A couple of points I'd like to make:
1) Having the marathon as an event in the World Championships held during the summer in the very warm weather does not make much sense. I suggest the IAAF do the following suggestions:
- eliminate the marathon at the WC all together then either 1) replace it with a half marathon or 2)hold the marathon chmapionships as a seperate event like they do cross country in better conditions
2) There are two main reasons why top Americans choose not to run in the WC Marathon 1) its usually very hot 2) they directly get no money for it. Given that most of them can only run 2 marathon per year than choosing the WC marathon has even a bigger impact finacially.
3) Individual races do have a hard time marketing their event with the media, especially local media when the stars they bring in don't speak the local/national language. It baffles me why they continue to give large appearance fees to guys who can't interect well (or some cases at all) with the media or fans. I'd love to see race directors come up with and stick to a more stringent set of criteria for apperance fees. Sure let anyone who wants to just race for the prize money enter and race but only give appearance fees to those who can interact with the fans and media and help you market the race. If they do this you'd be surprised how much better some athletes language skills would get.
4) Back to an earlier point - what does everyone think of the following scenario for the IAAF:
a. eliminate the marathon as an event from the World Athletics Championships
b. replace it with a half marathon or 20k road event
c. Change the annual half marathon/road championship into a WC Marathon Championship - its own seperate event held in different locations each year - similar to the World XC Championship. Hold this every year except the Olympic year.
5) If the number 4 scenario happens I'd suggest the World Marathon Majors adapt by adding this championship as a point event each year. I'd also like to see them (WMM) add Tokoyo or another major Asian marathon to the ranks.