How long has it been since an American man...

When was the last time Meb ran one of those?

Star wrote:

When was the last time Meb ran one of those?

My point here was a reminder for what Shalane is doing. She may have poor race strategy and miss her goals, but she's competing at a level much higher than any US man by a bit.

Much higher by a bit?

Say wha? wrote:

Much higher by a bit?

Not the best English but the point is there. So to my own question, my guess was Hall's 2:06 at London but I see that was only good for 5th place. Meb - I can't even find record of him competing at a foreign major. As best as I can tell it's Khannouchi winning London in 2002.

So to be clear, it's been 12 years since any American man has even gotten top 3 at a foreign major marathon. And that guy was only an American for 2 years at that point. Am I wrong?

Meb Olympics 2004

OK. Yes.

Was this your attempt at really answering your question using this forum as your search engine or were you trying to make some other point?

Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate almost all major marathons.

The top American men have really only run in Boston, Chicago or New York the last several years outside of the Olympics.

Makes sense if they can get a better appearance fee for those races than Berlin or London.

The American distance talents have stayed on the track where they have made great progress over the last several years.

Other Americans with potential talent move on to a regular job quicker than the Africans.

NJ Possible wrote:

So to be clear, it's been 12 years since any American man has even gotten top 3 at a foreign major marathon.

Why does it have to be a foreign major marathon? What's wrong with NYC / Boston?

Shalane placed higher in Berlin than Boston.

fan of US distance running wrote:

Why does it have to be a foreign major marathon? What's wrong with NYC / Boston?

Shalane placed higher in Berlin than Boston.

Because that's the subject of the thread.

Star wrote:

OK. Yes.

Was this your attempt at really answering your question using this forum as your search engine or were you trying to make some other point?

Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate almost all major marathons.

The top American men have really only run in Boston, Chicago or New York the last several years outside of the Olympics.

Makes sense if they can get a better appearance fee for those races than Berlin or London.

The American distance talents have stayed on the track where they have made great progress over the last several years.

Other Americans with potential talent move on to a regular job quicker than the Africans.

+1. Obviously our athletes would prefer to get paid more and run races they grew up hearing about/watching. Meb has won Boston, NYC, was 2nd in the Olympics, and also 4th in an Olympics when he was hurt. Ryan was 3rd at Boston and 3rd at NYC. Your contention that Shalane has had more success because of international races is absurd.

fan of US distance running wrote:

NJ Possible wrote:

So to be clear, it's been 12 years since any American man has even gotten top 3 at a foreign major marathon.

Why does it have to be a foreign major marathon?

Obviously US runners are asked by their sponsors to do Boston/NY first, but like most fans I stream/follow all the majors and am disappointed we can't even make a dent at London.

R2D3 wrote:

fan of US distance running wrote:

Why does it have to be a foreign major marathon? What's wrong with NYC / Boston?

Shalane placed higher in Berlin than Boston.

Because that's the subject of the thread.

That doesn't answer my question.