[CQ-Contest] What is Multi to you?

[John Geiger]

"For a general competitor one does need to meet a minimum time to qualify
but the bar is pretty low and adjusted with age. Something like 3.5 hours
to run a 26.2 mile course for someone in their 40s."

Thanks, I have run 2 marathons but both times were over 3.5 hours but less
than 4 hours, and that was in my 30s.  Didn't realize I missed the low bar,
but it was fun and a personal accomplishment.

73 John AF5CC

On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 6:46 PM, Ria Jairam <rjairam at gmail.com> wrote:

> When I worked with the NYC marathon, the elites got their own start times
> and separate categories essentially. These are top class runners that will
> basically blow away most others.
>
> For a general competitor one does need to meet a minimum time to qualify
> but the bar is pretty low and adjusted with age. Something like 3.5 hours
> to run a 26.2 mile course for someone in their 40s.
>
> The serious competitors go first and finish first but the rest of the crowd
> plows along well behind them, running for charity or just personal goals.
> It's more of a celebration of running rather than an actual race for many
> people, and yes it's an achievement for people who are getting fit, or have
> other personal challenges (eg wounded veterans) where they use the marathon
> to achieve something they can be happy about.
>
> There is also a questionable qualification of "competition at the highest
> levels." If you're not on the east coast (or like W7WA, a chip shot from
> JA) you're not going to do very well. Notable exceptions are statione like
> N2IC, K9CT, K5TR and even K3LR (who is basically in Ohio) but those guys
> have very decent stations that would probably beat everyone if they were
> out East. There are stations who previously competed in other parts of the
> country either relocate/guest op/remote up East and significantly boost
> their scores, or go to some DX location like the Caribbean and
> automatically gain an advantage. That's not to say they aren't good
> contesters otherwise, but it does prove that you can't prove a competitor's
> skill level simply by how they place in the top 10.
>
> Ria
> N2RJ
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 8:48 AM, Ed Sawyer <sawyered at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > Major
> > contests, in my opinion, are about competition at the highest levels -
> not
> > about attracting new people.  Is the Boston Marathon about getting people
> > to
> > try running?  Maybe through motivation in watching it - but not by
> > participating.  Other contests should be potentially having this goal -
> > Field Day (whoops its not a contest - wink wink) or Regional QSO parties.
> > Not the best of the best contests.
> > <CQ-Contest at contesting.com>
> >
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