Should Road Races Separate the Pros from the Masses?

November 17, 2021

While the benefit to giving elite women their own race seems obvious, the question of giving male marathoners a separate start is more contentious.

Earlier this month, for the first time in its 50-year history, the New York City Marathon had a separate start time for the men’s elite field, whose race commenced five minutes before the masses in Wave 1. In doing so, the five-borough race appeared to be taking a cue from the Boston Marathon, which began having a separate start for its pro men in 2019, in part to mirror the fact that the elite women had had a separate start in Hopkinton since 2004. Outside