No running today, just a running-related story which outraged me.
A new ruling which comes into effect in the new year means Paula Radcliffe's 2003 marathon world record time of 2:15:25 will be invalidated because she ran with male pacemakers. The new rule says only marathon times run solely against other women will count, as there is the consensus that women run marathons faster when paced by men.
So they're saying she's good, but only that good because she had a helping hand from the boys. This has really annoyed me because it completely disregards the skill, training, determination and fitness needed to run fast enough to complete a marathon in 2:15:30. It is verging on the superhuman, regardless of if she had several people running at that pace, It is not like she grabbed handful of the pacemaker's shirt and got him to pull her along.
'Luckily' Radcliffe holds the record for the second fastest marathon - 2:17:42 from 2005 - which will stand the new ruling because there were no accompanying almighty penises to chivvy her along.
More:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=7009372
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/paula-radcliffe-sins-good-woman
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A 2:15:25 marathon means an average pace of 05:09/mile. I would have difficulty keeping up for 100m.
A new ruling which comes into effect in the new year means Paula Radcliffe's 2003 marathon world record time of 2:15:25 will be invalidated because she ran with male pacemakers. The new rule says only marathon times run solely against other women will count, as there is the consensus that women run marathons faster when paced by men.
So they're saying she's good, but only that good because she had a helping hand from the boys. This has really annoyed me because it completely disregards the skill, training, determination and fitness needed to run fast enough to complete a marathon in 2:15:30. It is verging on the superhuman, regardless of if she had several people running at that pace, It is not like she grabbed handful of the pacemaker's shirt and got him to pull her along.
'Luckily' Radcliffe holds the record for the second fastest marathon - 2:17:42 from 2005 - which will stand the new ruling because there were no accompanying almighty penises to chivvy her along.
More:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=7009372
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/paula-radcliffe-sins-good-woman
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A 2:15:25 marathon means an average pace of 05:09/mile. I would have difficulty keeping up for 100m.
I was gutted when I read about this, just because she is fast enough to need male pacers, gggggrrrrrrrrr!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe this! At least she will still be a record holder.
ReplyDelete