Talk:Marathon race

Questions

Is this article actually useful/interesting? I'd be inclined to VFD it on grounds that there is not much to say about marathons in general, but I'm not a runner, so other opinions may count more.

It is currently missing some well-known marathons. Boston has a huge one, has had for over 100 years [1]. Toronto has one. Xiamen has one [2], and there are others in China. Pashley (talk) 15:22, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

I don't think a VFD is needed - we usually give a year for travel topic articles to develop, and there are thousands upon thousands of people each year who travel to participate in marathons, so this should clear the bar for travel relevance. That said, the format could use some work as it should include info about traveling to races and not simply a list of cities that have marathons. -- Ryan • (talk) • 15:46, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure about this either. What is the criteria for putting a marathon on this list? I'm pretty sure all forty-some-odd prefectures in Japan have at least three or four each. Texugo (talk) 17:46, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Ottawa has one [3] and it got 45,000+ runners this year. Should it be added?

User:Texugo's more general question above still needs an answer. Pashley (talk) 18:13, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Boston marathon bombed

It happened only a few hours ago so details are not clear yet, but two bombs went off near the finish line. Reports so far are two dead, at least 20 injured. [4] Pashley (talk) 20:55, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Guide?

I just promoted this to Usable. What would it need to reach Guide & become eligible for featured travel topic? I'm inclined to think it is there already, since there's not much more to be said in a travel guide context. Other opinions? Pashley (talk) 02:13, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

At a glance, I think that every marathon should have a brief description where it's listed. What's particularly notable about the route, the usual weather at that time and place, the history and notability of that marathon? I like the listing for Berlin. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:50, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

I think turn them into full listings with links to WP & the events' sites. I've started that, but am not likely to do more soon. Pashley (talk) 08:44, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

Not a problem. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:52, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

OK, there are now full listings for all events mentioned & a few more have been added.

But way back in 2013 User:Texugo asked:

"What is the criteria for putting a marathon on this list?"

I have not seen an answer yet. We need not try to be anywhere near comprehensive since we link to three long lists elsewhere, but what should we include? Over some number of runners? Most important race in its country or region? Many people travel to it? (but how do we know?) Pashley (talk) 02:28, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

w:Marathon#Marathon races states that "Annually, more than 800 marathons are organized worldwide." So we can't list them all! I would just say, generally, that we should list the ones that are most notable and/or interesting (so really major ones like the ones in New York, Boston, etc. and also ones like these:

The Midnight Sun Marathon is held in Tromsø, Norway at 70 degrees north. Using unofficial and temporary courses, measured by GPS, races of marathon distance are now held at the North Pole, in Antarctica and over desert terrain. Other unusual marathons include the Great Wall Marathon on The Great Wall of China, the Big Five Marathon among the safari wildlife of South Africa, the Great Tibetan Marathon – a marathon in an atmosphere of Tibetan Buddhism at an altitude of 3,500 metres (11,500 ft), and the Polar Circle Marathon on the permanent ice cap of Greenland.

And these:

A few marathons cross international and geographical borders. The Istanbul Marathon is the only marathon where participants run over two continents (Europe and Asia) during the course of a single event.[c] In the Detroit Free Press Marathon, participants cross the US/Canada border twice.[57] The Niagara Falls International Marathon includes one international border crossing, via the Peace Bridge from Buffalo, New York, United States to Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. In the Three Countries Marathon [de], participants run through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:27, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Triathlons

Should we include a description of triathlons here, or do you think that would be a separate topic? After all, triathlons need a lot of endurance to complete too. The dog2 (talk) 17:54, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

No, I think we clearly should not list any other type of event here. As I noted above, there are more than 800 marathons around the world. Whether there would be enough content for an article about triathlons is something I don't know. How often are they run, outside of Olympic, national and collegiate competition? Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:46, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Triathlons should have a separate article. It's a different sport, really. Gizza ^(roam) 22:55, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

OK then, I'll drop the issue to triathlons. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about famous triathlons to create the article, and the only time I watch triathlons is during the Olympics. The only thing I know it's that is consists of a 1.5 km swim, a 40 km bike ride and a 10 km run at the Olympics, with ironman triathlons of course being much longer. The dog2 (talk) 23:11, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

We do mention Ironman since it includes a marathon. I think that is appropriate, but otherwise I agree with Ikan & DaGizza. Pashley (talk) 23:25, 10 January 2022 (UTC)