The fastest US time in Osaka was 2:42, 31st place overall. For those of you that follow it, is this a true indicator of what the US women can do in the marathon vs. international comp?
Why don’t you ask her coach/husband? He posts here.
Oh hell no!
The top two have both gone under 2:20 and third has gone 2:22. The winner in Osaka was at 2:30. That was a tough marathon for everyone.
Womens marathon is slightly behind mens with the exception of a few runners. They’ve only been at it for 25-30 years. The women that we sent to worlds were not our best. I’m sure they’re amazing women and great runners but we didn’t send a very strong team.
Dont forget Kara Gouchers bronze in the 10K and Deena’s Bronze in Athens. The US women are very strong, except for the 800 and 1500. We need Suzy back!
Sadly you’re very close to right. Ann had the slowest PR in the american field at 2:38:55 going into the race. She did come out top americans and did run very well for herself running 2:42 in that heat. The americans in the race have ran from 2:33 - 2:38 at their best. Most of the other international runners had run 2:19(only top 2) to 2:29. In the US we have Kaster and a huge fall off. Some of our other faster marathon runners have stopped running for family or finishing their careers. The next fastest is Jen Rines (2:29). SHE IS A 14:5x 5k RUNNER! So being fast in 5k and 10k really has nothing to do with the marathon at all. Ann was able to pass 20 runners in the last 20k of the race. Most if not all these ladies on paper should have killed her in the race.
Consider this, Ann works 40 hours a week, and so does her coach! We get zero money from usatf outside of travel to national team races (THANKS FOR THAT!). Jeff England at on the run (by wheelie fun) helps her out. You can support Ann by supporting him! Ann was the ONLY AMERICAN on the USA team that works a full time job as well. I don’t have the answers you want. I will tell you Ann wants to run under 2:30 in 6 months. It is a tall order. We figure she had good weather fitness of 3:39 - 3:40 per k. She needs 3:32 per k fitness to go under 2:30. The Hanson’s have the best chances of developing a team of women marathon runners. To date they have done better with their men. You are asking people to give up 6-8 years of their lives, make little money, and have little increases chance of a job at the end. How are you supposed to survive? For us triathlon is fun. We work out but even when I was 34th overall at IMWI my working out was at a very low level compaired to Ann’s training! I have tremendous respect for Kevin and Keith and what they are doing I could only wish I had the guts to do it!
If you look at the US team all the ladies train on their own and are either very poor or in Ann’s case working. The other countries train together in groups that are sponsored by the country (government in some cases ). There are programs starting in the US now to help with this, but only the Hanson’s really focus on the marathon. Also these programs are for the best the country has and not everyone is interested in the marathon. Currently only Kastor and Hall and Meb. Jen tried many many times and has said forget it. Katie and USAMIN ran 2:32 or 2:31 in new york and said forget it. Maybe Elva is giving it another go. She ran 2:32 and could be a 2:25+ lady. It is hard to tell.
If you have input, that is great. I think your question was well put. Ann and I are giving all we can, short of quitting our jobs, for US marathon running. We are only 2 people and far from the best hope for improving women’s marathoning as a whole. If I had 1 mil in the bank and would open up a training group for women’s running in Dayton and give it to the runners and give it a go, but where the #$%$ am I going to get that kind of money … Heck if I had 40k I would love to take a year off, but then where do we go to work after that? See the problem ??? No support for the athletes in this country. No thoughts to the future. That is changing, but it hasn’t gotten down to the women’s marathon yet. I have faith it will!
Ed Alyanak
Whos the second under 2:20, besides Deena Kastor)?
Styrrell
Thanks for all the information, Ed. I think that sometimes (maybe a lot of times), posts are taken negatively. I really just wanted some thoughts from those that knew about it, so that the results I read could be put in the right context. There was no intention to judge or critique.