majors is the other marathons just below them have been liberated to concentrate on other aspects besides assembling a full, top-notch field, and creating head-to-head competition," says Dave Monti, editor and publisher of Race Results Weekly and elite athlete coordinator for the New York City Marathon. "Look at the times from Frankfurt and Rotterdam [in 2009, won in 2:06:14 and 2:04:27, respectively]. They can assemble a group of pacemakers who can focus solely on running fast, and they succeeded.

"Each race is trying to pick something to set it apart. For instance Vienna brought in only marathon debutants, and wound up with a 2:08:21 winning time. There's no question that the races below the Majors have had to raise their game, and as a result they've become bigger and better."