Boston Marathon - A WR or a PR?

2:03:02

Ponder that time. It's slow if you are cooking meat. It's an easy drive if you are driving from Washington, DC to Charlottesville, VA (scenery and all).

It's blazingly the fastest ever if you are running a marathon. A 26.2 mile marathon!

A mar-a-thon!

So, congratulations to Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya for running this time at the 2011 Boston Marathon.

There are only a couple of problems. Word spread that 2:03:02 will not be declared as a world record. What!? Yup...But why? Well, supposedly the course, which is one of the most difficult courses in the world has a steep drop in altitude; and it had a nice tailwind. It's downhill? Pssh, tell that to the thousands of runners who run it every year. I'm sure they all loved the tailwind.

Here is what I have gathered from this information about a so-called non world record:
1) This info means the elite runners are only running for personal records (PRs) or course records (CRs) whenever they run the Boston Marathon.

2) If someone breaks 2 hours one year, it will not go into the record books as a world record.

3) A difficult course is too difficult to include a world record.

4) I'm done with options because 26.2 of anything on foot is an extremely honorable feat.

The good news: marathon organizers are pushing to make it a legitimate world record time. C'mon USATF listen to their case! 26.2 miles.

2:03:02... blazingly fast. If I ever run a marathon, I will not come anywhere near that time. But, it will be my PR.

Congratulations to all of the runners!! Special congratulations to G. Mutai of Kenya.

Fleet feet,
Derek