408 went under 70 min at Ageo Half this year

Granted, Japan does have a lot of depth in the sub-elite distance running, but let’s not get beside ourselves in stating Japan has more depth than the U.S. In the U.S., when is comes to road racing, we focus on the 5k/10k. I bet the U.S. could have twice as many 1:10 half marathoners if we choose to. Every athlete that qualified for the NCAA XC Championship and every H.S. kid that qualified for the Footlocker Nationals probably could run a 1:10 half marathon. Also, obviously guys like Webb, Teg, Lagat, Lomong, McDougal, Slattery, Fam, Goucher, Dobson, Solinsky, Alcorn, Nelson, etc., etc., can run a 1:10 half, or if you look at the couple hundred U.S. guys who ran a sub-15 5K or a sub-32 10K in a road races and you have hundreds 70 minute half marathoners. (In Japan, every athlete that’s not a sprinter runs the half marathon, but in the U.S. it is not a marquee event.)

Right because every good Japanese runner was at Ageo City...

Yes, I'd like to see some fast folks from overseas run this some day.

A 1:22:18 as a 44 year old would have you tied for 664th and 12th in the 40's age group. The winner in the 40's ran 1:10:38, with 2nd place in the 40's running 1:10:52.....

True enough, but keep in mind that this race only had 2nd-class guys from universities around the Tokyo area. None of the good university runners, none from elsewhere in Japan and only two or three professionals.

Sort of like a field equivalent to every male US college runner except for those in the top 5-7 on teams going to D1 xc nationals?

bad digestion wrote:

isn't it odd that asian-americans in the US rarely run well?

that's because most of them are either, Chinese, Viatnamese or Phillipino and not japanese and running is not really part of their culture. And this running fever in Japan started in the 60's after the japaneses in the us had already arrived here.

I want to blame the USATF for making marathon trial entry times harder. If they promoted a bigger crowd at their Championship meets and not made it super elite. Those sub-elite runner finishing college would have a little more motivation to run road races and keep training. They would know that their goal wouldn't be to one a Championship Marathon race but simply get qualified to one and see what they could do. USATF needs to emphasize participation not secluded isolation!

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USATF wrote:

I want to blame the USATF for making marathon trial entry times harder. If they promoted a bigger crowd at their Championship meets and not made it super elite. Those sub-elite runner finishing college would have a little more motivation to run road races and keep training. They would know that their goal wouldn't be to one a Championship Marathon race but simply get qualified to one and see what they could do. USATF needs to emphasize participation not secluded isolation!