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nicogno_ t1_irbmgu9 wrote

I’m curious about the spike around 3 hours. Is that caused by many people willing to beat the 3 hours wall and then just stopping there?

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immunedata t1_ircu4lm wrote

It’s the Boston Qualifying time for men age 18-34 and a very good benchmark. It will also be a massive pace group you can run in. Aiming for 2:57 you might be running on your own the whole time and if your only goal is BQ then may as well run for 3:00. On the other side, those with fitness and training that “should” put them on for a 3:03 pace will dig ultra deep mentally and physically to stay with the 3:00 pace group.

The normal distribution of times that should exist centred on 3:00 collapses onto the marker.

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nicogno_ t1_irdr505 wrote

I’m myself a 2h57’ marathoner, but still the spike at 3 hours surprises me. Makes me wonder if 3h is just a mental marker then and if BQ time was, let’s say, 2h50’, people would get fitter

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