Reality check- 18 guys ran 2:08:16 or faster at Seville Marathon over weekend. 1 ran that fast in US last year

Who was the 2:08 pace group leader ? Maybe us races should hire him

Alberto's career was also over for all intents and purposes when he was 24, so probably not the best example to follow.

But actually with the new super shoes, is todays' US 2:10 marathoner really the same as a 2:14 US guy from the 70's?

Of course every other year Chicago is a sauna ...

... but this is an important point. There is no structure in place that helps guys run 2:08, 2:09, whatever the barrier du jour is. There's a rabbit coming through in 62:30 ... several minutes of no man's land, incipient carnage, etc then finally a couple Americans who have, on their own accord, decided to work together to come through in 64:30-65:00.

Hell, when Ritzenhein ran 2:07 in Chicago he had to pay his high school teammate to take him through 30k. It really speaks to the lack of professionalism in US athletics. Agents, shoe companies, governing body (ha!) somebody should pull their collective head out.

Dick Mahoney ran 2:14 delivering the mail. Give him a carbon-plated shoe and a navel-gazing gig like so many of today's "pros" seem to require to even contemplate running twice a day and there's your 2:09 guy. A lot of the current crop are just soft.

Fixed that up for you.

But its the east African games hun.

What times did u expect??

That's a good point. The American women who have been breaking the AR have had reliable male pacers. But Emily Sisson and Keira D'Amato (and Sara Hall) have all been going for it, planning it out and calling their shot.

Scott Fauble's 2:08:52 in Boston could translate into a 2:05 in London, but is he going to run for the AR? Nah, he's going to run Boston again and place worse than ever cause this year's field is deep. But he'll get a good appearance fee and go for first American.

Maybe Chicago in the fall is the time for Americans to give it a go. Joe Klecker looks too big to run sub 2:06 even if he starts after Paris. At this point, maybe just wait for Tirunesh Dibaba's son to grow up. She showed up in Houston and now is going to be at the Ten in SoCal. Are they living in the States maybe?

this is bc they’re not doing The Athlete Special’s Magic Training of 12 x 800m at 5:20 mile pace

Agree with your point about Fauble's complacency being the one-eyed man in the land of the blind, but there is no way 2:09 (almost) in Boston is worth 2:05 in London. Fauble is a 2:07 guy on his day of days.

Also, Dibaba's kid has some decent genetics on the paternal side ...