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cue the rainbows and butterflies,
I found the most amazing marathon website! |
Have you ever wondered what marathon course would give you the best chance of PR'ing? Or how your performance during a particular marathon would compare to another marathon?
If I ran a 3:26:53 at the OC Marathon, what would my finishing time be if I had raced a different marathon with a similar level of training?
FindMyMarathon.com predicts your marathon finishing time on different marathons, based on course profile and typical race day weather.
I thought I'd snoop around this website to find some fast courses.
According to the website, I could probably knock some minutes off if I did the California International Marathon, Road2Hope Marathon, or the Boston Marathon:
I like this website because it makes me optimistic that my next marathon will be faster that my last :) But it appears that most of the time difference can be attributed to the "weather time difference", which seems to be a little on the generous side if you ask me....so we'll see if that's actually true.
I'm a little doubtful that it'll predict an exact finishing time, but it's a great jumping off point to compare different prospective marathons. There are so many factors that go into having a successful marathon, not only course and weather...and we all know how weather is so unpredictable.
So if you decide to check it out:
1) go to www.FindMyMarathon.com
2) select "marathon time converter" from the top toolbar
3) select your current marathon PR time and location on the left
4) select up to 3 marathons that you're curious about on the right
5) select "convert time" on the left
...and then you'll be able to compare the races
How do you usually find your PR race?
MarathonGuide.com is usually a pretty good source, but I think it'll be helpful to use it in combination with this website. Let me know what you think if you get a chance to try this site out!
That's pretty nifty! To bad I don't have a marathon time to throw in there. One day I will..
ReplyDeleteI found the marathon we are going to run off of Marathonguide.
Very cool website! I just went there and since my PR is from CIM it said I would run all of the races I selected slower. Haha.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, must have been hot at OC! I don't have to hunt down "PR courses" because living in LA all the close races are PR courses - flat!
ReplyDeleteThat is a really cool tool! Never heard of it. I'll have to plug in my numbers and see what I come up with for CIM!
ReplyDeleteThat's an awesome website!
ReplyDeleteI have to check that website out! I have yet to find that PR course but I usually just look for flat courses per the recommendation of other bloggers. CIM seems to be the one that lots of people have their eye on for a BQ or a nice PR. You would be awesome on that course because OC is not what I would consider the easiest marathon course.
ReplyDeleteHA! That is way cool - what a great idea. Thanks for sharing the site!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a cool tool! I just plugged my only marathon time that I've done into the website (SF marathon in 3:57), and it converted that to a 3:36 at CIM lol. Weird part is that is around the time that I was going to shoot for if I have a chance at doing another marathon sometime. CIM is only 2 hours from my house (in Sacramento), hopefully I'll be able to do that race sometime. The course is net downhill, and the downhill is somewhat gradual - so it is a very easy course. A great course to set a PR on. And the weather is generally always perfect since it's December, so it's guaranteed to be cold, as long as it doesn't rain on raceday.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing, I love this!
ReplyDeleteCool site...now I just need to get my first marathon in so i can then try to PR lol
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. Whether it is accurate or not, I love that it shows that I'm going to exceed my goal time for Marine Corp Marathon this year based on my 2011 Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans race last year. Yay! Nothing like a little optimism to keep our training spirits up! :)
ReplyDeleteVery cool!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tool! According to that, my PR time in Houston last January could have been 8 minutes faster at CIM, my next one. It doesn't factor in my back injury since then, but it does give me hope. Interestingly, the Top of Utah Marathon, which is largely downhill and which I ran four months prior to Houston, is *harder* than either NYC or Houston according to this site....
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat website! Need to check it out! I ran MCM because it was close and everybody told me it's a must-do race. After that I knew I want a smaller race and more outside of a city and flat would be nice. Then I found the Wineglass Marathon in Corning NY. It met all criteria and who can say no to wine! :)
ReplyDeleteLove this site! I had used it to do the finish time comparisons, but I didn't realize that it had the cool search where you could pick different options you wanted like flat, Saturday race, close to Alabama, etc. I found a race in February that I want to try in Mississippi! Woohoo. It's an inaugural race, but I like those, small and aiming to please.
ReplyDeleteI wish the predictions that site made were accurate!!!!
ReplyDeleteCute blog :)
ReplyDeletehttp://therealfoodrunner.blogspot.com/
Oh, that's an awesome website!
ReplyDeleteYea, its clear from the Olympic marathon pics that not every athlete has a perfect stride (though from what I saw most guys had a great one). The temperature of the day really contributed to the guys suffering out there. Seems like they should have started it at maybe 8 AM or something. Anything is better than 11 AM. It was also somewhat humid, I was sweating just standing by the finish lol
ReplyDeleteCool! I just tried it out and it has predicted that I'll finish 25:44 faster in Philly than NOLA. Although, my NOLA marathon was a completely heinous event so I'm hoping I do even better. ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I have absolutely no idea about these things. I was traumatized after my first marathon so I haven't run one since. Buuut I'm pretty sure I would PR because that one took me 4:19!! :-0
ReplyDeleteUh that's awesome!! Crazy good find.
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioning my website (findmymarathon.com) on your blog. I appreciate it. And thanks to those who visited and left comments.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to leave a quick note on the time conversion tool. I have a couple of things in the works that will hopefully make the tool more effective (and fun) for everyone. The current version of the tool and the PR and Course Scores give you an indication of how your time may translate on a "normal" race day or which course may be faster on a "normal" race day. Of course, every year the race day weather is different and sometimes courses change. So, soon (depending on my wife's growing 'honey-do list') you'll be able to compare specific years (ex. Boston 2011 compared to Boston 2012) to see which of your converted times is fastest. It will something similar to age-graded times.
In addition, as race day nears, you'll be able to see how the forcasted weather may affect your times and convert times based on that forecast. I did it for this year's Boston and San Francisco Marathons and recieved a lot of positive feedback. (you can currently see the forecast and how the forecast may affect times for upcoming races on the 'Weather' tab)
As always, if anyone has any feedback, recommendations, or wants me to add a race to the list, please feel free to leave me feedback on my website or email me at info@findmymarathon.com.
Thanks again,
Greg
findmymarathon.com
Oh my gosh I love that website! Thanks for the find!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool website! Thanks for sharing. Gosh, for PR's I have PR'd in nearly every marathon I've done with the exception of my last one due to injury. Once I hit a plateau then I think this site will be incredibly useful because every minute that can be saved will be worth it!
ReplyDelete