Fastest Marathoners over six feet tall (1.83m or taller)

Photo of Jeff Jacobs helping with pace-setting duties at Chicago Marathon 1997...

I believe Jeff is "only" about 6' -1" but he ran much bigger than that... loved the description that he looked like "a pass-rushing linebacker"

He once ran over a couple of Illini football players who had drifted onto the track while we were doing a track workout. Jeff (and all of us) got tired of yelling "TRACK" every time around... so Jeff just lowered his shoulder and took them out. Must have been hilarious to watch us skinny guys hurdling over falling football players.

(That was the last year we had a track at the football stadium, they tore it out that summer. THANKS FOOTBALL COACH MIKE WHITE)

http://www.uwec.edu/hartnesg/hartnett/chimar/14MI.html

Salazar is listed as 5 foot 11 (1.81 m)

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sa/alberto-salazar-1.html

We are currently working on our 2013 Chicago Marathon men's preview. In working on it, we were struck by the thought, "Tegenkamp is kind of tall for a marathoner at 6'1". The stats back us up as we are listing 10 studs in our Chicago preview. Of those 10, we found heights for 8 of them and the tallest was just 5'9" as shown here:

Zersenay Tadese - 5'3"

Emmanuel Mutai - 5'4"

Ayale Abshero - 5'6"

Moses Mosop - 5'7"

Micah Kogo - 5'7"

Mike Kigen - 5'8"

Dathan Ritzenhein - 5'8"

Sammy Kitwara - 5'9"

Now, we know there have been some good taller marathoners, but not a ton. Paul Tergat was listed as 6 feet tall and he wasn't too shabby. But in reality, Tergat was 182 cm which is 5'11.65" inches. 6 feet is really 183 cm.

We wanted to start a list of the fastest tall marathoners in history. To be included, you have to be at least 183 cm tall.

Phew, thankfully, we use that as the cutoff as we also just realized Wilson Kipsang is 182 cm tall and he's pretty good as well.

So list anyone who is 183 cm below and their marathon pb.

Our preview is up. We talk about how Paul Tergat is listed at 6' but he really was 1.82 cm which is just below 6'. You can read it here:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/10/2013-chicago-marathon-mens-preview-will-emerge-loaded-mens-field-americans-tegenkamp-ritzenhein-chance/

So far this is what we've got under 2:10:00. I've written Dick Beardsley to try to confirm he's actually 1.82 cm.

Markos Geneti 2:04:54 1.83 cm

Toshinari Takaoka 2:06:16 1.86m

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot 2:07:35 1.88 m (6'2")

Henry Szost 2:07:38 1.85 m

Kamiel Maase 2:08:21 1.88 m (6'2")

Derek Clayton 2:08:34 1.88m (6'2") 1987 world champion

Dick Beardlsey 2:08:53 ??

Rod Dixon 2:08:59 1.86 cm

Douglas Wakiihuri 2:09:03 6'1

Alan Culpepper 2:09:41 1.86 cm

Six foot is not all that tall. For truly tall runners, Jack Bacheler was 6'6", not sure of his PB but he clocked in at 2:17 for 9th place at the 72 Munich Olympics

rojo wrote:I've written Dick Beardsley to try to confirm he's actually 1.82 cm.

He'll have trouble reaching the keyboard then, won't he?

I'd be interested to see a list like this for the women, also.

Another layer would be to include some sort of standardization for the elevation profiles of the courses where these tall guys ran their fastest marathons. Generally, taller = a disadvantage over significant hills, right? Although I suppose most people wouldn't be running their fastest marathons on hillier courses anyway, so we can probably just ignore that...

Would be cool to see a line graph, for both men and women, of fastest marathon PR at each cm height.

[quote]rojo wrote:

Derek Clayton 2:08:34 1.88m (6'2") 1987 world champion

____

Ouch. Rojo, you're better than that -- for the 1987 WC you mean de Castella (. . . and I'm not sure how tall he was).

Robert Cheruiyot, 4 or maybe 5 times Boston Marathon Champ, and also Chicago marathon champ. I am not sure about his exact height but he is probably between 5'11" to 6'1" I think. His nick name is Mwafrika

David Mandago from Kenya I think is 6ft 4/5 and he was 2nd in Chicago 2008. He also has run 2:06:53 in 2009 at Paris. Pull up images of him.mhe stands out the pack like a sore thumb hahaha

rojo wrote:

So far this is what we've got under 2:10:00. I've written Dick Beardsley to try to confirm he's actually 1.82 cm.

Markos Geneti 2:04:54 1.83 cm

Toshinari Takaoka 2:06:16 1.86m

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot 2:07:35 1.88 m (6'2")

Henry Szost 2:07:38 1.85 m

Kamiel Maase 2:08:21 1.88 m (6'2")

Derek Clayton 2:08:34 1.88m (6'2") 1987 world champion

Dick Beardlsey 2:08:53 ??

Rod Dixon 2:08:59 1.86 cm

Douglas Wakiihuri 2:09:03 6'1

Alan Culpepper 2:09:41 1.86 cm

try 1983. Deek was under 6 foot.

Jerry Lawson 2:09:35

GermanRunner2 wrote:

In northern Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Denmark) you are in the lower 10% when you're 180cm as a man.

Massive exaggeration.

agip wrote:

2:10 - really? a 40 year old record???

I bet a certain bald afroed young guy in Portland thinks about that number a lot

kdkdk wrote:

Which is it? Bald or afro? Can't be both can it?

Wrong. Google Miruts Yifter.

Bob Kempainen, 183cm, 2:08:47

You should target 5'11". There is quite a group at that exact height, i.e. DeCastella, Salazar, and interestingly...Rupp (his day will come).

LetsRun.com wrote:

We wanted to start a list of the fastest tall marathoners in history. To be included, you have to be at least 183 cm tall.

Phew, thankfully, we use that as the cutoff as we also just realized Wilson Kipsang is 182 cm tall and he's pretty good as well.

Ed Eyestone 6'1" 2:10:59

Derek Clayton was an Austranin who was the first runner under 2:10 in 1967 at Fukuoka and then ran 2:08:34 at Antwerp, Belgium in 1969.