Kickers usually win wrote:
In any distance race, running aggressively from the gun will result in a big positive split. If an American female runner has 2:20 fitness, that’s the pace she should shoot for.
I the Radcliffe paragraph, I assume “they” is referring to U.S. female marathoners. According to the WA points tables, 2:17 is equivalent to about 30:00, and no current American female marathoner is anywhere close to that time. Monson has run that fast, but after the knee injury it’s seems unlikely she’ll regain top form. Cranny and Schweizer are fairly close, but will not be leaving the track anytime soon.
"They" can also refer to the women in general. Before London 2017, some 14 years later, no other woman had run in the 2:17s, and even Paula ran it just once more in 2005.