It's a bit much to expect anyone to challenge the 10K world record. Only three men in history have cracked 26:30 -- Bekele, Gebrselassie and Tergat. Running gods who will undoubtedly still be near the top of the list decades from now.
What is embarrassing is that our American record of 27:13 is only 148th on the all-time list. That's pretty lame, and it'll be long overdue if Rupp breaks 27:00 this summer, which would put him in the top 60. Much more respectable, or at least a decent start at respectability.
It doesn't help when runners pass over golden opportunities such as Bekele's rabbited world record attempt at last year's Pre. Bekele ended up running a stellar 26:25.97, and the only American in the race was Abdi, who came up short with 27:16.99. What if the race were stacked with our best Americans? Admittedly it was a bit too close to the Olympic Trials. So why not plan more races like that with better timing? Get the top talent over, and stack it. Send more athletes over to Bruxelles, Hengolo and Oslo where nearly all the records are set. There's rarely any Americans in those races.
Another problem of course is our top talent like Hall and Ritz focus too much on marathons, when they should probably work more on their 10k speed and limit themselves to one marathon a year.
I hope in the next several years, our top prospects of Rupp, McDougal, Fernandez, Derrick, Puskedra, etc. spend some time focusing on not just worlds and the Olympics, but those European races, and stay the hell away from marathons until they're older.