Talk:Half marathon

1993 Men's Seasons best

Can't be 1:00:15 because Moses Tanui ran 59:47 that year - as seen in the WR progression section.

Speaking of WR progression: Xolile Yawa's time is slower than Mark Curp's - how come? GregorB (talk) 22:55, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

It could be that some of these times were set on downhill courses and thus retroactively disallowed as world records. Should be sorted out one way or another, though. GregorB (talk) 15:14, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

For 1993, the IAAF page for Moses Tanui shows his time of 59:47 in Milan, so there is no question - I will change that year to show the Milan time. The IAAF is considered a reliable source. In this case also backed up by the All-Time Athletics page However, the question of times set on downhill courses is a more difficult one. For an official world record, the IAAF do not consider the Great North Run (South Shields) course to meet the standard for records, but others consider it acceptable for world best times. --Xagent86 (Talk | contribs) 06:10, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

I can see where the different times for Moses Tanui have come from. The ARRS Half Marathon page shows the 1993 best time as 1:00:15a Moses Tanui (KEN) 19 Sep South Shields ENG. The IAAF top lists and other sources show the 1993 Milan time of 59:47. The difference appears to be due to ARRS suggesting the Stramilano Half Marathon course might have been short in 1993 (and several other years). --Xagent86 (Talk | contribs) 02:09, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Xolile Yawa and Mark Curp

Someone mentioned above in the discussion on Moses Tanui in 1993, the current version of the page, shows "60:56, Xolile Yawa, 1987-07-25, East London, RSA" and "60:55, Mark Curp, 1985-09-15, Philadelphia, USA". If these are both correct then Mark Curp's time of 60:55 in 1985 was not beaten by Xolile Yawa in 1987 and therefore the time set by Xolile Yawa shouldn't appear on the list of record holders. The ARRS yearly rankings, shows the time set by Mark Curp is listed, but the time set by Xolile Yawa is not shown at all. Did the IAAF recognise either of these times?

In the All-Time Athletics page, both times are shown, which would still make Mark Curp the record holder from 1985. However it also shows "60:43a, Michael Musyoki, 1986-06-08, Newcastle-South Shields" (course doesn't count for records), "60:11a, Matthews Temane and Zithulele Sinqe, 1987-07-25, East London" (downhill course?). However the All-Time Athletics page doesn't show the 60:46 time of Dionicio Cerón at Philadelphia, USA on 1990-09-16 (shown in Half marathon page), so we can't be certain which is the correct athlete and time that should succeed Mark Curp (even if we agree Mark Curp's time is an accepted record). --Xagent86 (Talk | contribs) 12:18, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

History?

Which was the first officially held half marathon? Organizers of Elche's (Spain) half marathon claim it was theirs (first held in 1972, 2009 will be the XXXVII edition). The history goes that the organizer, Manolo Jaén, who is still alive, asked police for permision to organize a marathon in the city. Since 4 hours was too long for the streets to be closed they deined the permission, but still allowed for a 2-hour event.

More info here: http://www.elatleta.com/foro/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61745

I think this is a relevant fact, and should be incorporated in the article. Of course there might be some other city claiming the primacy. Any comments? The spanish wikipedia article for half marathon states this fact without citation. Franjesus (talk) 18:05, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure if you were planning to use the link you gave as a source, but that's not a reliable source. I would leave it alone until you find an English reliable source. Nice find though. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 19:25, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

All this focus about "biggest" half marathons in the lead

Unless there's some other motives from the editors, I don't understand why this is considered so important. Almost all recent edits are about the "biggest" half marathons. Per wp:lead, the lead should be a concise overview of the article that can stand on it's own. The fact that there was a lot of people in a race doesn't mean much. Fastest world records is more significant. If you read articles about races, the journalists don't pay particular attention to how many participants there were, but rather the results (who won, world record times, etc) --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 09:06, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

BTW: Göteborgsvarvet is now the biggest (http://www.goteborgsvarvet.com/en/Runner/)

Radcliffe and World Record

If Paula Radcliffe ran a 1:05:39 (65:39) in 2003, then why is the world-record time listed as 66:25 for Lornah Kiplagat in 2007? 69.165.130.92 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:08, 14 September 2009 (UTC).

From [1]

Radcliffe’s 65:40 will not be ratified as a world best due to the drop in elevation of the Tyneside course but that mattered little to her, knowing the course is tougher than Lisbon. She also took delight in leaving a truly world class field almost two minutes behind.

Is this the same reason that Ingrid Kristiansen's time 1:06:40 from 1987 is not in the list? --Cavernia (talk) 13:50, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, or a similar reason - see this page: http://www.alltime-athletics.com/whmaraok.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.104.68.104 (talk) 00:27, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Apparent list discrepancies

The 1978 and 1983 times in the list Half_marathon#Women.27s_Seasons_Best do not appear to reconcile with the record times set in those years according to the list Half_marathon#World_record_progression_-_Women. Supplying a source for the data in these lists (advisable for the Men's lists also) would help straighten this out. — Myasuda (talk) 16:49, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

See the very first topic on this discussion page. It appears as though this data has been copied from the Association of Road Racing Statisticians (see Yearly Rankings, which is listed in the EL section, and World Best Progression). If you look at the ARRS data, Marty Cooksey's 1978 performance is marked with an "a", which means it was set on an "aided" course; the ARRS would not recognize this performance as "record eligible". The ARRS has different/more stringent record-keeping criteria than the IAAF, so I've argued for clearer sourcing in other related articles for this very reason. It also highlights one of the problems of copying and pasting this type of information. Location (talk) 18:50, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

I've attached the ARRS sources to the respective lists (and made a fix due to an apparent mistranscription from one of those lists). This will enable easier verification, and the source transparency can help open the debate on the merits of alternative sources.— Myasuda (talk) 02:43, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

FYI: Before you tear apart the world record progression to jive with the ARRS, you may want to check-out the official IAAF progression found on pages 565 and 653 in Part II of their statistics handbook published prior to the 2009 World Championships in Athletics (Part IPart II) and take a look at how these differences were reconciled in Marathon world record progression. Location (talk) 04:02, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm done at this point. The lists were unsourced, so I sourced them per the links you provided. Then, I reconciled the lists to these sources so that the footnotes were an accurate representation of the list content. If there is consensus to use an alternative source, then of course the lists would then need to be reconciled to the consensus source. I'm interested to hear how other editors feel about the ARRS and IAAF lists as well as others. — Myasuda (talk) 04:21, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I've mentioned this at WP:Athletics. I'm pretty sure most editors involved there prefer the official IAAF records. If need be, I can easily copy and save the ARRS yearly rankings, revert to replace the IAAF record progression, then paste the ARRS yearly rankings back in place. Location (talk) 05:17, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

 Done. (diff) Location (talk) 18:10, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Grete Waitz is suddenly marked as from the USA since this edit, should be {NOR} — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.127.37.212 (talk • contribs) 12:53, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

 Fixed. (diff) Location (talk) 20:25, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Distance

Other sources claim that the distance should be 21.2 k. Should the dispute in distance not be mentioned and possibly clarified? 49.178.5.176 (talk) 05:10, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Some races use 21.1k which is a close rounding of 21.0975k and it's within all measurement inaccuracy margins. 21.2k is wrong if someone use that. Which source ? --BIL (talk) 08:10, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Reputable sources such as Oxford Dictionaries state the distance as 13 miles 352 yards (21.243 km). Why the discrepancy, I don't know, but this should be covered in the article. --NumberSixFiveSeven (talk) 22:39, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

There is nothing to cover in that it is merely bad information that got into one dictionary and has been copied by a few others. Location (talk) 22:48, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Removed section

I have removed the following section regarding "Training" due to the lack of citations:

Most people tend to run a half marathon before running a full marathon. A half marathon will help to prepare the body and the mind for the 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi) that makes up a marathon. Running a half marathon can be physically and mentally demanding. For those who have never run this distance before, it is imperative to train correctly. It is advised to slowly build up endurance over a twelve-week period; decreasing the intensity of the training in the last week, or tapering, before the event. If the body is over-worked, injury is more likely to occur. It is also important to eat correctly and stay hydrated before, during, and after the race.

First of all, there are no citations for this information. Secondly, there are many assertions that are not entirely correct. For many runners, the half marathon is neither mentally or physically demanding and the distance can easily be covered without training, eating, or hydrating correctly. The length of formal half-marathon plans also vary with many coaches advised a drop in mileage but not intensity. Many of these items pertaining to running and training, in general, not specifically the half-marathon. Location (talk) 13:48, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

1991/Elana Meyer

Should this entry use the former South African flag as it was accomplished prior to the change of flags? ludahai 魯大海 (talk) 13:32, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Unverified lead claims

I've tagged two separate unverified claims in the lead:

• that a half-marathon is also known as a 21k, 21.1k or 13.1 mile. "13.1 mile" is used in the NY Times reference (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/fashion/24fitness.html) but neither "21k" nor "21.1k" are used.
• that a half-marathon is commonly run together with a marathon or 10k race on a similar route. This seems plausible, but needs a citation as none the remainder of the article covers combination routes. Speaktorob (talk) 10:21, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Removal of womens only wr form the table

Dear Montell 74,

I will put the womens only wr back to the top of the table. You didn't stated why you reverted my edit. By the way, women who rely on a male pacemaker are loosers.

Da Vinci Nanjing (talk) 13:46, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

All-time top 25

Paula Radcliffe ran 1:05.39 Why isnt she in the All-time top 25?

The course was considered to be downhill so that time isn't officially recognized by the IAAF. GoPats (talk) 15:58, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Shouldn't it be footnoted below the main list then? Qgtlxeju (talk) 09:29, 6 December 2020 (UTC)