Reality check- 18 guys ran 2:08:16 or faster at Seville Marathon over weekend. 1 ran that fast in US last year

Its February wejo. What month of the year did you run the full thon? Americans run their marathons in the Spring and the Fall. Its too effing cold to run the marathon in February.

Israeli record which was broken in December (2:06.43) has now been broken by 70 seconds!!!

4 Gashau AYALE ISR 2:05:33

It's Seville malmo. Winters in Seville are mild.

What don’t you understand about “in the last year”?

Yes it is but who the hell is going to Seville? American marathons are a short trip away.

When rojo was a runner he could have always run a 2:08 marathon within the last year.

Yeah the current month has nothing to do with wejo's point.

The point is: over the last couple years with the advent of "Super Shoes" the amount of fast Marathon times are off the charts [225 different runners run under 2:08 since 2021] The US depth has for many years been weak in the marathon but recently with a lot of very fast US 5k and 10K guys, and the new shoes, you'd think we might be putting up some impressive times here or there but it's simply not happening. We've only had a single guy [Rupp] break 208 in that time. And of course only a handful to ever do it in our history.

Gadisa SHUMIE ETH 2:04:59
2 Kebede TULU ETH 2:05:19
3 Mekuant AYENEW ETH 2:05:24
4 Gashau AYALE ISR 2:05:33
5 Bethwel KIBET KEN 2:05:42
6 Enock ONCHARI KEN 2:05:47
7 Mulugeta Asefa UMA ETH 2:06:07
8 Nicolas NAVARRO FRA 2:06:45
9 Douglas CHEBII KEN 2:07:11
10 Wilfred KIMITEI KEN 2:07:22
11 Christian PACHECO PER 2:07:38
12 Girmaw AMARE ISR 2:07:40
13 Hector GARIBAY FLORES BOL 2:07:44
14 Yitayal Atnafu ZERIHUN ETH 2:07:49
15 Haimro ALAME ISR 2:07:55
16 Tesfahun AKALNEW ETH 2:07:59
17 Cornelius KIBET KEN 2:08:02
18 Berhane TESFAY ERI 2:08:16
19 Tachlowini GABRIYESOS ART 2:09:00
20 Ibrahim CHAKIR ESP 2:09:16
21 Pius KARANJA KEN 2:09:24
22 Michael SOMERS BEL 2:09:31
23 Yohanes CHIAPPINELLI ITA 2:09:46
24 Adam NOWICKI POL 2:09:48
25 Amine KHADIRI CYP 2:10:20

26. C.Del Rio Chile 2:10:26 (previous 2:12:19 by O.Aguilar in 1988, Rotterdam)
32. C.Zamora Uruguay 2:11:02 (previous 2:11:42 by N.Cuestas in 2020, Valencia)

Healthy Mantz should get to 2:06 this year

Different cohort of athletes. The current crop of American marathoners just aren't that good, and the guys who have run really fast on the track haven't moved up yet, besides Rupp ... who is fading from relevance. If Klecker times his transition correctly, he'll run well under 2:08 at some point. Schumacher has been really poor in the marathon, but Fisher obviously has the tools. Not sure Kincaid can concentrate for two hours, but he certainly has the physical tools. Young and Nur both look promising. BYU has a bunch of guys who are good now and could probably supply some depth with <2:10 runs if they keep at it for a few years after college. One would presume the current college group has several athletes (Jacobs, et al) who could run fast if they train correctly for five years. You may just need to wait, given that in the US guys don't run the marathon until their late 20s, unlike Japan, Kenya, Ethiopia.

Also, a lot of the fast times in the NCAA now are being run by foreign athletes it should be remembered.

Mantz is perhaps the only current US marathon runner with several good years in front of him, and with the tools to run under 2:08. So it's really not that surprising he's the only one in the low 2:08s.

Seville had amazing depth on a great course in great weather . 17 of the 18 guys at sub 2.08.16 are from altitude. I'm sure if Chicago or London wished to restructure their elite budget to make it worthwhile for this level of athlete to attend, they could do so. But channeling vast sums to the world's biggest marathon stars prevents them doing this.Seville to its credit majored on achieving a bunch of national records, knowing that it wouldn't have a 2.02/2.15 to headline with.

It’s because our best distance runners are focused on track.

There isn’t a single country that is competitive in every event. The US is competitive in more events than any other country. Rather than lament the small number of events in which we’re not competitive, why not celebrate the fact that we are competitive in the majority of events.

We may not have a bunch of 2:08 guys, but we have an enviable amount of sub-10, sub-20, sub-45, sub-1:45, sub-4, and sub-13 guys along with an array of top-notch hurdlers and field athletes. No other country can match our overall track and field excellence. Go Team USA!

I agree with this and I always wonder why the 13:20-13:30 guys don't move to the roads. They're going nowhere on the track. It seems they can make more money road racing.

Two things. I think one thing is we have too many people who wait too long to run a marathon. Some guys like Biya Simbassa. A few guys finally did run one, like Frank Lara/Futsum/Shadrack. Shadrack isn't the same old Shadrack post injury, at least not yet, so he didn't have a good outing in his first marathon. We have enough track guys running 26:40's-27:20's right now to make world teams, the guys running 27:30 that think they can run a good marathon should be running the marathon before it's too late.

Then another thing, is we don't have enough popular fast courses. Out of the biggest marathons in the world New York is probably one of the toughest courses, and makes up the fall marathon of a ton of our runners, so no fast times there. And then a ton of people run Boston which is fast when the weather is good, but half the time it's not. Same with Chicago. If we had courses and weather like Valencia and other European courses we'd have more fast times. We've finally had a few runners going to Valencia for the half and they ran great. Erassa, Simbassa, Lara all went 60 minutes and change at Valencia in the half, people are running faster there than they do at Houston which appears to be by far our fastest half in the U.S. Look at the Marathon Project a few years ago. It was a very flat course in great weather, and we had several 2:09's and one 2:08, and our top few runners weren't even there. Similar race conditions to Valencia, and last year You put Korir and Rupp on that course and they're running 2:07 and 2:06, maybe even 2:05 for Rupp.

that makes one American...

2:10 is still fast for US marathoners. Just like it was in the 70s.

Most top Ameircans run in Boston and NYC for betetr pay days.

If some of them go to Dubai, Seville, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Valencia or whatever flat course they could find, they can record faster times. But why would they do that unless they have a good chance to break AR? Do they get time bonus for 2:07:xx? They are professional runners and they are supposed to maximize their income potential.

I understand this, but I'm pretty sure the 2:14 US guys aren't going to find seven minutes at Valencia anyway.