Sersiously, how many times do Meb and Ryan get paid to tempo a 63:00 half with no competition?How many US marathoners run 2:15 and get paid for an easy place at a RnR marathon rather than go to Europe and challenge themselves or try to PR on a fast course?Compare it to what Renato wrote:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5353533&page=1Renato Canova wrote:
Secondly, when some athlete is near a jump of quality, he doesn't try to build his experience competing in some top marathon abroad, but continue to stay in US running or small marathons (where it's possible to win some prize), or big marathons without any chance against Kenyans and Ethiopians, losing immediately the motivation.
May be I don't know very well the American market. May be many athletes can earn more money running shorter events, because the American circuit of Road Races provides very good prizes for US runners.
Remember back in the day when 30-50 Americans would run under 2:20 in our major marathons? Maybe we can get back to that?