Posted on 02/12/2020 11:15:59 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Erin Gregoire crossed the finish line of the Houston Marathon, looked at her watch, and smiled. In her debut at the distance, she ran 2:42:55—well under the qualifying time of 2:45:00 she needed for the Olympic Marathon Trials.
In what has become a complex case, however, Gregoire was denied entry into the Trials, because the differential between her gun time (2:54:54) and chip time (her 2:42:55) was too large. And the day of the Houston Marathon (January 19) was the final day of qualifying, so it was her last shot at getting into the race.
“Obviously it was an incredible experience to just get to run the marathon, but I knew in the back of my head that the [Olympic Trials qualifier] was what I wanted,” Gregoire told Runner’s World. “To get that, and then in some sense feel like it was taken away from me, it was heartbreaking.”
When determining who makes it into the Trials, USA Track & Field officials, who govern the sport, considered only gun times. They only looked at chip times or “net times” if those times were “extremely close” to the qualifying standards.
But Gregoire, 22, had nearly 12 minutes between her gun time and her chip time—not close enough for USATF rules. That’s because she had to start the marathon from Houston’s B corral, a second wave of runners that goes off 12 minutes after the A corral.
Gregoire did not belong in the B corral. She had run track and cross country at Columbia University, and during her final outdoor year in 2019, she ran 16:17 for 5,000 meters and won the Ivy League title in the 3,000 meters.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Pre-op or post-op?
So she’s disqualified because she had to run for 12 minutes from her designated starting location before starting the course?
Whew... for a moment I thought it was because a transgendered male-turned-female runner beat her to it..
Same here. How sad is that!
No, she was in a start corral that started 12 minutes after the first corral started. Many of the big marathons start the runners in different waves because there are so many in the race. Usually all the fast runners start together in the first wave, in this case she started in the second wave 12 minutes later.
She’s disqualified because rules are rules. If she thought she could qualify, she should have talked to the organizers to get moved to the A corral. I have sympathy for her, but it was her responsibility to make that trial work, and all runners know how long it takes to cross the starting line from the various corrals in a large race.
True but it’s also clear from reviewing what occurred that her watch time/chip time, is actually the time it took her to run the race. I think even if she still isn’t allowed on the technicality, that they recognize that she actually ran for her chip time rather than the gun time.
I checked out her photo at the ling. Definitely female, but somebody get that girl a cheeseburger!
“Gregoire did not belong in the B corral.”
I didn’t click link to read more of article, but it seems she didn’t belong in the corral she was in???
Did she choose the “B” or was she put in “B” by some one that messed things up for her?
Bottom line- she did not have a road race qualifying time, of the length and time, that the race organizers required, to be placed in the A corral.
I wanted to run the Boston marathon in my youth. For my age at the time, I had to finish in 3:20:00 or faster. I ran the St. Louis marathon in 4:35, the Chicago marathon in 4:05 and again, another time in 3:43. Close, but no cigar, so no Boston marathon experience to tell a tale about today.
Houston’s qualifying time for the A corral at marathon distance is 4:00.
Gregoire, ran a 5K (3.1 miles) in 16:17.
One could extrapolate her time by multiplying the distance by a factor of 9 to come up with a ballpark figure of 27.9 miles @ 145:53 = approximately 2:26, and reduce her speed for such an overall pace by 25%, or even a ridiculous 50%, so that a hypothetical pace would be either 2:26 + 0:37(25%) = 3:03, or 2:26 + 1:13(50%) = 3:39.
Gregoire is probably easily capable of running between a 2:26 and a 3:03 marathon, based on the math, so she probably would be closer to finishing between 2:26 and 2:45. My best guess is 2:36, if not faster.
Many moons ago, while serving in Uncle Sam’s ragtime band, I got sent from my Airborne Army unit, over to an athletic field for a make up PT test. It was just me and this other soldier taking the test. We had to run around a track field but used the street surrounding the complex to get in the full two miles. We lined up and the NCO in charge says go!
To be frank, I wasn’t quite sure what the hell I felt like doing for an effort seeing how it was already the middle of the day and getting hot, until this other guy that was lined up next to me, takes off like an NHRA funny car, and just like that- was gone! To keep my self respect, I took off running at a fairly fast pace, but nothing like the scalded ape in front of me.
The first leg was a 3/4 mile stretch and then the course turned right for a 1/4 mile leg. I started thinking all kinds of things while running until I saw the guy get to the corner and turn. I was only half way down the stretch to the corner at this point, and for some quirky reason I got the idea to try and catch this guy, so I took off after him.
This guy was moving out, so I had one hell of a time closing the gap. Before I knew it, we had turned down the back stretch, and the final turn was dead ahead, with this guy turning the corner, still ahead of me, and... obviously, turning it up another notch. I laid it all out, but there just wasn’t enough roadway left between us and the finish line to catch him, when I heard 10:35, which turned out to be my time.
I never ran that fast before in my life and I never ran that fast ever again in my life. My one consolation in not catching that guy that day, was the fact that I was a pack a day smoker, and could take that slim excuse as a grain of solace in defeat.
High five! Loves me some running around that airborne track!
There is no petitioning the race organizers to be moved to group A......She was screwed, pure and simple.......
I guess it is sad. But they all admit that if she did go to the trials, it would just be for experience. She is not going to make the olympics; she was only the 21st fastest female in this particular event.
If she was dead set on getting to the olympic trials, she needed to get into some qualifying race somewhere, to set a time that would put her in the A corral. She did not do that, and while it seems she could have qualified for the trials, I don’t think she is getting cheated.
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