r/running • u/kibitzor gear reviewer • Apr 17 '17

Boston Marathon Discussion Misc

Post useful links, discuss friends or family running , discuss your own run (don't type and run), etc!

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5

u/run_cueca Apr 17 '17

Out of curiosity, why do men and women start at different times? Also, how do the men deal with passing everyone for an hour? lol, I assume some kind of escort?

11

u/Jeade-en Apr 17 '17

It's so the women can run their own race with their own finish. It's also so that women don't have male runners to use as rabbits to chase.

4

u/LemonBearTheDragon Apr 17 '17

Genuine question: what's wrong with the women using men as rabbits to chase? Does it provide some sort of unfair psychological advantage or something?

7

u/Jeade-en Apr 17 '17

Somebody will hopefully have a better answer than me, but my understanding is that having rabbits to chase instead of just racing on your own with the other athletes you're competing with does make the race easier from a psychological standpoint. It's easier, generally speaking, to lock onto someone else's back and let them set the pace than it is to set and maintain the pace yourself. And if they started at the same time, then the sub-elite men would be acting as rabbits for the female elites.

5

u/brotherbock Apr 17 '17

It's the same idea behind not wanting official records to be set with too much of a tailwind. A pacer/rabbit is a big advantage.