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the la marathon according to todays la times will give the women a 20 minute head start, with the first runner across the line given an extra 50k. while the concept is interesting, the gap between the men and women is 10 minutes 32 seconds, paul tergat 204.55 to paula radcliffe 215.27. if there are to be handicap races, it should be based on the difference between the mens and womens records. in the marathon 10 minutes and 32 seconds.
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Re: unfair la marathon handicap
Aside from the fact that there is higher level depth behind Tergat's record (2nd fastest is only 1 second slower, compared to minutes behind Radcliffe), a recent article on LA's plans mentioned an average differential closer to 20 minutes than 10 (I don't remember the exact time).
Off the top of my head, I believe if the differential had been in place in past years, there would be close to an even split between men's and women's winners. -
Re: unfair la marathon handicap
Any way you slice it this would be an interesting race to watch... and to run in! Keep racing and our sport fun and exciting. We have a distance race on the track that the kids don't know how many laps the race will be... it could be any distance from 2 laps up to 8. The starter is the only one who knows the distance and fires the gun with one lap to go!! It makes for an interesting race to watch. is it fair? who cares....... it's fun!!Comment
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