Well, we’ve nursed our Boston Marathon content-production hangover enough to pivot into this week’s topics: the IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas and the incredibly deep fields at this year’s Virgin Money London Marathon.

It’s a big weekend, to be sure. And you can expect the standard fare you’ve become accustomed to from the Citius Mag brain trust. Event previews. Incredibly stupid historical-fiction-based speculative think-pieces. (I am planning to write about what would happen if Jack the Ripper ran a marathon. Yikes.)

It’ll all be there. And I trust I don’t need to stir up any excitement around the content itself.

So instead, imagine me galloping around in a series of concentric circles, waving my arms maniacally in a manner I seem to think looks cool or like I’m pumping up an imaginary crowd, all the while screaming “IT’S THE LONDON MARATHON, BABY! THE LONDON MARATHON!”

World Relays

I probably don’t need to do the same for the World Relays. Those will be inherently amusing to track fans of all stripes, as relays are the best. (Although they have seemingly scrapped the Distance Medley Relay from the schedule, leaving the classic 4 x 800-meter relay as the sole distance-oriented event.)

There will be batons dropped. There will be whooping sounds made as improbable passes are pulled off in the short sprints. And there will be general intrigue. As very Fast People run very fast in tandem with one another.

London Marathon

But the majority of our content generating abilities will be focused around this bad boy. I promise we will talk much less about weather than we did for Boston last week. Weather’s ultimately a boring-ass topic and none of us hold certificates in Meteoroptometry.

Instead we will primarily discuss the fact that the fields are star-studded and ultimately make Boston’s look silly.

The men’s field features six men who have run under 2:06: Kenenisa Bekele, Tesfaye Abera, Feyisa Lilesa, Abel Kirui, Daniel Wanjiru, and Tilahun Regassa. In a sense. It will be very fast, and who doesn’t love a Bekele sighting?

The women’s race is headlined by the fastest marathoner ever not named Paula, Mary Keitany. And behind her is a loaded field of women who have run in the 2:19 to 2:21 range: Aselefech Mergia, Florence Kiplagat, Mare Dibaba, Aberu Kebede, Tirunesh Dibaba, Helah Kiprop, and Tigist Tufa (plus Americans Laura Thweatt and Kellyn Taylor).