How many minutes off of first was Albertson and considering such why would you celebrate his 13th place finish? The reality is that Albertson was never in contention. Especially at the elite level, the race in a marathon begins at about mile 20, and those East Africans dropped him handily when it counted the most. I always pull hard for the Americans, and hope for a resurgence in American marathoning, but smart racing is smart racing and Fauble ran a smart race…and was not delusional. As long as we prioritize “air time” and “guts” we will not see any results in American marathoning. You cannot try to be a John Wayne unless you are a Bill Rodgers…and even Fauble’s 2:08:52 is not all that impressive, all things considered…Rodgers put up 2:09:29 and 2:09:55 in junk shoes, junk clothes, lesser “science,” and Oreo cookies and mayonnaise for “nutrition” at 3:00 am. If you want to root for a John Wayne, watch some old tapes of Rodgers…