Why is Maine producing the best distance runners in the US?

Lack of HS competition leads to less burnout and more room for improvement in college and post-college? Or it's a coincidence!

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are too small to have much (very expensive) hockey and the basketball teams have 5 starters and 5 bench warmers. That leaves everybody and their cousin to own cross country skis for recreation. Pretty great cardio sport for the winter, eh?

Genetics.

The downside is that EPO doesn't work on Mainiacs.

Stats for one distance for half a year hardly construct adequate support for the argument of producing the best distance runners in the US.

think snow wrote:

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are too small to have much (very expensive) hockey and the basketball teams have 5 starters and 5 bench warmers. That leaves everybody and their cousin to own cross country skis for recreation. Pretty great cardio sport for the winter, eh?

this definitely isn't it. i grew up in central NH, definitely more people into alpine skiing and hockey.

Running is the maine activity.

Steroids, aderrall, and thyroid meds.

If you're from Maine, rural New Hampshire, and rural Vermont you're just tougher than everybody else. It's like Alaska, but with a few more people who aren't wanted on criminal charges.

I know a lot of Maine runners that have grown up on the farm doing manually labor day in, day out.

...Maybe they're just tougher than you southwestern UCLA kids.

And except for one, all of them are from northerly states.

Spruce Pickford wrote:

7 American-born men have run under 13:18 for 5000 this year. Three of them are from tiny Maine, population 1.33 million. (And a fourth is from next door New Hampshire) What makes Mainers so fast? Lobstah? Blueberries? Soft Serve ice cream?

13:06 Ben True (Maine)

13:07 Eric Jenkins (New Hampshire)

13:12 Galen Rupp (Oregon)

13:15 Ryan Hill (North Carolina)]

13:16 Garret Heath (Minnesota)

13:17 Will Geoghegan (Maine)

13:17 Riley Masters (Maine)

Some Maine history:

It's small, there's going to be more variance in performances. Look at other small states, I'm sure some are well above average, and others are well below.

Many of us grew up in rural areas of Maine and had to run/walk to school 5 miles in the morning and 5 miles back in the eve.

This is different than New York City, where people use school buses for a 10 block distance.

Might be due to the region's elixir - http://texaslegacybrands.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/800x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/O/MOXIE-010000_1.jpg

Used to be Rono wrote:

Might be due to the region's elixir -

http://texaslegacybrands.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/800x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/O/MOXIE-010000_1.jpg

Fun fact: Moxie used to be considered a tonic. It might also contain tree bark.

Everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, and it happens to be Maine's turn now. Put 1.3 million Mainers in a room for 250 years and eventually 3 of them are fast at the same time.

Sounds like someone is a little butthurt. Why do you hate Maine so much? Did you get smoked by True, Masters, or Geoghegan at some point?

How bad was it?

Look past the pros to the collegiate level, and there are Maine guys killing it. Matt McClintock at Purdude is from Maine, and so is Dan Curts at Iowa State. Finally good that a small state like ours is getting some recognition

13 minutes 17 seconds of fame wrote:

Everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, and it happens to be Maine's turn now. Put 1.3 million Mainers in a room for 250 years and eventually 3 of them are fast at the same time.

^ weak post