Seyta wrote:
His entire set of marathons is:
- US Olympic Marathon Trials 2016
- Olympic Marathon 2016
- Boston Marathon 2017
- Chicago Marathon 2017
- Boston Marathon 2018
- Prague Marathon 2018
- Chicago Marathon 2018
- Chicago Marathon 2019
- US Olympic Marathon Trials 2020
This is a total of 9 marathons.
Two of them are the Olympic Trials, which were on hot, slow courses, and where he was so far ahead of the competition that his finishing time was irrelevant.
One of them was the 2018 Boston Marathon, where conditions were an utter disaster for everyone involved.
The 2016 Olympic Marathon and 2017 Boston Marathon were on generally slow courses.
Of the 3 Chicago Marathons, one was a DNF (2019), and one was in warm weather conditions that he actually won (2017).
There were really only two opportunities to run fast: Prague, and Chicago 2018. Prague was actually shortly after the terrible performance in Boston 2018, and he ran decently. Chicago 2018 he just didn't have it.
Sure, he may be a 2:05 runner, but if his ceiling is 2:05:XX based on his track times, and he's really only had 2 fast marathons to try and get it, hitting 2:06 really isn't so bad.
So in short, Galen hasn't run on a fast course with top competition on a day with good conditions. Which makes sense, since he only seems to run second-tier races outside of the olympics.
Why is this, though? I would guess mostly because of injury but I haven't really kept up with his injury history, I just feel like he's always been battling back from injury or taking time off since he's moved up to the marathon.