No top US marathoners are going to be running the Houston Half as it falls too close to the Olympic Trials Marathon. Mantz, Young, Fauble, and others will run a fast half when it doesn't mess up their top priority of making the Olympic team. At less than three weeks before the Olympic Trials, most would consider Houston to be a little too close for an all out effort in the half. Be patient and faster times will come for these and others.
Lol, Ethiopian women are running faster than most American men in the thon. They are so far behind everyone - who cares if they can't break their weak half record.
Recently at the Valencia half marathon, the Spanish and Portuguese half marathon record were broken (both faster than Ryan Hall's 59:43) and a native-born Italian guy also ran under Ryan Hall's AR. I would guess that very few posters here have actually heard of these guys (Carlos Mayo, Samuel Barata, Pietro Riva) and are aware of their 10k PRs (27:25, 28:03, 27:50, respectively). American Abbabiya Simbassa (10k pr of 27:45) even showed up in 2022 and ran a 1:00:37, currently tied for 5th all time for Americans. We have a number of active Americans with faster 10k PRs in the peak of their careers that have never even attempted a half marathon and for some reason seem completely allergic to the distance (calling out Grant Fisher, Woody Kincaid, Joe Klecker, Sean McGorty, and all their coaches). Guys like Rupp and Korir waited until the twilight of their track careers to take a crack at it. Fyi, it takes like a week to recover from a hard half marathon, 10k training easily scales up to the distance, and it's not going to ruin your career or even your plan for the season.
Furthermore, the top lists for the half marathon are littered with times from Valencia, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Ras Al Khaimah, The Netherlands, and other European destinations. Very few African and European elites even bother with considering American half marathons to run a fast time (I'm sure elite sponsor money and travel is an issue but our courses and field depth don't offer much as well). To my knowledge, the only non-doper to run under 59:00 minutes on American soil was Geb in Tempe, AZ, in 2006. The fact of the matter is that very few American half marathons provide the money, fast courses, race organization, and deep competition that will lead to record breaking performances.
My point is that it's an absolute joke that Ryan Hall's half marathon record still stands with the 10k times our guys are running these days. Only 4 Americans have ever run 1:00 or faster in the current age when super shoes and unbelievably deep races are so easily accessible. Athletes, coaches, and sponsors need to get their crap together and make a serious attempt at the half marathon record in actual elite fields abroad (Houston doesn't count) rather than do their manicured half dozen track races a year in controlled environments. Stop avoiding road races until the injuries pile up or you lose your speed! Emily Sisson didn't wait to run fast on the roads and look at her career. Kiera D'Amato took a risk by traveling to Australia for the Gold Coast Half and broke Sisson's AR. And I don't want to hear anyone complain about money because any major American marathon costs just as much as flying to Europe for a big race these days.
I write this as a guy that recently traveled to Europe for a fast half, ran a PR, and concluded it was totally worth it. Anyways, that's my speech, thanks for reading.
I agree...somewhat.
If you're a 5k/10k athlete, you should squeeze in a quality half at some point in your training. I would guess that running a quality half in February or March would be the ideal time to do it. You would be coming off a late fall/winter training base (November-January) and could easily micro-peak for a quality half, which wouldn't hurt your training leading into late spring/early summer. There are plenty of cities throughout the U.S. that could host the race and are temperature friendly at that time of year, and yes, you would need to put up some serious cash to attract quality runners.
No top US marathoners are going to be running the Houston Half as it falls too close to the Olympic Trials Marathon. Mantz, Young, Fauble, and others will run a fast half when it doesn't mess up their top priority of making the Olympic team. At less than three weeks before the Olympic Trials, most would consider Houston to be a little too close for an all out effort in the half. Be patient and faster times will come for these and others.
Fair enough, so we'll see what happens after the Trials and the Olympics. It will be pretty disappointing if all we get is guys taking paydays to jog in NYC with almost no racing in the buildup.
Late to the thread but wanted to say that I agree with OP. Late fall to early spring is the perfect window. Let a good 10k athlete stretch their legs during their base build & get a hard effort in. Grant/Woody/Klecker/etc can all do it. Same deal with getting more American marathoners into European marathons. More predictable weather. Fast courses. Paced races. Lots of guys could knock time off of their PBs.
Houston is sort of that race but weather isn't always good there. & you're still not seeing guys in their prime line up there.
Late to the thread but wanted to say that I agree with OP. Late fall to early spring is the perfect window. Let a good 10k athlete stretch their legs during their base build & get a hard effort in. Grant/Woody/Klecker/etc can all do it. Same deal with getting more American marathoners into European marathons. More predictable weather. Fast courses. Paced races. Lots of guys could knock time off of their PBs.
Houston is sort of that race but weather isn't always good there. & you're still not seeing guys in their prime line up there.
I would posit (and I can already hear the groans of disagreers) that Grant, say, should already move up to the Half and Full.
Honestly, what's he going to accomplish if all goes well next year? 10k on 26:25? That would be wesome, but itay fail to get him an Olympic/World's medal or at least gold.
He's got the goods that he could win Boston or NYC or whatever, plus smash the US half record.
That's a lot more of an exciting career from my bleecher-seat perspective than a bunch of impressive 10ks and 5ks at obscure track meets.
Late to the thread but wanted to say that I agree with OP. Late fall to early spring is the perfect window. Let a good 10k athlete stretch their legs during their base build & get a hard effort in. Grant/Woody/Klecker/etc can all do it. Same deal with getting more American marathoners into European marathons. More predictable weather. Fast courses. Paced races. Lots of guys could knock time off of their PBs.
Houston is sort of that race but weather isn't always good there. & you're still not seeing guys in their prime line up there.
I would posit (and I can already hear the groans of disagreers) that Grant, say, should already move up to the Half and Full.
Honestly, what's he going to accomplish if all goes well next year? 10k on 26:25? That would be wesome, but itay fail to get him an Olympic/World's medal or at least gold.
He's got the goods that he could win Boston or NYC or whatever, plus smash the US half record.
That's a lot more of an exciting career from my bleecher-seat perspective than a bunch of impressive 10ks and 5ks at obscure track meets.
I don’t disagree with your point but if course we don’t know how Grant would hold up as he has been having some injury issues I guess. So if he could stay durable then yeah why not?
No top US marathoners are going to be running the Houston Half as it falls too close to the Olympic Trials Marathon. Mantz, Young, Fauble, and others will run a fast half when it doesn't mess up their top priority of making the Olympic team. At less than three weeks before the Olympic Trials, most would consider Houston to be a little too close for an all out effort in the half. Be patient and faster times will come for these and others.
Yea, I didn't mention any of those guys for a reason. Except for maybe Mantz, the top US marathoners right now don't have the 10k time or marathon time to break the American half marathon record. And because the half marathon is more of a long 10k than short marathon, I feel the 10k guys are more appropriate to mention as capable of breaking the record.
that houston performance of him is the complete opposite of a joke and one of the greatest performances in the entire sport! no 8 of all time on the all time half marathon list at that time and that by a white guy who doesnt even have the perfect build for a distance runner as his body type is also good for strength performance and lifting weights, he looked more jacked at that time. His position on the all time list has dropped significantly by now though
that houston performance of him is the complete opposite of a joke and one of the greatest performances in the entire sport! no 8 of all time on the all time half marathon list at that time and that by a white guy who doesnt even have the perfect build for a distance runner as his body type is also good for strength performance and lifting weights, he looked more jacked at that time. His position on the all time list has dropped significantly by now though
Top Americans don’t need to run a half-marathon if they don’t want to. Very few people care about that distance because it’s not an Olympic event. The 10-mile, half-marathon, and 25K records are all irrelevant.
Top Americans don’t need to run a half-marathon if they don’t want to. Very few people care about that distance because it’s not an Olympic event. The 10-mile, half-marathon, and 25K records are all irrelevant.
Saying the half marathon is irrelevant when literally the best distance runners in the world on the men's and women's side run them and chase records is a bonehead take. Additionally, many halfs offer decent prize money as well these days.
I wouldn't put the half in the same conversation as the 10 mile or 25k. There are major half marathons all around the world that bring in deep elite fields & offer good money + opportunity to chase fast times. Running a fast half marathon means something.
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