What are American marathoners getting wrong?

Yeah, that’s it. American Marathoners don’t dominate because of healthcare. 😂😂😂😂

There are two real reasons.

1. Talent, as a group the Africans are more talented.

2. Money, Distance Running is a participation sport. Hardly anyone cares about pro runners as evidenced by the recent failures of the grand slam and poorly attended nationals. Taking it up as a career is a fail for almost everyone.

Are you acoustic? 12 guys in the field have PB's of 2:02-2:04. He beat 9 of them. VDOT accounting for the temperature has his finish time of 2:10:43 equivalent to a 2:05:28. There isn't a reasonable way to calculate how much his fall affected him. Regardless, it is fair to assume that it had some affect on his late stage performance on a physiological sense, and quite likely a psychological one too

I do think being prepared for heat v. heat+humidity is different. I was wondering before the race if these guys that train in high altitude, low humidity environments are at a disadvantage because they never experience true humidity in their workouts.

John "Hadd" Walsh would sort these boys out. They need a lot of long slow miles and none of these cut down workouts or under/over crap.

Seriously, people seem to be throwing silly numbers around about the money the US runners make and it's probably as simple as Marvelous Marvin Hagler's comment "It's hard to get up at 4am to train when you're wearing silk pyjamas"

This is a fair point. Both Altitude and Humidity result in less oxygen to the working muscles, but, humidity also limits sweat evaporation so, you overheat more easily.

The thing that is wrong is I am not coaching them. If I coached 10 athletes, I guarantee that would go 1-10 at the trials. The only thing I would need is multi year, multi-million NIL contract with no weird legal things holding this dog back. I will also need complete access to 60 acres of land to build trails, a track, weight room and pool facility outfitted with an altitude chamber (I will not move because I just don't want to). New Balance feel free to get in touch with me. Nike....I am not interested so keep walking. Adidas, I would consider, but it better be good. Hoka, we can talk, but you are going to need to get me some free hiking boots. Mizuno, we can make some waves. Saucony, I like your shoes so yea....same as Adidas. On, keep walking.

So yea, if you are a marathon runner....I will get you gold.

I am on the spectrum so i know that he did not run the equivalent of 2:05:30 today lmao

Clear? What, drinking French wine is the key to a gold medal? Eating Crème Brûlée? (They're supposedly French things...um, although the French wine drinking, at least, is not uniquely French -- just ask any collegiate cross country team.) If you mean PEDs have led to success on the world stage in the women's 10K, not that you are, while speaking with a French accent, I say, "I pick my nose at you! I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"

By the way, Mondo Duplantis is known to love Crème Brûlée, and he set a WR today in the men's pole vault. COINCIDENCE??? (It is also known that he preferred to switch allegience from the US to France a few years back, but Sweden offered him more French wine, so he chose to represent Sweden. His pet dog is Swedish, which is all it took to be approved for Swedish citizenship.

I meant the men's 10K (being won by a French person.

As far as why they don't train in the heat, it's much more likely that it's hard to find somewhere hot, humid, and at altitude in the US. I think you can get two out of three, and most athletes--correctly--choose altitude over humidity. But that also wasn't the issue here, where the women performed above their level (just like the last global champs in Tokyo, where Seidel's hot, humid bronze was far ahead of where she "should" have finished coming in or has finished since). On the men's side, Young was in it until the last 2K. I guess it's not inconceivable that better heat training could've helped him pick up a couple spots, but I think it's unlikely that was the difference between 9th and bronze. Our best marathoner wasn't racing and could have won this one, but he's getting ready for an AR attempt in Chicago. Whatever the overall issue is, it's not heat training.

Probably the same reason why Americans are terrible at soccer. Mass participation as youth, but then the money and interest lie elsewhere.

I believe the talent is in the U.S. (and in China, and India) but who is going to find them and interest them in the terrible existence that is distance running?

they could of headed to the south for heat training. Many of them want to stay in there altitude bubbles. For longer efforts you really need to train in that environment. def 10k up and marathon all the more.

This. 👆🏾

Exactly the WC Marathon is a B race period.

didn't Hadd run like 2:14

I upvoted this only because of the quote. (What he said was closer to "It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 am when you've been sleeping in silk pajamas") It aligns with my initial post in the thread.

USA marathon culture is hobby jogging culture. Japan and East Africa have a deep cultural connection to the marathon. Elite runners in the USA are products of the NCAA which has no interest in the marathon. Bill Rodgers may have been interested but no one else has since

Those were the German and Italian's best distance runners. In the US nearly all of the top distance runners stay on the track, arguably way too long. More should experiment with the roads. A non zero percentage of the sub 13:20 5,000m guys would likely run really well at the half marathon and marathon. Mantz was one of the few who went to the marathon 'early' while being competitive on the track. He wasn't a top 3 guy on the track, but he's the best distance runner in general out of the guys who run the marathon and is our best marathoner. If Nico Young ran a marathon it wouldn't be surprising if he was running 2:06 or faster. Same with Grant Fisher. Klecker is having a comparatively tough go at the half marathon so far, but I also don't think he's in low 27 10,000m shape anymore, so he's not really an anti-example. He's just not firing on all cylinders for whatever reason.