better at marrying than running wrote:
My couple of thoughts as someone who married a woman who is a former elite endurance athlete and who had two children is that my wife and a lot of other women who are serious athletes experience a rather noticeable jump in performance shortly after they stop nursing. Gwen may have another increment of performance improvement when she gets to that point. We have no idea how Gwen will deal with that last 10K of a marathon, and won't until she runs one. That is where the metabolic difference between really good marathoners and good 10K/ 1/2 marathoners shows up. Finally, it is interesting to see that you all have mentally written off Desi Linden as one of our top couple of marathoners. Healthy and fully trained she still may be a 2:23-2:25 performer.
Desi will be 36 and I'm pretty certain the number of American women that have run 2:23 or even 2:25 at age 36 is very small. Deena did not and she was of the AR holder. But still, maybe you're right. I would not put money on it though.