Who is the fastest african american marathoner born in United States?

Steve Holman

- 3:50 mile

- 3:31 1500

- NCAA Champion

- Olympian

Whoops! Didn't see the "marathoner" part.

Actually Holman has run a marathon, he isn't the fastest African American at THAT distance, Atkins is. However, I don't know a African American who has faster credentials from 800 meters up than Holman who has finished a marathon.

is there a reason the answer isn't KK?

yupster wrote:

is there a reason the answer isn't KK?

Maybe because he was born in Morocco...

reading fail...

Nat Turner wrote:

"Real" black folks dont run distance.

this is entirely untrue and a big misconception. hundreds of thousands of black kids run distance every year but fail at it from lack of resources and coaching. Trust me, they are not "jogging" or not caring about distance, these are kids who have dreams and are let down by a system that caters to rich white kids. I can't make this stuff up.

Herm Atkins

http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/reviews/CheaperThanInsulin.pdf

The legendary Ted Corbitt (the father of American ultrarunning,a cofounder of the RRCA, and a 1952 Olympic marathoner) comes to mind, as well as Herm Atkins (who since 1979 has held the record for African American

marathoners with a 2:11:52).

SI Vault:

All an American need do to make the Olympic marathon is run 2:21:54 to qualify for—and then place in the top three—at the Olympic Trials next May in Buffalo. Fifty men ran under the Trials standard in Eugene, and 34 of them recorded personal bests, testament to a grand day and a continuing surge of excellence in U.S. marathoning.

Atkins' fifth-place time was a splendid 2:11:52, and the depth of field was best illustrated by 36-year-old Olympic-steeplechaser Mike Manley, who ran 2:16:45 but finished 19th.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1095395/2/index.htm

Herm Atkins alao the fastest headband marathoner.

Richard Largo wrote:

Anyone with the skinny on Herm's mileage for the 2:11? He gave me ridiculously low (like 10-20 mpw) figures for when he was cleaning everyone's clock for Master's Nats XC back in the '90's.

I personally talked to him in 1980 at the Houston Marathon and got his autograph. He said that he was running 90 mpw. Still, much lower than his contemporaries of the day.

God of Letsrun wrote:

Nat Turner wrote:

"Real" black folks dont run distance.

this is entirely untrue and a big misconception. hundreds of thousands of black kids run distance every year but fail at it from lack of resources and coaching. Trust me, they are not "jogging" or not caring about distance, these are kids who have dreams and are let down by a system that caters to rich white kids. I can't make this stuff up.

I agree 100%. I see this everyday. I work in a gym training athletes at a Country Club.

I dunno. Even the worst of the ghettos have basketball courts but Air Jordans must cost over $150 nowadays. Not sure this is a valid argument. Then again, I'm not holding my breath for the next great African American Olympic alpine/downhill skier either...

ABDIRAHMAN?

Pretty sure Johnny Gray popped a 2:13-15. Doesn't sound like much but he went out in 62:xx.

God of Letsrun wrote:

Nat Turner wrote:

"Real" black folks dont run distance.

this is entirely untrue and a big misconception. hundreds of thousands of black kids run distance every year but fail at it from lack of resources and coaching. Trust me, they are not "jogging" or not caring about distance, these are kids who have dreams and are let down by a system that caters to rich white kids. I can't make this stuff up.

actually, the reason there aren't a lot of fast American-born black distance runners mostly has to do with the fact that African-Americans are descendants of West Africans (west Africa is where the slave trade went down, for those who don't know anything about history). West Africans are genetically endowed with the ability to develop lots of fast-twitch muscle fibers and other biological adaptations advantageous in the sprints, whereas East Africans are genetically predisposed to be able to develop biological advantages that make them better at long distance running.

If it all has to do with access to resources, then explain why dirt-poor East Africans excel at distance running at all levels, and explain why poor African-Americans with very limited resources consistently out-perform their white peers in sprinting events. When looking at these trends within broader population groups in a non-skill sport like running, genetic advantages are almost always the dominant factor. Your resources explanation, while completely applicable to sports like cycling and swimming, is utter bullshit when it comes to running.

MLK Blvd wrote:

I dunno. Even the worst of the ghettos have basketball courts but Air Jordans must cost over $150 nowadays. Not sure this is a valid argument. Then again, I'm not holding my breath for the next great African American Olympic alpine/downhill skier either...

Oh boy, now you are on to a whole different subject. Have you seen the rundown basketball courts in inner city ghettos. They don't even have rims and are sometimes littered with pedophiles and drunks. The only good gyms are at the schools or boy's and girl's club. I have seen black kids literally cry when the gyms close because that was the only place to practice their free throws. But you are also ignoring a critical factor which is coaching. Basketball coaches compete against other coaches in the hood and are very passionate at what they do by helping these blacks get to college.

Now let's contrast that with Cross Country or Track. The distance guys in inner-city schools have no where to run save round the school unless they want to be run over by cars. Count the amount of parks in the hood, just go count them. Lack of resources. Coaches also are retarded. They are usually drunks who hate their jobs and throw stop watches at their kids telling them go run boy. Now what are they supposed to run? The kids have no idea what they are doing? I raced black kids in high school who said their longest run was in the 5k race lol. And they sucked at it. It wasn't that they didn't care, they were just disadvantaged.

And the disadvantages doesn't stop. Just search an HBCU in directathletics, not only are they slower than most guys on these message boards were in middle school, but they have no idea sites like Letsrun or people like Lydiard exist. And people wonder why we suck compared to Kenyans. The problem is that we are not even developing the talent we have. The day a Howard University student or Texas Southern student transfers to Oregon for long distance running is the only day we will see progress. Thanks for reading.

Did you just "correct" Malmo and tell him the name is spelled with a "t"? The dude's name is ODIS, you can look it up.

thepinkmonkey wrote:

I'd say Herm Atkins, 2:11:52

I bought my first pair of Pegasus' from Herm. His store was on one of our running routes.

Why is there virtually nothing on him when you google Herm's name? Sad!

Troll Hard wrote:

You can't be African American if you were born in America.

You can't be Italian or Irish American if you were born in America.