American Marathoning officially is a sunk ship..? Our top men in 2018 are nearly getting beat by elite women.

It's the feminism of American men.

Podium at Boston

Making the safe assumption that you are an American male (like most letsrunners) why don’t you do something about it??

Wake up at 4 to get your runs in, double at 8pm every day, if the guys could do it in the good old days, why can’t you? Stop whining start running

Why don't more Americans race in Japan? Fukuoka, Tokyo, lake biwa marathons are excellent races for some unknown sub elite to hit a fast time.

Blitzkrieg BLITZKRIEG wrote:

Why don't more Americans race in Japan? Fukuoka, Tokyo, lake biwa marathons are excellent races for some unknown sub elite to hit a fast time.

$$$$$$$$

I asked this in another thread, but didn't get a response so I'll try again.

Has there ever been a period in US Marathoning history where the gap between #1 and #2 was so large? In the last two and a half years (12/31/2015 to 5/17/2018), Bobby Curtis is #2 with a 2:11:20, over 5 minutes slower than Rupp!

Go back 5 years, and #2 is Ritz with a 2:09:45, and then you have the one hit wonders Puskedra, Eggleston, and Vail with sub 2:11s.

How many fast American runners have run on fast courses, with good conditions this year?

American Marathoning wrote:

Anyone paying attention to American Marathon rankings this year so far? Sage Canaday's 2:19 is top seven fastest for all Spring races and the dude is a pro mountain runner. It's really bad as the fast spring races are already over too . Every single person other than Rupp is more or less running womens times. Fernando Cabada / Andy Wacker are some of our top contenders running 2:17, Cabada literally almost got beat by the womens pack in London.

What in the F@#$ is going on..? Do people only care about shorter distances now?

All the guys in the 2:10-2:17 range ran CIM in December because it was the USATF marathon championships. 18 guys under 2:17 and 29 under 2:18 at that race alone. Cabada was 20th in that race. They probably all figured that was a race with semi-american prestige they had a shot to win, get a payday, and then took some winter down time and didn't want the quick turnaround to another spring marathon. Either that, or many of them ran Boston where barely anyone went under 2:17. Check back in the fall.

Boston ruined what could have been a breakout day for Pennel and Bumbalough. Chris Derrick is running well and had a decent debut in Chicago. Scott Fauble is running well and had a good debut last fall.

There should be some good performances this fall. With no WCs this summer, a lot of guys who are on the track can add some mileage over the summer and take a shot at switching over.

Economically Friendly wrote:

Blitzkrieg BLITZKRIEG wrote:

Why don't more Americans race in Japan? Fukuoka, Tokyo, lake biwa marathons are excellent races for some unknown sub elite to hit a fast time.

$$$$$$$$

How else is a unknown going get some money unless they run a fast time? More Americans should do marathons in Japan. More likely to go sub 2:10 and besides all the marathons in the US are over saturated with Americans.

Just got to sit back and wait for Paul Chelimo to get his s h i t together and make the jump to 26.2, as well as King Ches....

Soren Knudsen is our only hope, and I'm not playing.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Just got to sit back and wait for Paul Chelimo to get his s h i t together and make the jump to 26.2, as well as King Ches....

Soren Knudsen is our only hope, and I'm not playing.

Leonard Korir has better strength than Paul Chelimo. Leonard Korir will probably go sun 2:06.

It was funny in January when I could say I had the top 10 time in the US. Halfway through the year, it’s no longer funny but a sad state of American marathoning.

There really isn’t much incentive to run a fast marathon and continue at such a high level after college. It’s cool to impress a few serious runners in conversations, but that will not pay the bills. Running 100 miles a week for 6 months and making personal sacrifices leading up to a race where you MAY win a few thousand dollars is a hard pill to swallow.

From a young age, Americans are brought up to consider fast food, video games, and a participation medal “cool”. Hard work, eating healthy and running laps are considered punishment. Contrast that with the East African upbringing and you’ll see why American performances are suffering in comparison.

To run elite times you need to be incredibly motivated, hard working and talented. You also need a few lucky breaks in life.

Why does one have to do a six month build up? Yuki Kawauchi, Bill Rodgers and many others have/do many marathons throughout the year.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Just got to sit back and wait for Paul Chelimo to get his s h i t together and make the jump to 26.2, as well as King Ches....

Soren Knudsen is our only hope, and I'm not playing.

What's your definition of getting their stuff together?

Chelimo has two championship medals in the 5k and King Ches has the 2nd fastest indoor mile in the entire history of humanity. They are literally among the best in the world in their event of choice. Seems like they know what they are doing much more than the message board coaches.

If you look at US distance running over the decades, before the late 60s it was kind of rare for our best distance runners to run the marathon. If they did it was sort of as a novelty or as a back up event for the Olympics in case they didn't take the team in their main event. That changed by 1970 when guys like Moore, Shorter, Bacheler, Kardong, Rodgers, etc.. were the best we had and all ran the marathon seriously.

Then we sort of moved into an era where guys waited until they thought they'd gone as fast on the track as they could before moving to the marathon, Mark Nenow and Ed Eyestone come to mind immediately. That seems to be what goes on now so our marathoners are either guys who are marginal on the track or past their best track years. I think Salazar was the last guy we had who was still running well on the track while running marathons seriously and even he seems to have had his protégé hold off on the marathon until he was "done" on the track. Thirty plus years ago guys like Rupp and Solinsky would have been running the marathon when they were in 27:00 form for the 10,000. Now it's rare for guys of that caliber to run the marathon.

Because Yuki and Bill are exceptions, not the rule. If you take 1,000 HS runners and trained them for 5 years to be like Yuki, you’ll have 999 broken and injured runners and 1 that might hold it together for a decent performance.

Training at that level and remaining durable is exceedingly rare.

Not everyone is the energizer bunny wrote:

fartleks and bagels wrote:

Why does one have to do a six month build up? Yuki Kawauchi, Bill Rodgers and many others have/do many marathons throughout the year.

Because Yuki and Bill are exceptions, not the rule. If you take 1,000 HS runners and trained them for 5 years to be like Yuki, you’ll have 999 broken and injured runners and 1 that might hold it together for a decent performance.

Training at that level and remaining durable is exceedingly rare.

Yuki Kawuachi training isn't that extreme, we would have way more sub 2:10s in America if more Americans trained like he did.

Ummmm....ever hear of the 90s????

Not many A standards by American thonsters.