Oh Please wrote:
I asked this in another thread, but didn't get a response so I'll try again.
Has there ever been a period in US Marathoning history where the gap between #1 and #2 was so large? In the last two and a half years (12/31/2015 to 5/17/2018), Bobby Curtis is #2 with a 2:11:20, over 5 minutes slower than Rupp!
Go back 5 years, and #2 is Ritz with a 2:09:45, and then you have the one hit wonders Puskedra, Eggleston, and Vail with sub 2:11s.
You'd need to dig out annual lists from decades ago to answer this and I'm not good enough at web searches to do it. I would bet that such gaps have happened before. When Buddy Edelen ran his world best 2:14:28 in 1963 I wouldn't be surprised if he was the only US runner under 2:20 that year. Amby Burfoot ran pretty much the same time in 1968. He won Boston in 2:22 earlier that year. The winning time at the Olympic Trials was over 2:30. No one ran under 2:25 at the Olympics and there were no other "serious" marathons that US runners could have run that year so again, I'd bet Burfoot was the only US guy under 2:20.