Longest Span Between First and Last Sub 3 Hour marathons

This thread will be my motivation 15 years down the road.

Impressive stats here - keep it up!

Simlilar here, my first sub 3 was 1980 (only once under 2:50 out of about 50 marathons)but my goal is going sub 3 again (only decade I didn't was in the 2000's). I am fighting bad mechanics and if I can figure that out, I should be under 3 again. I am only 51. There is plenty of time! Good luck.

26 year span and way under 3 hour shape. I can plausibly see myself doing one in 2020 for a 36 year span and the five decade thing. Six would be on the table if I'd thought about doing one in '79.

And I consider myself a slug with no particular talent for the distance.

I have had the pleasure of meeting many of the guys on the list above. I can assure you none of them or myself think we are any better than the next guy. We just run. We all expect the list to grow and are looking forward to seeing that happen. It looks like there are a few of you that have 30+ years of Sub 3s on the books. If so I highly recommend you send your stats to Ken Young at

(kcy@frontiernet.net) This esteemed organization will determine if your marks are worthy of inclusion. Someone mentioned that Doug Kurtis had manufactured this record? Nothing could be further from the truth, meanwhile Doug has logged 76 sub 2:20 Marathons in his life so I think his personal records do speak volumes and certainly stand out on their own. Amby Bufoot did much of the reasearch for this group and should be credited for continuing to give so much back to our sport.

There is a facebook page dedicated to this here:

Here is the 5 Decades Sub 3 listing on ARRS

note: Barry Magee was the bronze medal winner in the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon won by a barefoot Abebe Bikila. Vladimir Kotov won the Russian Olympic Trials in and was 4th in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Marathon.

If you want to get in touch with me directly please do, you can do so by contacting me though the marathon I founded and am honored to direct.http://www.mdimarathon.org

cheers!

I guess I'm up there but not a record.... first marathon Jan. 1977 at the Mardi Gras Marathon (2:47:47), most recent sub 3 hr. was Boston '09 in 2:59:08. 32 yrs 3 months

The fact that Joan Samuelson was Sub-2:50 for 30 years (and no journey(wo)man) is the most impressive thing on the list.

Thanks for the links: something to shoot for those of us in the 25-30 year span.

Interesting that there seem to be lots of fast teen marathoners right around the 1980 mark. Bet we had many of the same heroes--it was Bill Rogers for me, also Dick Beardsley, who showed up in person at a running camp I attended the summer after sophomore year of HS. That was a year before he he ran the 2:08 "duel in the sun" with Salazar--and, for me, the same year I ran my first sub-3, dropping from 3:09 to 2:46 pr in one go.

There must have been something in the air.

I'm a bit surprised that Ron Hill didn't do it for longer. Does anyone know if he retired from the marathon in '79?

I did a very extensive interview with Ron Hill at

http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Hill.aspx

that is probably his most comprehensive and in depth in recent memory. He stated that his final marathon of 115 completed was the 1996 Boston Marathon and that he had waited four years to run it. He does not plan to do another marathon. He was supposed to be in Boston this year on the 40th anniversary of his winning the 1970 Boston Marathon but his flight was cancelled due to the volcano in Iceland.

Great interview, thanks!

I actually passed him on heart break hill at the 1996 marathon (how many people can say that? ;-))

He was struggling, I wasn't much better,

BTW, for the record, he past me before the finish as I tied up.

Good luck my friend!I'm shooting for this at CIM in December but am also having injuries that are probably due to bad mechanics as well. We'll see. I wrote down a goal of "2:50 at 50!" ... not very plausible for me but sure looks nice! I'll settle for sub 3.

TDF wrote:

Simlilar here, my first sub 3 was 1980 (only once under 2:50 out of about 50 marathons)but my goal is going sub 3 again (only decade I didn't was in the 2000's). I am fighting bad mechanics and if I can figure that out, I should be under 3 again. I am only 51. There is plenty of time! Good luck.

1st sub 3 - October 1976 NYC (2:48:25)

Last sub 3 - November 2006 City of Trees Marathon Boise, ID (2:59:37)

30 years, 11 days.

101 marathons - 2:58:47 avg finishing time.

4 decades sub 3; 4 decades sub 3 at Boston also.

Hi, I'm very interested in this thread. I'm wondering if there is any record of the longest span - between two three hour marathons (as opposed to the concept in this thread of the longest gap between first and last sub 3's). I ran a sub 3 in 1980 and haven't run one since - but having a crack in October this year in Melbourne (Australia). From what I can gather from this list - most if not all of the people mentioned have run other sub 3 between their first and last.

SMJO wrote:

Ed Whitlock could have done sub 3 55 years apart.

Could have, maybe - he certainly had the talent. However, he was a miler and nothing much else back in the day. I've talked to him several times at races about his running past. He quit running for many, many years and then came back and started jogging, eventually entering 5k's, 10k's, and eventually the marathon.

Sub-2:20

22y337d 04 Mar 1973 => 04 Feb 1996 - Takeshi So (09 Jan 1953,JPN)

This one is incredible.

I would like to know how one submits to the sub 3:00 longest span list

I ran 2:56:35, Dec 12, 1981 at Rocket City Marathon, last sub 3 was April 15, 2013 at Boston Marathon, 2:58:38

Cool thread. Motivating.

First sub-3 was in 2009 at 29, so I snuck that one in for the 00s and 20s.

Haven't gone over since, with 2:5x runs in 2010 and 2014. So I'm at 5 years :)

I am hoping to get the PR in the 2:40s before I'm 40, but I don't know if I'll have the buffer to be going sub-3 over a span of 36 years - when I'm 65.

Impressive work, gents. This measure combines getting in a marathon pretty early, being halfway decent to begin with, and most of all long-term work!

glad to see this thread bumped again. I see that I posted 5 years ago. I'm now up to 31 years 5 months

1982 Nov. Ocean State (Rhode Island) 2:49

2014 April Boston 2:52

going to try to go over 33 years by breaking 3 hours in Philadelphia this year

Dave Haaga