Longest marathon winning streaks

Bill Rodgers won 4 and 6 on either side of a DNF at Boston. So he won 10 out of 11, all 10 he finished, and 6 in a row.

...but believe there is a "Joe Runner" who could be racking up a huge winning streak in low-grade, local marathons. I also want to say that some road whoring Kenyan has probably won three straight mid-grade marathons over about a month period (I seem to remember reading about something like this in Fall 2002 or 2003).

Looks like BR had 4 & 5, not 6 as you noted. Here's his (AMAZING) marathon record as listed on Running Times:

57. 1996 Boston (2:53)

56. 1992 Vietnam International 19th

55. 1990 Boston (2:20:46) 5th masters

54. 1989 Los Angeles (2:22:24)

53. 1988 NYC (DNF)

52. 1988 Boston (2:18:17) 2nd masters

51. 1988 Los Angeles ( 2:20:27) 2nd masters

50. 1988 Phoenix (DNF)

49. 1987 NYC (2:25:01) 54th

48. 1987 Boston (2:18:18) 15th

47. 1987 Phoenix (DNF)

46. 1986 Chicago (2:15:31) 11th

45. 1986 Boston (2:13:35) 4th

44. 1985 NYC (2:15:31) 7th

43. 1985 New Jersey Waterfront (2:14:46) 2nd

42. 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials (2:13:31) 8th

41. 1983 Chicago (2:21:40)

40. 1983 Beijing, China (DNF)

39. 1983 Boston (2:11:58) 11th

38. 1983 Orange Bowl, FL (2:15:08) 1st

37. 1982 Big M, Melbourne, Austrialia (2:11:08) 1st

36. 1982 Atlantica - Boavista (DNF)

35. 1982 Boston (2:12:38) 4th

34. 1982 Tokyo (2:24) 301st

33. 1982 Houston (2:14:51) 5th

32. 1981 Bank 1, Columbus, OH (2:17:34) 7th

31. 1981 Stockholm, Sweden (2:13:28) 1st

30. 1981 Atlantica - Boavista, Brazil (2:14:13) 1st CR

29. 1981 Boston (2:10:34) 3rd

28. 1981 Houston-Tennaco (2:12:10) 1st CR

27. 1980 NYC (2:13:20) 5th

26. 1980 Toronto (2:14:47) 1st

25. 1980 Boston (2:12:11) 1st

24. 1979 NYC (2:12:12) 1st

23. 1979 Montreal (2:22:12) 15th

22. 1979 Boston (2:09:27) 1st AR

21. 1978 Fukuoka (2:12:53) 6th

20. 1978 NYC (2:11:28) 1st

19. 1978 Boston (2:10:13) 1st

18. 1977 Fukuoka (2:10:55) 1st

17. 1977 NYC (2:11:28) 1st

16. 1977 Amsterdam, Holland (2:12:46) 1st CR

15. 1977 Boston (DNF)

14. 1977 Kyoto, Japan (2:14:25) 1st

13. 1976 Baltimore (2:14:28) 1st CR (200 meters short)

12. 1976 Sedo Island, Japan 1st CR

11. 1976 NYC (2:10:10) 1st CR

10. 1976 Montreal Olympics (2:25:14) 40th

9. 1976 Olympic Trials (2:11:58) 2nd

8. 1975 Fukuoka (2:11:26) 3rd

7. 1975 Enschada, Holland (DNF)

6. 1975 Boston (2:09:55) 1st CR

5. 1974 Philadelphia (2:21:57) CR

4. 1974 NYC (2:36:00) 5th

3. 1974 Boston (2:19:34) 14th

2. 1973 Bay State (2:28:12) 1stCR

1. 1973 Boston (DNF)

What just jumped out at me now that I look at the list of BR's marathons was the result of Billy's race at Tokyo 1982:

34. 1982 Tokyo (2:24) 301st

This can't be right---300 people under 2:24 in one race? Hodgie or others--is this correct?

i know i have one of the longest marathon losing streaks.

10/8/77 Won a marathon in Waynesboro, VA in 2:25+ , according to Marathoning by Bill Rodgers. This was 15 days before NYCM of that year. It's in his book, but I can't explain the discrepancy with the RT site. That would make six.

Joseph Chebet 4-wins

Right you are; my bad. Skylon hangs his head in shame, and goes back to research school. I shoulda checked his book.

email guy from arrs.net he'll have info

:p!!!

There are often threads about tapering, how much, how long, its overall efficacy. It's kind of amazing BR runs 26.2 @ 5:30s two weeks before a major marathon against a stacked field. I wonder what time was second in that race.

Rather than looking at wins of all marathons, I think a truer measure of a runner's ability and durability is consecutive wins of a marathon. John J, Kelley won Yonkers 8 years in a row, and it was the national championship all those years. So, while it doesn't have the prominence of Boston nor Chicago, it was a major in those days. For documentation see:

http://www.arrs.net/HP_YonMa.htm

and

http://www.usatf.org/statistics/champions/USAMarathon/men.asp

and Grete Waitz' 5 New York's in a row ('82-'86) must be up there.

My two issues with Grete's "streak" at NYC is that 1)women's marathoning wasn't as deep then as it was only a few years later, and 2)it's a widely known secret that Fred Lebow stacked the field in Grete's favor and quite intentionally didn't invite Ingrid Kristiansen to run during those years in order to keep Grete's record going.

Between his victory in the marathon at the Pan American Games and his victory at the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials, Frank Shorter won at least 9 consecutive marathons, including the 1972 Olympic marathon. His streak included four consectutive victories at the Fukuoka marathon (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974), back when that race served as the closest thing to a world marathon championship.

During that period, Shorter won the U.S. Cross Country championship three times and the national 10,000 meter track title four times. Shorter's dominated American distance running for 6 years, which is a pretty impressive period of sustained excellence.

Skylon,

Even if true (and I have no reason to think it wouldn't be), she did still come to the line ready and still needed to beat everyone else. Also, note that of her 9, there were 2 interruptions, leaving the longest streak at 5. You are right though, a relationship between an athlete and race director can impact the race. Thanks for pointing this out.

Wayne

in 1978, i won houston, 2 weeks later mardi gras, three weeks later, st louis. houston and st louis were state records at the time.

ron tabb

Rob DeCastella won Fukuoka in 81, Commonwealth Games in 82, Rotterdam in 83, and the WC in 83, so that's 4 in a row. I'm sure others have had longer.

I need some help in clarification here but... Frank Shorter won all his marathons after his first marathon in which he finished second to Kenny Moore until he finished second to Cielpinski in 1976 Montreal Olympics except for Honolulu marathon which he ran a week after his win at Fukuoka and finished 4th or 5th (I guess we should count that as well...). Also he finished tie with Kenny Moore at Olympic trial in 72.

His first marathon (can't remember which one): second

Pan Am marathon: win

Fukuoka 71: win

Olympic Trial 72: win (tied first with Moore)

Olympic Games Munich: win

Fukuoka 72: win

Ohme (Lake Biwa): win

Fukuoka 73: win

(I think this is when he ran Honolulu...)

Fukuoka 74: win

Olympic Trial 76: win

Olympic Games Montreal; second

He might have run one before 73 Fukuoka where he cracked his foot and DNFed... Does anybody know? Considering the quality of the field, particularly when IAAF recognized Fukuoka as unofficial world championships for the marathon, Shorter's winning streak, including Olympic marathon, was absolutely impressive. I would rank him over Rodgers for this respect.

But as for Rodgers, I believe he won 77 Fukuoka as his 6th marathon of the year. Starting Boston, I thought he might have won all 6 of them (except if one was Montreal World Cup, which I think it was, he bombed out in the 13th place or something...). Still quite impressive...

Rodgers' 12th, which is actually supposed to be "Sado" island of Japan, is not quite the marathon distance. If I recall it correctly, it was something like 1km short. It was Rodgers against the Japanese drummer group, Ondekoza, in a form of a relay (with Rodgers running the entire distance alone). I vaguely remember them saying that, had it been the official distance, he would have run 2:06 or 2:07 that day. That's what no-competition, fun atomosphere can do for you...