On THE Road

with Kathrine Switzer

DEFINING SCRIPTS

LOS ANGELES, February—Four days before the 12th annual City of Los Angeles Marathon, while Iam in the streets filming portions of the course for our TV show of the race, a Hollywood cops and robbers shootout is taking place in the next neighborhood. Like a scene from Pulp Fiction, the robbers run out of the bank dressed in commando gear and, in sickening disregard for human life, begin blasting AK-47s at the cops who have encircled the bank, at cars, store fronts, passersby, and even the overhead traffic helicopters filming the drama. Ten policemen are injured, two robbers are killed, and one escapes, prompting house-to-house searches while huge armored vehicles rumble menacingly up and down deserted suburban streets.

Back in the studio for a marathon meeting, we watch the drama replayed on TV, including the death of one of the robbers. We keep muttering, “This is a show, right?” “No, this is LIVE,” we hear back. Larry Rawson, Toni Reavis, Tim McLoone, and I huddle together in the meeting, chastened by the chance circumstance of violence so near and relieved to be a part of TV that would cover human joy and striving rather than depravity.

The headline in the Los Angeles Times the next day proclaims “A Violent Script That Defines Our Lives.” I’ve been thinking about that headline for days now. Does violence really define our lives? Or does it just define the lives of the people in Los Angeles? While I haven’t been to the infamous cities of Montrovia, Capetown, or Lima, no city I have visited (including the equally infamous Bangkok, Manila, Sao Paulo, and New York) frightens me quite like LA. So whenI’m there, violence—or rather the fear of it—indeed becomes a defining factor for me, too.

That is why the LA Marathonis so spectacular. For one day a year, the city is as safe as it can get. Twenty-six miles of streets—ostentatiously rich and poor-to-the-point-of-prideless neighborhoods alike—are closed, closely patrolled by friendly police and filled with runners, bicyclists,

walkers, and this year, in-line skaters. Neighbors who don’t even speak on Christmas stand in the sun chatting for the first time in a year.

Parents who normally don’t let their children out in the front yard are all standing as a family, dressed in official T-shirts, handing out cups and spraying garden hoses. The tiny kids, wearing T-shirts that drag on the ground, all look like Sweet Pea in the old Popeye cartoons. The kids stand for hours holding cups, with hopeful faces beaming when someone takes one. They squeal with joy when arunner, ANY runner, touches them.

The downtown area, normally deserted on weekends, is surging with bands, restaurants, and an influx of about 100,000 people all having a wonderful time. The economic impact is tremendous, and there is no price that can be placed on this kind of emotional value.

I’m probably not the only person walking slowly back to my house or hotel, kicking through a sea of empty paper cups, thinking about the day and feeling sorry that it has to end for another year. There is a big message inallof this. We can doit. We have the technology, which in this case is the human capacity for caring. This is the normal definition of our lives, not violence and fear, and we should refocus this energy into a year-round legacy to rewrite that script the way we want.

That is the good news. The bad news is that it is time for the LA city

council to let the race organizers paint the blue line that they’ve been asking foron the course. Twenty-eight wheelchair racers go off course when someone moves a traffic barrier. In the women’s race, the situation is worse, and alot more controversial: Russia’s Nadezhda (“Nadia”) Ilyina, one of the favorites, runs a brilliant tactical race by following well behind the leaders and then blasting by them at mile 23 to “win” by 10 yards ina sprint finish. The race is marvelously exciting and makes great TV. Unfortunately, somewhere between mile 21 and 22, Ilyina cut a big corner by running through a gas station. Ilyina claims she was looking for a toilet. After the race, I interview her as the winner. Then the referee disqualifies her, so I interview the new winner while Ilyina sits bawling like a baby. The story makes great TY, but I don’t like it at all.

It’s hard to imagine that Nadia Ilyina would be stupid enough to cheat, especially since she was explicitly told not to cut corners. Besides, she is a really nice and very popular young woman, seemingly full of integrity, and the leaders she was after were her teammates, nother cutthroat enemies. I felt unsettled about this ruling.

Referee Basil Honikman, a thoroughly fair, precise, and experienced man, helped me understand it: “She saved 30 yards [by cutting through] the gas station; she won by only 10 yards. That should make it clear.” But Iwas nettled by other questions: How

do you prove her intentions? Do they matter in this case? Was there a language barrier problem?

When something like this happens, everybody has an opinion, and views are spewn out in sometimes ugly, jingoistic ways. I heard this one a lot: “It’s always the Russian girls. They do this all the time.” Or, “They can get away with this in Europe, but we won’t tolerate it here.” Yep, that’s right. So how about marking the course so there is no chance of mistake? Maybe a blue line wouldn’thave saved the day, but it wouldn’t have hurt, either.

Late that night, after an indicting phone call from a man who ran behind her from mile 14 onward, Ilyina came torace organizers and confessed that she had intentionally cut the -course—not once, but several times. I’ve been running for 38 years, and this sport still astounds me.

The bigger issue, however, is the same bugbear I always come back to: We have to promote and organize our sport professionally. To specify just two things among many, we need standard course markings and athlete expectations/understandings that are mandated around the world so wherever athletes are from or wherever they go, there is no doubt of the rules of the road.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January— The governance of our sport is still archaic. How interesting—and progressive—that the sport’s intrique and

petty politics became the story line for a major motion picture, Prefontaine. Unfortunately, the film closed in about two weeks. So much for public interest.

Still, loved the movie and thought Jared Leto was really good. He can tun, he obviously worked hard at imitating Pre’s running style, and in the only scene in which Leto is without his shirt (oh, come on!), he’s conspicuously fit. The acting is mostly fine, but neither that nor the staged running events can ever match the drama of the real documentary footage included in the movie, particularly from the Munich Olympics. It’s uncanny how real footage suddenly brings back every moment, while I had to search the archives of my mind to recollect the scenes that were reconstructed.

My husband and [are the only ones inthe theater besides four teenage girls who sit down front and giggle almost the entire time. The next day I was telling my 14-year-old niece about the film and said she probably wouldn’t be too interested since she is a swimmer. “Oh no,” she says, “all of my girlfriends and I are going next week! We wouldn’t miss it! Jared Leto is what you older people call a ‘teenage heartthrob.’”

Another friend of mine was explaining to her kids that “Steve Prefontaine was the James Dean of running,” only to realize that they didn’t know who James Dean was either.

LEVIN, NEW ZEALAND, February—Anyway, James Dean smoked cigarettes, and he didn’t run through the forests of Oregon to soothe his soul. I was thinking of this afew weeks ago when I was soothing my own soul by running through the forests of Levin, a small farming community in the North Island of New Zealand. That was something else the film could have done—emphasize more the stunning nature in the Eugene area, and how Prefontaine is memorialized by a wood-chip trail called “Pre’s Trail,” which was laid where he used to run. In the film, there is one too-quick scene of mists rising from the Oregon forests; they are not dissimilar to those rising at 6:00 a.m. from the trees and the adjoining sheep meadow, where we park our car in Levin. This is a unique race called the Great Forest Marathon and Half Marathon.

While New Zealand boasts many famous mountain, coast-to-coast, and multi-sportevents for the intrepid, this is the first race in New Zealand that uses the traditional distances, but it gets the runners off the road and into the woods. The entire race is run on hard-packed dirt and sandy logging roads, mostly flat, with a few woodland hills, and a stretch that encompasses a famous estuary full of rare and wild birds.

Registration is in the wool shed, illuminated at this early hour by lanterns so we don’t crack our heads on the low beams. I guess wool sheds don’t need high beams since shearers spend the whole day bent over.

Happily, all the manure has been swept out, and all the registration takers are smiling in their natty new race T-shirts. New York could take a lesson in charm from this race. The air is full of the smell of dry straw and lanolin, as comforting and familiar in this country as popcorn is in ours.

Outside, there are three porta-toilets, and three real, honest-to-goodness “long drops”—a deep hole cut in the ground, with a wooden seat fashioned from planks, surrounded by tarpaulins. You hold the flapping tarpaulin shut with one hand and keep your balance with the other. All the women opt for the commercial porta-potties, even if there is a long wait. I hear two guys walking away from the tarpaulins, talking: “Wow, that was a looooonnnng way down!”

Cars continue to pour into the field, and race organizers, planning on 300 entrants, have 900. Still, the event starts on time. I thought the race would be weird without spectators and possibly monotonous without scenery changes, but lam totally wrong. There are plenty of us having fun. There are vocal crews and plenty of water every three kilometers, and there are funny signs throughout the woods.

We are our own best spectators, anyway, and the scenery changes all the time, amoving environmental travelogue. Long before I finish and smell the sausages grilling or join friends who have brought along blankets, umbrellas, and picnic hampers, [know this race is a “keeper” on the annual

itinerary. “Pre” would have loved it.

Where Are America’s World-Class ) Marathoners?

For 16 Years, U.S. Marathoners Were a Major Force. Then They Just Seemed to Evaporate. What Happened?

T HE AMERICA era of marathon running began at 2:22:17 p.m. eastern standard time on April 19, 1968, when Amby Burfoot crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon and fell into the waiting arms of Jock Semple. It was the first time in 11 years that a U.S. runner had won at Boston, and that runner had been John J. Kelley, Burfoot’s high school coach and mentor. Burfoot was the vanguard of the baby boom generation that pushed marathoning onto a higher plateau, that transformed the sport from a queer little novelty event to an international phenomenon.

The American era of marathon running ended at the Los Angeles Coliseum on August 5, 1984, at 10:24:52 a.m. pacific standard time when Joan Benoit, joyously waving her white hat, won the first women’s Olympic marathon.

Between these two events, U.S. marathoners set the tone of marathoning on the world stage, from the front of the pack and everywhere behind. The American running boom ratcheted marathoning to a national mania that gradually spread throughout the world. A handful of highlights make the case:

¢ Americans Frank Shorter, Kenny Moore, and Jack Bacheler take first, fourth, and ninth, respectively, in the 1972 Olympic marathon. Americans Shorter and Don Kardong take second and fourth in the 1976 Olympic marathon.

¢ At Boston in 1975 Bill Rodgers sets a new American marathon record (2:09:55); he returns to claim three more Boston victories. Rodgers also wins the New York City Marathon four times, and in one stretch in 1978, he wins 22 road races in a row.

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Frank Shorter wins Fukuoka (the unofficial world championship of marathoning before there were World Championships) in 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1974.

Alberto Salazar comes on to the marathoning scene like a comet; he wins New York in 1980, 1981, and 1982, each time in sub-2:10; and in the 1982 Boston Marathon he stages one of the sport’s most memorable duels, against Dick Beardsley. Both men go under 2:09, and only one foreigner breaks the top 13.

At Boston ’83, the top three places are taken by Americans (Greg Meyer, Ron Tabb, and Benji Durden), all in under 2:10. Only one foreigner breaks the hold on the top 23 spots, and all those spots are run in under 2:15. In the same race, Joan Benoit sets a course, American, and world record of 2:22:43. Only two foreigners break the American hold on the top 30 in the women’s field.

In 1977, 8 U.S. marathoners break 2:15. In 1978 11 do so. In 1979, 22. Using a less stringent standard, in 1977 the United States had 5,500 males and 29 females break 3:00; in 1981, 15,000 males and 300 women run under 3:00.

From 1985 onward, training methodology improved, training and racing shoes were improved, knowledge of high-performance diets escalated, weight work improved overall strength and upper body endurance, massage therapy prevented some injuries and sped the healing of others, and good money could be made in marathoning (certainly plenty more than was available in the 1970s). Considering all this, logic would indicate that the United States should have turned out world-class marathoners in assembly-line fashion. Instead, the opposite has occurred.

Not only haven’t U.S. runners kept up with the rest of the world, except for a rare performance here or there, they haven’t even approached the performances of the previous generation of Americans. Consider some of these facts:

¢ 1983 is the last year an American male won Boston (Greg Meyer), and 19835 is the last year an American woman (Lisa Weidenbach) won. Every year at Boston, the longest dry spell for Americans in the 101-year history of the race is extended.

In what now seems like a coda—or perhaps an exclamation point—to the American era, Joan Benoit Samuelson runs the second fastest women’s time in history at Chicago ’85 with a 2:21:21. Since then the closest any American woman has come to Benoit’s performance was Kim Jones’s 2:26:40 in 1991. No American female has medaled in the Olympic Marathon since 1984; no American male has medaled since 1976.

* Only two Americans have broken 2:10 in the marathon in the past decade. One, Bob Kempainen, set a new American marathon record of 2:08:47 at Boston in 1994; unfortunately, that time placed him only seventh in that year’s field.

To gain a better feel for what has happened to undermine American marathoners and what hasn’t happened to make them improve, we solicited the opinions of a small army of marathoners, marathon race directors, and running journalists. Let’s meet our distinguished panel: Hal Higdon, senior writer for Runner’s World and world-class veteran competitor; Joe Henderson, Runner’s World West Coast editor; Mark Conover, winner of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon; Jim Hage, publisher of Running, Ranting, Racing and consistent sub-2:20 marathoner; Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic Marathon gold medalist and 1976 silver medalist; Derek Clayton, two-time marathon world record holder, who on several occasions in the 1960s reputedly experimented with 200-mile weeks; women’s running pioneer Kathrine Switzer; Gordon Rogers, one of the moving forces behind the Vancouver International Marathon and AIMS board of directors member; Portland Marathon race director Les Smith; Rob Reid, an accomplished masters marathoner and Royal Victoria Marathon race director; Priscilla Welch, the most formidable masters female marathoner in the world; George Hirsch, Runner’s World publisher; and Bill Rodgers, four-time winner of the Boston and New York City marathons.

Five ofour panelists (left to right): Rodgers, Higdon, Shorter, Hirsch, and Clayton.

MARATHON DOMINATION CYCLES

3s, as Americans had = from 1968 to 1984

Higdon: Americans dominated in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Italians in the late ’80s, and the Spaniards are doing well now. Distance running has always gone through cycles: the Brits, the Eastern Europeans, the Down-Unders. It’s nothing new, only different.

Henderson: Certain countries flex their marathon muscles at certain times. But possibly in no other event is talent so widespread. Look at the nationalities of men’s Olympic and World Championship marathon winners, from 1996 back to 1987 (since the period of “U.S. dominance’’): South African, Spaniard, South A frican-turned-American, South Korean, Japanese, Italian, Kenyan. And the women: Ethiopian, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese. Mix in here the Mexican men, and the German.and Norwegian women who’ ve won at New York City and Boston, and we might conclude that the age of one-nation dynasties is past.

Conover: I disagree [with the cyclical theory]. We have Fiz (Spain), Taniguchi (Japan), Nakayama (Japan), Bordin (Italy), Kempainen (USA), Ceron (Mexico), Silva (Mexico), Espinoza (Mexico), Moneghetti (Australia), Salah (DJD, Thugwane (RSA), the Koreans, and so on. To me, it proves that the wealth of marathon talent is world-wide.

Hage: Success in marathons specifically and distance running generally tends to run in cycles. In certain countries at certain times, the marathon seems to “catch on.” That shouldn’t be such a surprise, given the exposure, increased levels of competition, and communal, focused training that typically accompanies such surges. Nationalism also plays a role, as the Kenyans, Mexicans, Ethiopians, and others develop an arena of superiority, and then defend their domain.

Shorter: Yes, [there are cycles], but the situation is becoming more culturally complex. African runners (mostly Kenyans) now have European agents and live and compete outside Kenya. The A frica/Kenyan cycle may last longer than those of the past.

Clayton: Toa degree, yes. It’s only natural that the financial opportunities for good marathoners is ample incentive for residents of poor black nations—and in the future China—to train for the event. In Australia as in the U.S., there are many sporting opportunities in our schools (football, basketball, baseball, etc.)

that offer a diversion from the marathon. I am sure a lot of good marathon talent is lost to these other sports.

Switzer: First, cyclical shifts occur when there is a culture to spawn it. Like art or poetry in Renaissance Italy, the center creates the best. That’s why the center of Gainesville, Florida, was hot with Shorter and Bacheler; then came Eugene, then Boulder. The good ones go to the center and get better because this center inspires them.

Second, in the case of running, the Kenyans are expanding their culture and center into ours. They’ve always run, and they run better than us—they just haven’t had the chance (or incentive) to travel. Physiologically, they will be— or are—too good for Americans to beat. Opportunity has fueled the drive, and running is their national sport. Money in running is BIG to them but not to us.

G. Rogers: The opportunity for the Kenyans to better themselves within the environment in which they live, their personal, local, and even national recognition as heroes, the economic benefits that give them higher status and a better lifestyle than their fellow countrymen all contribute [to their success].

Smith: This cyclical pattern is all subject to talented persons who dedicate themselves to the sport to enhance their economic and social position within a country. The second factor is love of the sport and activity and the ability or reason to dedicate time to it. Thus, if economically secure, a great runner may keep running beyond college for reasons of personal fulfillment, patriotism, and so on.

Reid: As different areas of the world become influenced by a global economy, athletes will be given improved conditions, allowing them to take part ina sport ona larger playing field. Yes, there will at times be cyclical shifts, as new cream rises to the top of the marathoning world because the right conditions were met in developing athletes for the world stage.

Welch: High-profile sports heroes influence impressionable athletes in all countries. If the U.S. had more long-distance running heroes besides Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Joanie Benoit Samuelson, then maybe the marathon scene in the U.S. would be in better shape. The problem, though, is twofold: There are no new marathon heroes to replace Shorter and Rodgers and Benoit, and at the same time there are many other exciting sports that are hyped so much more than running is.

The countries that are doing well in the marathon right now have always had amultitude of talent. All of them are very motivated to achieve success [so they can] improve their living standard, especially now that the world has changed, and they have more freedom to travel and compete. This motivation has not come about overnight. These countries have their national running heroes, and

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these heroes have fired up the desires of a new generation to achieve the same and to keep the tradition going.

But their lifestyles are so different from the lifestyles of Western athletes, especially as far as women are concerned. There is suddenly an opportunity to make great strides through athletics. As children, these athletes were very, very physically active, while Western children have become progressively sedentary. The young athletes from these other nations have been put through a sort of preparatory phase, which rewards them well when they learn to compete later in their careers.

Add successful runners returning to their countries as heroes, mentors, and coaches, and you have a wonderfully rich athletic tradition building. Additionally, all these runners are totally committed to the arduous training required for the marathon event, and they have healthy training areas with an extremely simple lifestyle that is perfect for long-distance training. Also, since they’ve been running all their lives, they can approach the sport with a more relaxed attitude and actually enjoy it.

WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN

Conover: Consistent—but not over-done—training.

Higdon: Ability. We have it and have had it in the past. We often waste it. Welch: Commitment.

Reid: A lifestyle condition that has molded the runner over many years into a promising athlete.

Smith: Money—the economics of what running can offer the individual. Hirsch: Hard work and good coaching.

B. Rodgers: A burning interest in the marathon as an event and the necessary support systems provided by the athlete’s country.

Clayton: Physiology, mental toughness, and the ability to train correctly.

Shorter: Being willing and able to train harder, longer, and more consistently than all your opposition.

Hage: Sacrifice. Clearly, U.S. marathoners are not working as hard as the rest of the world. The level of competition now is so high that nothing less than 100

percent focus will yield success. Look at the Republic of South Africa’s Thugwane: A bullet in the face did not deter him from training for and ultimately winning the gold medal [in the 1996 Olympic Games]. I wonder if our culture can develop an athlete with the requisite mental toughness to beat runners from other countries, those who lack the distractions and relatively easy life we enjoy.

Henderson: I rate lack of experience as the most important element in marathon success. That’s right, lack of. This doesn’t mean that the runner can be an untrained novice. He or she must be experienced and talented in the shorter distances but doesn’t need to run a lot of marathons to do them well. I recall reading that marathoners usually peak in their first half-dozen races, when they first take their track speed to the roads, and then suffer when they become marathon specialists. Alberto Salazar comes to mind as an example. He won his first marathon, New York City, in 1980, the same year he made the Olympic 10,000-meter team. His “world record’ in 1982 was his fourth marathon, and that year he set U.S. 5,000- and 10,000-meter marks.

A CHANGE IN FOCUS

Has there been a sh marathoners? If so, wh. how does it undermin

Clayton: They [American marathoners] are training too conservatively. They are also concentrating too much on smaller road races, and they are too concerned with making money. Put in the hard work, race hard, and the money will follow.

Shorter: They are concentrating on making a good living instead of working toward achieving long-term, specific athletic performance goals. The result is a psychological concession: “Even if I [do] focus my training and peak for only a few races, I probably [won’t] win anyway.” You don’t win that way. Switzer: For most, it’s too much work for too little reward. Why bust your gut to run when a football, baseball, basketball, or hockey player gets a million while you get $250,000? Is $250,000 a lot? To a Kenyan, it’s a fortune. So the incentive is gone on both counts.

B. Rodgers: Top Americans don’t race in international marathons as much as they should. They’ve been overwhelmed by foreign athletes at U.S. races, and they don’t seem to know how to respond.

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Hirsch: My sense is that Coogan, Brantly, Kempainen, Lauck, and the others train as hard as the Benoits and Shorters. One factor is that today there are so many other countries (South Africa, Korea) in the hunt, that [winning] becomes more difficult.

PHOTO RUN PHOTO RUN

Bob Kempainen and Anne Marie Lauck have been two bright stars among the lackluster U.S. long-distance ranks.

Smith: When the U.S. was the power, the others (Mexico, Kenya, Korea, etc.) were just getting started. As a result of his winning the gold in ’72, Frank Shorter was the spark that caused lots of people to start running. As marathoning spread to other countries, talent came to the surface. Unfortunately, unlike in Japan and other countries, in the U.S. we do little to take care of our longdistance runners.

Conover: The focus is the same as always. Things have just heated up quite a bit on the world stage compared to the past.

Henderson: The best potential American marathoners aren’t running marathons—not yet, at least. They are sticking with track and cross-country and laying the groundwork for future marathon success. Lynn Jennings could be the next Joan Benoit Samuelson of marathoning if she doesn’t wait too long to try another one. (She ran at Boston as a teenager, and now, at 36, she is a three-time world cross-country winner and three-time Olympian and a medalist in 1992.) Todd Williams could be the next Alberto Salazar. Todd is a two-time 10,000Could Todd Williams become the next Alberto Salazar?

meter Olympian and has run a one-hour halfmarathon.

Hage: Americans currently believe—and rightfully so—that we can’t compete with the rest of the world [in the marathon]. Adding the financial element to racing has perhaps kept some of this country’s better marathoners from destroying, and in the process possibly finding themselves at the longer distances, because they can make a living racing more often at less demanding distances.

Welch: The fascination of the marathon distance is still very much alive and is indeed the focus and challenge of many recreational athletes. However, for the more serious athlete, they don’t seem to be training correctly or comprehending the lengthy stages of preparation required to compete seriously, hence the shaky acceptance of a long gradual buildup covering a period of three to five years. [They seem to] expect results in three weeks or three months. Only a chosen few commit and stick to a lengthy program or stay with one coach during their build-up period. Maybe the coaches are at fault and not the athletes. Maybe we need to train coaches specifically for the marathon distance.

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THE MOMENT THE FOCUS SHIFTED

Switzer: The shift was gradual, but it began around 1986, around the time Boston went pro. That sort of opened the floodgates. A good way to appreciate the gradual aspect is to look at the finish of women’s races. Three years ago, there was one Kenyan woman in the top five; two years ago, there were two, and now it’s three or more in all the big races. That’s also how it started with the men—gradually.

Shorter: For men, it was when Greg Meyer crossed the finish in Boston in 1983, and for the U.S. women it was when Joan Benoit crossed the finish line in LA in 1984.

Smith: The U.S. men started to go downhill or unwind in the early ’80s. U.S. women marathoners peaked in 1984 to 1986.

Hirsch: I don’t particularly see a shift in focus. We get a Shorter-RodgersSalazar period. Then we came on hard times. It’s the same situation with the Italians: Pizzolato-Bordin-etc. Same with the British middle-distance runners— Coe-Ovett-Cram, and now nobody.

B. Rodgers: [The shift occurred] in the ’80s when prize and appearance money came above the table (within IAAF rules). A key race was Boston ’86, won by Australian Rob de Castella.

Hage: I’d peg the demise of American marathoning with the beginning of prize money at Boston in the mid-’80s and the end of the Bill Rodgers era. Third-world countries found they could compete through hard work, and the financial remuneration and incentive has been huge.

Henderson: The focus of American marathoners shifted in the mid-’80s. It _ occurred when road running became fully professionalized, and there was more money to be made from competing in lots of short races instead of a marathon or two each year. It occurred when the emphasis in training shifted from “quantity” (marathon-level mileage) to “quality” (more suited to 5Ks and 10Ks). It occurred as marathons came to be seen in this country as big fun runs, hardly worthy of a “serious” runner’s efforts.

Clayton: The shift—for everyone—came when the marathon world record was taken down to 2:06:50 in 1988. It may be out of reach of the abilities of those currently in the sport.

DO KENYANS TRAIN HARDER—AND ENJOY IT?

Hage: I don’t know that other countries collectively “enjoy” running more than Americans, but they sure seem to train harder. Perhaps their incentives are greater. But seeing how the rest of the world trains, and then emulating them, is key to upping our own performances.

Clayton: American and Australian runners enjoy training but very, very few enjoy training hard!

B. Rodgers: I’ve never seen the Kenyans train so I cannot say, but I’m sure they’re training very hard. And besides, they can get rich at it! The Americans

Do Kenyan runners train harder than U.S. marathoners?

I’ve trained with trained very hard—Tom Fleming, Greg Meyer, Randy Thomas, Alberto Salazar.

Hirsch: It [running] is a major league sport in Kenya. Kip Keino is the Babe Ruth/Michael Jordan of Kenya. Outside of the Olympic period, running is a minor sport in America. That has a lot to do with incentive, motivation, hard work, and perhaps the fun and enjoyment of the sport.

Higdon: Americans should stay home and maximize the opportunities to train in their own backyards, like Bill Rodgers has done. You don’t need to move to Kenya or Boulder or Eugene to train hard. It can be both a help and a hindrance to train every day with your peers.

Conover: Running is all they [the Kenyans] have and all they are. The top Kenyan runners are the Michael Jordans of their country.

Switzer: Definitely. It’s like American boys and men playing basketball. Running is not so much effort because all the Kenyans do it, and they are revered for it, so they are fueled to continue. Everyone works harder when their efforts are appreciated.

Welch: The Kenyan runners seem to train harder, and that’s what it takes to be successful and to reap results. Nothing is free in this world.

Henderson: I can’t really answer the question about how hard Kenyans train. However, I question the assumption that Kenya is a dominant force in the marathon. On the track and in cross-country, yes, and in the shorter road races, certainly, but not in marathoning. Note in my reply to the first question that only one Kenyan has won an Olympic or World title [in the marathon], and that was

10 years ago. This seems to say that Kenyans have figured out how to train for 5K to half-marathon better than for the marathon.

IDEAL WEEKLY MILEAGE FOR MARATHONING

Shorter: Yes, total weekly mileage has dropped too much. How much should USS. marathoners be doing? 120 to 140 a week, a bit less at altitude.

Conover: You don’t need 175-mile weeks. Working on physiological components and proper running mechanics means you can get by on fewer than 100 miles a week. However, at some point in the athlete’s career, a substantial base must be established. I see no reason why a male in his early 20s can’t run up to 140 miles a week, say, during a summer break from college.

Higdon: Whether yourun 80 or 120 miles probably matters less than what you do with those miles. Quality is important too. Obviously, today’s marathoners are training at a higher level than most of those during the time of Clarence DeMar—but DeMar was no stranger to 100-mile weeks. We’ve had ample evidence, however, of runners who have pushed their miles from 80 to 100 to 120 to 140 and beyond, only to crash badly. Sometimes mileage is important, sometimes mileage is very important, and sometimes it’s not important at all.

Hirsch: Some men and women can do well on 100 miles a week, while others must do 150 miles or more.

Clayton: A lot of it really depends on how the runner recovers.

Switzer: I believe in long stuff and tempo runs. So, for a woman, 100 miles per week is a good goal, and for a man, 120.

Henderson: The overall trend in marathon training is toward lower mileage and more easy/rest days, but not among the best runners. I surveyed top marathoners, past and present, for the book Road Racers & Their Training. Their answers showed no real drop in training mileage from, say, the ’70s and early ’80s to the ’90s. The old Arthur Lydiard formula of 100-plus miles per week still holds. The best runners still go at least 20 miles in their long runs and usually try to cover full marathon time (though at a slower pace while covering less than the full distance) on their long runs.

Welch: Not enough base mileage is carried out prior to quality miles. Some athletes experiment with alternative training during winter months, or, to relieve pounding to the body in the initial stages of marathon training, and combine it with running lower road mileage. An elite marathoner on high mileage will not drop the mileage unless injured or overtired.

Ideal weekly mileage? Whatever works! There is no ideal—every athlete responds differently. For the elite, I’d say 120 to 140 miles per week to build endurance, stamina, and speed. It would be slightly different at altitude. Hage: For myself, I ran best when my mileage was at its highest, 120+ per week. Although individual optimal levels vary, the “less is more” maxim seems to be an excuse not to do the work. Lynn Jennings and Joan Nesbit are famous for low-mileage, but they also seem content being among the top Americans (world cross-country aside) rather than mixing it up regularly on the international level.

ARE U.S. WOMEN DOING BETTER THAN U.S. MEN?

‘Have U.S. women managed to stay jin the hunt because thelr worldwide competition is weaker than the men’s?

Hirsch: So far, yes, but that, too, is changing.

Welch: Americaisahuge country with talent in every town, inevery state, and could be the dominating country in the marathon. Maybe the quality of fitness amongst the children of this nation is inferior because of the process of civilization. Maybe we need to look at the very young and nurture them along before predicting futures. It will take a while to produce results, which come from a combination of commitment and very long-term patience.

Higdon: No, American females (e.g., Joan Benoit) got to the top because we (read: Kathrine Switzer) invented marathoning for women. Eventually, a natural order reestablished itself!

Reid: The women’s situation is different, as results show, because of their late start in the sport, and because fewer women have had the opportunity to participate. As some countries become more sports-friendly to women, they will develop their potential, and we’ll see stronger female competition worldwide.

Smith: Yes, except the catch-up to U.S. women has been slow because worldwide, women were slower to get into competition than they were here in the U.S. To me, the crossover point was when Joan Benoit Samuelson eased out of the sport. Who in the U.S. was set to follow her lead? Who was going to train as hard as she did? We’ll continue to get shut out in the Olympics distance events. The days of winning or coming close to placing for the U.S. in

PHOTO RUN

Are U.S. women doing better than U.S. men on the world marathon stage?

either the men’s or women’s marathon are over! We need to realize this and then do something about it.

G. Rogers: I don’t think so. I believe that women are now participating more, running better, and receiving the recognition they deserve for their accomplishments.

Clayton: Yes, but this will also change and more so.

Switzer: Yes, so far, but the U.S. women must be seeing the handwriting on the wall. There are plenty of societies out there where the only way for a poor girl to make money is to marry it or become a prostitute. In China and Kenya and such, all a woman has to do is run to get money and respect. That’s a huge incentive. U.S. women have lots of independent choices, and not such hard ones.

Hage: Women’s competition is obviously much weaker than men’s, although this seems to be changing. Equal prize structure for men and women, although politically correct, is an abomination based on time, the number of competitors, depth of the field, or any other factor you care to name. African women are on the rise, although cultural constraints in their own countries may keep them from attaining the domination of their male counterparts.

Henderson: The first American woman at the 1996 Olympics finished 10th; at the 1995 Worlds, 7th. The top U.S. men in these races finished 28th and 10th. These differences aren’t as great as they first appear, though, because worldwide depth among women still isn’t as great as men’s. The gap between the Ist

and 50th best times in the world this year was almost twice as much for women as men.

Shorter: Yes, I would say the worldwide talent pool for women is, as of yet, not as deep. Wait until more Kenyan and Ethiopian women move out of their home countries and acquire agents like their male counterparts have done.

THE COMMITMENT TO STEP UP

Switzer: The “fad” aspect is behind us. They [younger runners] are not making the commitment because for the effort, they’d rather do something that gives a greater—and quicker—return. Also, younger runners have no heroes and role models. The Kenyans are great runners, but white Americans want their own heroes to emulate.

Clayton: There are too many other sports and schoolwork to lure potential young runners away from our sport.

B. Rodgers: There is little incentive in our sport for young people to consider the marathon. I see the problems as ones that can be “fixed” to a degree, but we will not be a “power” in the marathon, not the way we are in sports Americans love and support, such as football, basketball, and baseball.

G. Rogers: I think you have to be an “old fart” to realize that it’s time to look after your body!! Younger people are still busy abusing their bodies, not respecting them and caring for them by taking them out on long runs.

Smith: There is an attitude of “Who needs it—?” There are two ways to get back the solid, world-class, medal-winning American male or female marathoner. One way is through the patriotic desire to compete for school, country, and God. The other way is that we get embarrassed at the Olympics so badly that we realize it is time to create the Japanese models of corporate clubs, through which U.S. runners can compete with dignity and not bust their butts in a few moneyed road races every other week or so.

Reid: I would like to see the media do a better job of promoting the sport of marathoning to the youth. There are athletes who do not get the ink or time a Michael Jordan gets but who deserve it and have a motivating story to tell the youth of today. The media seems to want to make us into a society of spectators—watchers, not doers. Increased support needs to be given to special

Richard Benyo WHERE ARE AMERICA’S WORLD-CLASS MARATHONERS? 23

interest groups like the Road Runners Club of America, who can spread their message and motivate the marathoners of tomorrow.

Higdon: In many of the countries where marathoners have achieved success, running has higher status. How many Kenyans have an opportunity to play golf or tennis or to ski? The golf industry, meanwhile, is ecstatic because they’ve discovered Tiger Woods—and he’s black, which opens new markets for them. Does running need a new American hero? Well, it might be nice, but look at what’s happening. Running has never been healthier. At Runner’s World, circulation is up, advertising sales are up, and our new Web site on the Internet is attracting a lot of traffic. I teach a class to prepare people to run the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon, and we’ve gone from 300 to 450 to 600 runners during the last three years—and we’ll approach 1,000 in 1997. A lot of those signing up for my classes are young, in their 20s, and increasing numbers are female.

So why is everybody worried? Quite frankly, the rank and file couldn’t care less who wins a marathon at which they’ve just had a medal hung around their neck for finishing. They’! read about it in tomorrow’s paper—maybe. Or wait two months for RW. Or find the info on the Internet. I care who wins—somewhat—because I’m a fan of the sport, but while I would like to see Americans win a few more races, I’m quite happy to cheer Cosmas Ndeti and Uta Pippig, because they are both likable champions and have worked hard for what they’ve achieved.

Conover: Numbers and popularity of road racing, except perhaps the 5K, are down across the board. Not as many 20 to 29 year olds are in the sport long enough to become successful at marathoning. And our system can’t groom teenagers to become great marathoners by their early 20s like other countries. Welch: Young people in their 20s generally love competitions or fitness activities that provide much speed, certain risks, short-term activity, and minimum concentration. Of course, exceptions do occur. Maybe the generation in its 20s is still studying, preparing for a career, or they’ve recently married and have a young family. Marathon training and racing would possibly be too stressful at this stage of their lives, especially when it comes to training for bigtime marathon competitions and future representation of their country. Marathoning requires long-term training. To concentrate on running 26.2 miles suits the more mature athlete.

Hirsch: For the next few years I don’t see an American breakthrough. But I suspect the cycle will swing back, and we’ Il finda new phenom, man or woman, at some point, and we’ll again be revived.

Hage: Among the men, we may get an occasional Kempainen, who’ll pop a 2:08 with a tailwind, or a Spence, who may claim a bronze, but as far as being

competitive regularly internationally, I don’t expect much. As for our women, the rest of the world, Africa in particular, is going to get stronger, and U.S. women will be hard-pressed to maintain even their current shaky status. Ours is not a culture conductive to marathon success. While individuals may overcome that bias from time to time, as a nation, the U.S. will not be competitive internationally until it develops radically different training methods and some synergy among its athletes.

Henderson: The “generational thing” plagues running in general. Track and cross-country are, in general, young people’s sports in this country. Road racing appeals more to the older age groups, particularly the folks who began running for fitness as adults and graduated into low-key racing. Many young athletes see the roads as a place where their parents and grandparents gather. I don’t detect any lack of commitment among the young, only some reluctance to mix with the road racers they see as generally uncommitted. The best motivators for the young are the medalists in the 1996 men’s Olympic marathon. Their average age was 23.

Shorter: The beauty of the running boom lies in its being a pure social trend. It was not the product of marketing, but rose from the people themselves. Why spend too much time analyzing it? Why not just encourage those who make the commitment? My personal opinion is that most young age-group marathoning has been the result of external pressure rather than personal choice; therefore, I would view any decline [in pressuring youngsters to run marathons

ahead of their time] as a good thing. Bs

Counterpoint

Richard Benyo WHERE ARE AMERICA’S WORLD-CLASS MARATHONERS? M 25

An analysis of the 1996 Olympic Trials Marathon illustrates the lack of new faces. For the men, 16 of the top 25 and 32 of the top 50 finishers were over 30 years old. Our women are even older. In the 1996 women’s Olympic Trials Marathon, 23 of the top 25, 41 of the top 50, and 80 of the top 100 finishers were atleast 30 years old. These data suggest that our prospects for international marathon success are notlikely to improve.

At the same time that performances by U.S. marathoners have slipped, the competition in the rest of the world has multiplied. Look at the Ethiopians, South Africans, Kenyans, Tanzanians, Portuguese, British, Russians, Italians, Australians, Mexicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Brazilians, Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese. Runners from every continent are competitive in the marathon.

Frank, Bill, and Joan were innovators. They ran over 120 miles per week when only a few hardened souls were training at that level. Their combination of training, talent, and racing savvy led to victories over the best runners in the world.

Today, there is much more depth inlong-distance running worldwide. For example, how good have the experts been in predicting the medalists in the men’s Olympic Marathon? No one came close to predicting the top three in 1984, 1988, 1992, or 1996, and the 12 medalists in those races represented nine

different countries. No country can dominate the marathon because the competition is just too fierce.

WHERE IS OUR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM?

Kenyan national coach Kip Keino believes that the foundation of his country’s marathon success is that thousands of Kenyan children of all ages run and walk up to 10 miles to and from school each day. Kids inthe United States start running at about age 15, if they start at all. In fact, the number of U.S. kids on high school track teams has decreased by about 40 percent from 1978 to 1990. Often, U.S. kids become runners because they aren’t big enough to play football or basketball, or skilled enough to play baseball or soccer. With all the diversions of U.S. culture in the 1990s, not many of our kids choose to run. As a result, we do not have the pool of talent to produce many competitive marathoners.

We also need a program to develop our athletes after college. Contrast the support available for developing marathoners in the United States versus Japan. Japan has about 30 corporate-sponsored teams of 12 to 15 runners each. That creates approximately 400 runners coming up through the ranks to maintain the country’s heritage in the marathon. In the United States financial supportis not available until after a runner achieves some level of success.

the Kenyan marathon ly less

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Richard Benyo WHERE ARE AMERICA’S WORLD-CLASS MARATHONERS? 27

Trends in EliteLevel Marathon Performances

How Do the U.S. Men and Women Stack Up Against the Rest of the World?

T HE PIONEERING exercise physiologist Archibald Hill concluded long ago (1924) that one could learn much about the limits of athletic performance by studying the results of the performers themselves, particularly during competition. Athletes train very hard to perform well on the given day, and mentally they are prepared to deliver their best effort. Sport competition follows fairly specific rules and generates accurate data in the form of race results. Because the marathon is contested over road courses rather than a track and requires more than two hours to complete, external influences such as adverse weather and/or course terrain can significantly slow performance. When we study the very fastest marathon performances over a long period of time, however, these external influences cancel out, leaving elite athleticism as the primary contributor to performance excellence. When we study large numbers of these performances, our analyses yield substantially reliable conclusions.

A 20-YEAR STUDY

For more than 20 years, I have been compiling top-level marathon performances worldwide. This study started as a side project when I was preparing an in-depth appendix for a book written to chronicle the history of the marathon (The Marathon Footrace, 1979). The compiling has continued ever since, as one aspect of a project to provide useful information to enhance my coaching perspective with elite-level athletes.

The activity has also been essential in my role as marathon results compiler and analyst for the annual statistical book produced by the Association of Track and Field Statisticians (Athletics, 1996). Also, as statistician (i.e., results compiler) for the Association of International Marathons (AIMS), I have often found that I can apply conclusions derived from the study of top-level perfor-

mances to questions concerning global trends in marathon participation. The database is essentially a complete record of almost 20,000 entries for men, and nearly 18,000 for women. Maintaining such a large database is challenging, but at the same time the work is valuable for generating meaningful answers to interesting questions.

The performance limits I’ve used for marathon results collection have been sub-2:20:00 for men and sub-2:55:00 for women. How did I select these limits? When I started this record keeping, for the men, 2:20:00 was a “barrier” that was nearly as mystical as the sub-4:00-minute mile. After the 2:20:00 barrier was broken, it became fascinating to keep a list of the superstars who had done so. I’ve just continued to keep track every year since. For the women, initially, Ijust kept results that were faster than 3:00:00, as that time was also a challenging barrier. However, the limit for women has been tightened to 2:55:00 because that gives a yearly sample size similar to that of the men.

For the past 15 years, about 12 minutes have separated the men’s fastest time and 2:20:00. In contrast, for the women, about 31 minutes has separated their annual fastest time and 2:55:00. What explains this much larger time difference for the women than for the men? One probable factor is that marathon racing for women is a newer sport than it is for the men and has fewer participants. Another factor is the existence of sociocultural restrictions in many parts of the world that limit opportunities for women to live an athlete’s lifestyle. Thus, the gene pool is smaller, and the depth of competition is less.

This larger time differential for the women has important performance implications, however. For whatever reason, an elite woman marathoner can “have a bad day” in her race and run a slower time than expected, yet she will not fall back nearly as far in the database rankings as a man who had a timeequivalent misfortune. This is not to say that women can be less serious about their training for excellence, but a mistake for them is not so costly. Conversely, a woman’s especially fine performance will be more easily noticed.

ANALYSIS OF THE MEN’S PERFORMANCES

Table 1 summarizes top-level marathon activity by men, starting with the first bona fide sub-2:20:00 performance on a 42,195-meter course by Jim Peters at Chiswick back in June of 1953. This table ends with 19,997 sub-2:20:00 performances recorded as of the end of 1996. Summarized for each year are the following:

* the number of such fast performances * the number of nations represented * the top six nations contributing to these performances

* the percent contribution of these six nations to the total top-level marathon activity.

Let me make some of the more obvious conclusions from these data.

Since 1961, Japan has been among the top six nations every year, and in first place for 19 of these 36 years, most recently since 1992. Japan’s 2,288 sub2:20:00 performances represent 11.4 percent of the total. Although not shown directly on this table, Japan’s top-level talent has produced well-known excellence in world competition. At the Olympic level, for example, during this period Japanese athletes have earned a bronze (in ’64), two silvers (in ’68 and ’92), and two fourth places (in 84 and ’88).

Over this same 36 year period (1991-1996), however, the United States has actually accumulated the most sub-2:20:00 performances—2,309 or 11.5

TABLE 1 NATIONS WITH THE Most Sus – 2:20:00 MARATHON PERFORMANCES BY MEN

# Per- # % of

Year formances Nations #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 ~—s Total

1965 44 7 JPN. GBR URS USA BEL CHN 97.7% 28 8 3 2 1 1

1966 80 A JPN. GDR NZL GBR USA CAN 80.0% 45 – 5 3 Z 2

1967 58 10 JPN. GBR NZL GDR URS USA 91.4% 21 8 5 6 5 Z

1968 93 20 JPN. GBR URS HUN FIN KOR /4.2% 3/ 11 8 5 5 3

1969 82 16 JPN. GBR ETH CAN EX NZL 70.7% 25~~« 16 5 4 4 4

1970 102 19 JPN. GBR NZL URS AUS GDR 76.5% 30 26 7 Z 5 3

1971 140 25 JPN GBR URS FIN NZL AUS 66.4% 23 3] 15 9 8 ZL

1972 156 26 GBR URS JPN USA FIN FRG 59.6% 26 1h 16 1s 12 10

1973 165 20 URS = JPN GBR USA _ FIN FRG 70.3% 31 26 26 12 2 9

1974 209 24 JPN URS GBR USA GDR FIN 67.9% 40 20 25 27 18 10

1975 274 30 JPN. USA URS GBR GDR NZL 69.3% 47 40 36 34 20 13

1976 260 32 USA JPN — URS ITA GBR GDR 58.1% 37 35 32 de 6 14

1907 286 38 USA JPN GBR URS FIN GDR 64.0% 45 37 36 34 16 15

1978 448 34 USA JPN GBR URS POL FRG 60.9% 87 51 49 46 25 15

1979 580 38 USA URS JPN GBR RSA FRA 68.3% 163 8) 64 55 24 19

1980 754 42 USA URS GBR JPN FRA FRG 62.9% 187 105 69 60 28 25

1981 731 42 USA GBR JPN URS RSA ITA 61.0% 193 83 60 50 33 27

1982 834 51 USA GBR URS = JPN ITA RSA 55.2% 19) 719 71 63 30 26

1983 1134 48 USA GBR JPN URS ITA BEL 56.5% 267 13/7 83 63 49 36

1984 1101 57 USA GBR JPN URS ITA POL 503% 165 116 102 86 43 42

continued

percent of the total. And its Olympic level excellence has been comparable to Japan’s: a gold (in ’72), a silver (in ’76), and two fourth places (in ’72, ‘76). However, the growth pattern of U.S. top-level marathoners has been quite different from that of Japan. During the 1960s, when Japan was leading the world in marathon performance, the United States was far behind, along with other nations. Then, beginning in 1972, when Frank Shorter earned his Munich gold medal, U.S. marathon racing activity increased. Notice in Table 1 that 1976 launched a “golden decade” of amazing U.S. dominance in terms of the sheer numbers of top-level marathon performances delivered. Then, starting with 1985, a year after the Los Angeles Olympic Games, anew trend of steadily decreasing U.S. performances began—and continues to this day. In the early 1980s, U.S. marathoners routinely ran 100 to 200 sub-2:20:00 performances; now that number has dwindled to a low of 40 such performances in 1996 (see Figure 1).

97 193191

99 96 93

63 4 53 § 40 37 a ze 24222 2 tome iui ili “88

JOE SEELEY

Figure 1. Sub-2:20:00 marathons by U.S. men.

Figure 2 illustrates the depth of performance among world and U.S. men marathon runners. The black lines show the Ist, 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, and 50th fastest performance for U.S. men during the past 16 years, 1981 through 1996. The lines in color in Figure 2 chart the world scene and presents the annual 1st, 50th, 100th, 250th, 500th, 750th, and 1,000th fastest performances over this same period. For both groups, the fastest performance each year over this period hasn’t changed much, hovering around 2:08:00 for the world and 2:10:00 for the United States. However, when the entire population of U.S. and world performances are compared, we see some interesting differences. For example, the 50th fastest world performance has improved by over 2 minutes, from 2:12:59 in 1981 to 2:10:52 in 1996, while the 50th fastest U.S. performance has slowed from 2:14:22 in 1983 to 2:21:08 in 1996.

What is the explanation for this recent but continuing fall-off in U.S. performance quality? Is the U.S. athlete population changing in sucha way that the athletes are at an increasing disadvantage to perform well? Or are the characteristics of the competing world population changing? I’ll attempt to answer these questions shortly.

Population Demographics

Can we learn anything about the trend of declining U.S. performance from studying population demographics? Age as an influencing variable can indeed be considered, because athlete birth date and performance race date comprise part of each performance entry. Table 2 summarizes the fastest, youngest, and oldest men among the top 50 world performances each year and Table 3 does

Dr. David Martin ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS & 33

U.S. 50th U.S. 40th U.S. 30th U.S. 20th 500th

U.S. 10th 250th

100th

Soth U.S. best

World best

2:07 81 | | 64 | | 88 | | 92 i | ’96 Joe SEELEY

Figure 2. Progression of top marathon performances by men, worldwide and U.S.

the same for U.S. men, with standard deviations to give an idea of variability. Also included is the 50th fastest time to indicate the high quality of this group, and the average age at which all of each year’s top 50 performances were run.

There are some similarities in age among the U.S. and world men. The very fastest athletes each year average 27 to 28 years of age. And the average age for the runners of the top 50 performances each year is 28 to 29 years. However, among the youngest and oldest runners, the U.S. runners differ from the world at large. Each year, the youngest male marathoner among the top 50 performances worldwide continues to be 20 to 21 years of age. But the youngest U.S. athlete among the top 50 U.S. performances is getting older—in recent years, 23 to 24 years of age.

Two possibilities might explain this trend: There are fewer talented high school and college level male distance runners, and fewer of these runners are opting for marathon racing. If the second possibility is in fact occurring, then we would expect to see an increasingly aging U.S. men’s marathon-running population, as the current marathoners continue to compete.

Although no data are available to address the first possibility, the data presented in Tables 2 and 3 shows that the U.S. men’s marathon population is indeed aging. Comparing the top 50 U.S. and world marathon performances over the past 16 years, we see that the mean age of the oldest U.S. runner is

TABLE 2 AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP 50

WorRLD MEN MARATHON PERFORMANCES SRLS A A TE

50th Fastest Mean Standard Year Time Age Deviation _ Fastest Youngest Oldest 981 2:12:59 27.9 3.16 24-deCastella 22 -Rinde 36 – Mora (AUS) (USA) (COL) 982 2:1240 283 3.22 23 .- Salazar 22 – |kangaa 36 – Marczak (USA) (TAN) (POL) 1983 2:11:21 28.0 3.48 26-deCastella 21-Jorgensen 37 – Stahl (AUS) (DEN) (SWE) 984 2:11:44 27.4 3.92 29- Jones 20-Mekonnen 37 – Lopes (GBR) (ETH) (POR) 1985 2:11:34 27.7 377 38-Lopes 20 – Mtolo 38 – Lopes (POR) (RSA) (POR) 986 2:11:42 27.4 3.67 28-Kodama 20 – Dinsamo 34 – Spedding (JPN) (ETH) (GBR) 1987 2:12:13 27.7. 3.52 27-Nakayama_ 21 – Naali 34 – Spedding (PN) (TAN) (GBR) 988 2:11:44 284 3.84 22-Dinsamo 20 – Cruz 39 – Campbell (TAN) (MEX) (NZL) 1989 2:12:09 28.3 3.79 29-\kangaa 20 – Zeleka 36 – Nyambui (TAN) (ETH) (KEN) 990 2:12:02 29.0 3.94 28-Moneghetti 21-Kim 41 – Campbell (AUS) (KOR) (NZL) 1991 2:11:48 28.1 3.06 23 – Morishita 22 – Tadi 35 – Peter GPN) (ETH) (GDR) 992 2:11:35 27.7 4.10 25 – Tsebe 19 – Negere 37 – Jones (RSA) (ETH) (GBR) 1993 2:11:18 276 365 28-Ceron 20 – Kebede 35 – O’Reilly (MEX) (ETH) (IRL) 994 2:10:57 278 35/7 22 -Ndeti 21-Cho 34 – Taniguchi (KEN) (KOR) UPN) 1995 2:11:19 29.3 3.96 31 -Lelei 21 – Wainaina 37 – Martin (KEN) (KEN) (GBR) 1996 21052 290 371 33-Fiz 21 – Tangus 39 – Salah (ESP) (TAN) (DJI) MEAN 2:11:45 28.1 3.65 27.3 4/-4.18S.D. 20.74/-0.855.D. 36.6 +/-1.94S.D.

Dr. David Martin

ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS MM 35

TABLE 3 AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 50 FASTEST USA MEN MARATHON PERFORMANCES

nearly two years older than that of the world men. Thus, the notion that U.S. male runners “make a career” out of marathoning instead of “giving it their all” in youth may have some validity. However, these U.S. runners may find it increasingly difficult to succeed because of the trend illustrated on the mean top-50 performance lists that shows that male runners at the world level are not slowing down, while the U.S. men’s times are slowing substantially.

An additional demographic point of interest is that only 2 of the 16 youngest male marathoners worldwide are Caucasian white athletes, and only 4 of the 16 oldest male marathoners worldwide are not. The sociocultural aspects of this distribution could be debated at length, so I’ Il leave them for readers to explore. This sociocultural issue is complex, as it involves the gamut of athletes from rigidly-controlled societies, whose governments have a high priority for sport,

to athletes from more free societies that have made sport a viable means of earning an acceptable living for many years as a kind of sports business.

ANALYSIS OF THE WOMEN’S PERFORMANCES

Studying the performance dynamics of women marathoners is equally fascinating, although a much more recent story, dating back only to 1984 regarding Olympic participation. The data show similarities to and differences from the men. Table 4 and Figure 3 (page 38-40) present the same kind of information as Table 1 and Figure 2 did. Recall that the sub-2:55:00 cutoff for performances gives a yearly sample size similar to that of the men.

Table 4 takes us back to the very first sub-2:55:00 performance, by Adrienne Beames of Australia at Werribee in August of 1971, followed in December by the U.S.’s Cheryl Bridges at the Culver City Marathon in December. The dramatic rise in women’s participation in 1978 and 1979 was helped substantially by the creation of the worldwide Avon International Running Circuit, a six-year program of international marathons and shorter road races intended by the Avon Corporation to focus attention on its products for women, promote a healthy lifestyle among women, and assist the cause of adding a marathon for women on the Olympic schedule.

The Avon circuit director was none other than 1967 Boston Marathon entrant Kathrine Switzer, whose attempted ejection from that race by a chauvinistic race official caused worldwide attention to the inequities regarding women’s sport participation. Starting with Atlanta in 1978, well-attended annual Avonsponsored international marathons moved around the world, from Germany to London to Ottawa to San Francisco, and finally, in 1983, to what would be the Los Angeles Olympic marathon course.

As Table 4 shows, the United States has been the unquestioned dominant force in the sheer numbers of participants at the top level. Of the 17,720 sub2:55:00 performances in the women’s database, 4,458 have been run by U.S. athletes, which is 25 percent of the total. One probable reason for this large percentage is that socioculturally a more receptive attitude regarding women’s athletic competition has prevailed in the United States since the 1970s, more so even than in Europe, where athleticism was widely practiced at the highest levels. During the 1980s, Great Britain was a major force in women’s marathon participation, with the Soviet Union not far behind. During the 1990s, with the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has remained a consistent major player, with Japan close behind.

As with the men, the number of countries contributing top-level women marathoners is increasing, which steadily decreases the relative contribution of the top six most active nations in the total number of performances. Joan

Dr. David Martin ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS 37

TABLE 4 NATIONS WITH THE MOosT SuB – 2:55:00 MARATHON PERFORMANCES BY WOMEN

EE EES PE SN SSS a IEE LS # Per- # % of Year formances Nations #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 ~—s Total

1990 1721 56 USA URS JPN GBR FRG POL 53.1% 203 «127 «#110 60 54 Al

1991 1268 53 USA URS JPN’ GBR FRA GER 576% 272 +168 ~=#(109 72 57 53

1907 1201 62 USA JPN) RUS GER GBR FRA 51.3% 222, 118 #111 68 60 43

1993 1126 57 USA RUS JPN FRA CHN GER 49.6% Vi 129~— 107 53 51 47

1994 1205 60 USA RUS JPN GBR GER FRA 52.0% 222 +141_~=«#120 54 45 45

1995 1214 65 USA RUS JPN GER POL FRA 56.1% 296 126 «#123 50 44 42

1996 1254 60 USA JPN RUS GER POL) FRA 546%

733 188 127. 49 44 44 Total 17,720 SLE RE I APTS IPT PBS IEE aE LE NIT OS PE ML TD OE ETE

Benoit’s Olympic gold medal in 1984 doubtless provided a year’s-long impetus for other U.S. women to continue their devotion to top-level marathoning. This movement has been enhanced not only by the increasing financial incentives among women’s prize-money arrangements at mixed races, but also by the increasing numbers of women’s-only marathons at the highest level, especially in Japan.

Another likely contributing factor to the continued high level of marathon activity by women relates to the more limited track opportunities for women distance runners than for men until very recently. The 10,000-meter event was added to the Olympic schedule only in 1988, the 5,000-meter event in 1996. Thus, at the top level, the marathon was the distance of choice for women.

Notice in Table 4 the interesting cyclic variation in the number of U.S. women performances over the four-year Olympic period, evident since 1980. The post-Olympic year has far fewer performances than the year previous (for example, 156 in 1985, 199 in 1989, and 171 in 1993), with a steady increase over the next few years until the year following the Games. This cyclicity isn’t seen either with men’s (U.S. or world) or world women’s performances.

Population Demographics

As with the men, much can be learned about the top U.S. and world women marathoners by assessing the entire database. As Figure 3 shows, the fastest annual women’s time varies widely, among both the world and U.S. databases,

Dr. David Martin ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS ® 39

“N NNO 1000th

sooth 750th

U.S. 100th 260th/ ZN U.S. 50th 2:40 Ses U.S. 40th ——/ U.S. 30th U.S. 20th \ a 100th 2:30 50th U.S. best World best A 2:22 81 | | 84 | | | ’88 | | | 92 | | | ’96

JOE SEELEY

Figure 3. Progression of top marathon performances by women, worldwide and U.S.

but since 1983 at the world level (2:24:00) and 1988 for the United States (2:28:00), the times have been fairly stable.

Age demographics for elite women marathoners are shown in Table 5 for the world and Table 6 for the United States. The mean age for the fastest time for the world top 50 women’s performances is 28.3 years, and the mean age for the single fastest performance each year is 27.5 years. These ages are similar to the men. However, for the U.S. women, the average age of their annual top 50 performances is slightly older at 29.2, similar to the average age of the single athlete running the fastest performance each year.

For the U.S. women, as with the U.S. men, among both the very youngest and the very oldest top-level performances, we see that the athletes are getting older. The mean age of the youngest top women marathoners worldwide is remaining constant (between 19 and 20 years of age), but the average age of the youngest top-level U.S. women marathoner is steadily getting older (from 19 to 20 years of age in the early 1980s to 24 to 25 in the early 1990s). Also, notice in Tables 5 and 6 that the oldest U.S. women are about two years younger than the oldest women at the world level. This is the opposite of what we observed for the men. The mean age for the oldest U.S. men running the 50 fastest performances is older than the world mean.

TABLE 5 AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP 50

WORLD WOMEN MARATHON PERFORMANCES SR a A SE ERO OY, ET ASR OT I

50th Fastest Mean Standard

Year Time Age Deviation Fastest Youngest Oldest

1981 2:39:08 26.4 4.55 24-Roe 19 – Bush 43 – Smith (NZL) (CAY) (GBR)

1982 2:37:51 27.8 5.31 25- Benoit 18 – Masuda 44 – Smith (USA) UPN) (GBR)

1983 2:35:16 272 592 25- Benoit 19 – Masuda 45 – Smith (USA) UPN) (GBR)

1984 2:33:40 27.3 5.10 28-Kristiansen 20 – Masuda 46 – Smith (NOR) UPN) (GBR)

1985 2:34:16 27.5 3.98 29-Kristiansen 20-Weinhold 35 – Teske (NOR) (GDR) (FRG)

1986 2:33:39 30.2 443 32 -Waitz 23 – Martins 44 – Palm (NOR) (GDR). (SWE)

1987 2:32:38 29.4 5.26 31-Kristiansen 19 – Zhong 42 – Welch (NOR) (CHN) (GBR)

1988 2:31:21 29.5 5.15 27- Martin 20 – O’Brien 43 – Welch (AUS) (USA) (GBR)

1989 2:32:47 29.6 5.08 33-Kristiansen 20-Mun 47 – Palm (NOR) (PRK) (SWE)

1990 2:32:26 295 4.24 31 -Mota 20 – Hyodo 38 – Beurskens (POR) (PN) (NED)

1991 2:31:44 294 3.85 32- Paniil 23 – Markova 38 – Smith (POL) (RUS) (USA)

1992 2:31:33 27.2 4.04 23- Markova 20 – Kokamo 39 – Smith (RUS) UPN) (USA)

1993 2:30:58 266 519 20-Wang 19-Gu 41 – Beurskens (CHN) (CHN) (NED)

1994 2:31:45 28.1 456 28 -Pippig 20 – Yamazoe 42 – Beurskens (GER) UPN) (NED)

1995 2:31:20 28.5 4.01 29- Pippig 20 – Kim 38 – Pozdnyakova (GER) (PRK) (RUS)

1996 2:30:08 28.5 437 34-Dorre 20 – Chickahira 37 – Kokowska (GER) UPN) (POL)

MEAN 2:33:09 283 4.71 27.54/-4.70S.D. 20.04/-1.27S.D. 41.4 +/- 3.41 S.D.

Dr. David Martin

ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS & 41

TABLE 6 AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 50 FASTEST USA WOMEN MARATHON PERFORMANCES

Regarding sociocultural demographics, as with the men, very few of the youngest world women marathoners are Caucasian whites, while the oldest are primarily Caucasian whites, mainly European residents.

REDUCED MARATHON PARTICIPATION BY U.S. MEN

Athletes from an increasingly large number of nations have started to achieve top-level success in the marathon. This dilutes the percentage of U.S. performances when compared to the total, but it does not explain the steady decline in total numbers of U.S. marathon performances faster than the 2:20:00 standard. The explanation is simply fewer athletes competing. The reasons for this are many. Let’s look at several of the contributing factors.

Recruiting Foreign Distance Runners

First (and this is a contentious issue) is the ongoing recruitment of substantial numbers of collegiate distance runners from other nations, which deprives U.S. runners of a chance to develop their expertise at any distance, including the marathon. One reason coaches give for such recruiting practices is that if one college goes after the world gene pool, then others must as well to remain competitive. Another reason coaches offer for overlooking the local talent is that athletes emerging from today’s high schools are not as fit as athletes from around the world. One viable explanation for this may be that their high school coaches do not want to “burn out” their runners in high school. Instead, the coaches bring the runners along so they’Il love the sport, remain injury-free, and develop a long-term love for running that will extend into and beyond college. For U.S. athletes to be passed by in favor of foreign ones who are more fit, and then to have college funds go into developing these foreign runners— who will eventually go on to earn medals for their home nations—is a fairly unique bit of global American generosity, which the rest of the world appreciates but does not return in equal measure. The result is diminished development of U.S. distance-running talent in exchange for subsidizing talented athletes worldwide. This leads to a decline in the number of U.S. men distance runners in general, not solely marathon runners. The “problem” is not the marathon as an event, but the decreased number of scholarships that colleges could provide to talented U.S. distance runners.

Disappearing Role Models and the Attractiveness of Other Events

Disappearing role models and the attractiveness of other events have also been influential in decreasing marathon participation among men. A brief recall of history is appropriate. The first-, fourth-, and ninth-place excellence of Frank Shorter, Kenny Moore, and Jack Bacheler, respectively, in the 1972 Olympics was a big stimulus to American runners, who were thrilled to see the U.S. go head to head with the then-excellent-but-much-smaller marathoning world. In fact, their marathon performances represented the best showing by any nation since 1908, when Americans went first, third, and fourth (Johnny Hayes, Joe Forshaw, and Alton Welton, respectively). The 1973 Boston Marathon first and second place performances by Jon Anderson and Tom Fleming, respectively, continued this momentum and set the stage for sports media to give worldwide coverage to Bill Rodgers’s American record at Boston in 1975. No particular vision or well-thought-out plan just starting to bear fruit had been created by the national sports governing body (at that time, the Amateur Athletic Union) to explain this marathon excellence. (Nor is there a well-thought-out plan for

Dr. David Martin ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS M43

developing distance runners today either). During this era, we saw good athletes maturing and enjoying what they were doing and being motivated by their own individualism to be better than ever before in their chosen sport.

An Olympics in nearby Canada in 1976 provided a forum for American athletes to draw even more attention to the marathon. Frank Shorter took the silver medal, and Don Kardong placed fourth, missing the bronze by a scant three seconds. Rodgers was in that race as well, but the effects of an injury relegated him to 40th place. Later that fall, thanks to the genius of Fred Lebow, the New York City Marathon opted to “go international,” with a much-publicized race through the boroughs. Rodgers and Shorter were both healthy, went head-to-head, and placed first and second, in that order. American runners saw again that this sport (and particularly, winning at this sport!) could be great fun. Indeed, distance runners flocked to the event, and U.S. runners did have fun, for 10 golden years.

This period included the Moscow boycott, with no Olympic opportunity to shine. By 1984 and the next Olympics, the huge population of marathonoriented distance runners suddenly realized that only three among their ranks could race in Los Angeles. Thus, for many a return to a track focus became a preferred option, and they sought team places in the steeplechase, 5K, and 10K.

In addition to Olympic-level sport, the International Amateur Athletic Federation responded to aggressive leadership by its new president, Primo Nebiolo, and created a series of World Championships that provided many distance running options: cross country and summertime track initially, ekidens and half marathons later. These events were intended to ensure control by the world governing body over major sporting opportunities and thus compete with the rapidly-increasing numbers of road races springing up worldwide. The chance to race more frequently (after all, racing is the fun part of being a distance runner!) and the larger number of event opportunities for earning money to support an athlete lifestyle has tended to dilute the focus on the marathon.

Loss of Fast U.S. Courses

A third contributing factor to explain the reduced appearance of U.S. men marathoners on the top-performance lists is a gradual loss in the number of dependably fast courses in the United States for runners to achieve fast times. The top-50 performance lists have increasingly been dominated by places like Rotterdam, Kyongju, London, Berlin, Fukuoka, and Tokyo for the men, and London, Berlin, Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya for the women. These courses have almost laboratory-like running conditions: flat courses, consistently chilly weather, cloudy skies, excellent competition, and pace-making athletes in front. Minimal travel stress helps Asians do well in Asia, and Europeans and Africans do well in Europe. U.S. runners face time-zone adaptation in either direction,

and as arule they are less able to cope with the hassle of different languages and cultures, and less familiar living conditions than those at home.

A related factor involves a trend for recent top-level U.S. championships to be awarded to courses less favorable to fast times (for example, Jersey City, Columbus, and Charlotte as compared to Niagara Falls and Eugene). Selecting fast U.S. courses to increase the chance of placing U.S. runners at the top of world performance lists is (perhaps logically) a lower priority to the national governing body than obtaining a high-dollar value in services and prize money provided by the race sponsor to produce a worthy event. But international race directors review lists of fastest marathoners in their quest for “suitable” invitees to their events.

Risk of Injury and Burnout

Finally, there is the substantially increased risk of injury and burnout required in marathon training to achieve success at the top level. When Frank Shorter won his four back-to-back races in Fukuoka in the 1970s, his 2:10+ efforts were as much as 2 minutes ahead of second place. There was much less depth of competition in those days. Now, it isn’t unusual in a marathon to see three athletes enter the stadium track together and sprint over the final 400 meters to determine the order of finish in 2:09 or faster. Thus, the intensity of training— and racing—necessary to be a viable finisher has greatly increased. The increased sophistication on a global level of athlete management by agents has also saturated marathon races with much larger quality fields than in Shorter’s day. These athletes, particularly from countries with economic standards vastly lower than those in the United States, are entirely willing to endure far more hardship—arduous training, living on another continent, and being away from their families and culture, for example—because the financial reward from race earnings has purchasing power back home that is almost incomprehensible to a U.S. athlete.

CONCLUSIONS

When we examine the fastest performances worldwide against an unchanging standard (2:20:00 for men and 2:55:00 for women), several trends emerge:

1. Worldwide, more men and women are participating in the marathon (and from more nations) than ever before.

2. Over the past 10 years the total number of performances within the selected standards has been relatively stable, with just over 1,000 performances each year.

3. The annual fastest individual performances by U.S. and world men and women have not been quickening. While we see an increase in depth

Dr. David Martin ELITE-LEVEL MARATHON PERFORMANCE TRENDS Mi 45

among the top-level world women’s performances, the men’s performances have remained fairly stable.

4. In both quantity and quality, there has been a substantial reduction in total top-level U.S. men’s marathon activity. Among U.S. athletes, neither men nor women are running marathons at ages as young as previously.

5. Asa group, U.S. women continue to account for more sub-2:55:00 performances per year than any other nation, well ahead of runner-ups Russia and Japan.

6. Among the men, Japanese athletes contribute the most sub-2:20:00 performances, followed by Kenya and Russia.

Marathon running is now almost a global passion. Never before have there been so many participants at all levels of ability, in every corner of the world, from Kathmandu to Kansas City, from Capetown to Canberra. This marathoning activity supports a myriad of industries that produce gadgets, personal agents, energy foods, touring and travel packages, and much more. The marathon environment is ever-changing in its complexity and diversity, making ? its future as bright as it is unpredictable. et

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Carbo Science

Knowing When to Use Solid Instead of Liquid Carbs Can Place You a Stride Ahead

Bxrre AUTOMOBILE races such as the 24 Hours of LeMans have been held since the early days of the auto industry, both as pure competition and as a method of promoting specific brands of cars. Success comes to the focused and well-paced driver who can work in concert with his car against the clock hour after grueling hour and pay attention to details, including the optimum fuel mixture for the distance, speed, and conditions.

Picking the right long-distance fuel is also critical to today’s marathoners and ultramarathoners, and there’s an array of solid and liquid carbohydrates to choose from. Each carbohydrate form (solid and liquid) has advantages and drawbacks. Sports drinks and other liquids are a practical source of carbohydrate because they also replace our fluid losses. High carbohydrate foods, on the other hand, can be easily carried and provide a feeling of satiety that you won’t get from drinking fluids. Marathoners and ultramarathoners use both forms of carbos, so it’s important to know precisely under what conditions each form of the carbohydrate will affect performance.

Muscle and liver glycogen depletion are well-recognized limitations to distance-running performance, and the longer the distance, the more profound the limitations. Eating a high-carbohydrate meal before morning runs helps replenish your liver glycogen stores and improves performance.

Consuming carbohydrates during runs provides glucose for your working muscles when they get low on glycogen. Also, eating an adequate amount of carbohydrate following a long run helps replace muscle and liver glycogen, which is essential for adequate recovery.

The massive body of research on this subject reflects the intense interest in the performance benefits and physiological effects of consuming liquid and solid carbohydrates before, during, and after exercise and provides practical recommendations about whether you should consume liquid or solid carbohydrates before, during, and after runs.

CARBOHYDRATE FORM AND BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS

Atrest, solid food empties from the stomach more slowly than liquid food does. For this reason, solid carbohydrates may provide a slow, sustained release of blood glucose. In contrast, liquid carbohydrates may raise blood glucose levels more quickly and to a greater extent.

Based on this difference, you’d expect solid carbohydrates to be a better preexercise meal choice than liquid carbohydrates because the solid carbos provide a more continuous supply of glucose during exercise. You’d expect liquid carbohydrates to be a better choice during and after exercise because they elevate blood glucose quickly, thereby enhancing endurance and promoting glycogen replacement. On the other hand, if liquid and solid carbohydrates cause similar blood glucose responses, then you would not expect a difference in performance or glycogen restoration.

Glycemic Index

To scientifically measure such differences, we use the glycemic index (GI), which indicates how much a food increases the blood glucose level relative to glucose, which has a GI value of 100. The glycemic index is influenced by the form of the food (liquid versus solid), its fiber content, the presence of protein and fat, and the food processing and preparation methods. The glycemic index is not simply a function of whether a carbohydrate is a liquid or a solid. For example, an orange has a GI value of 66, while orange juice has a value of 67. The glycemic index is also not a function of whether the food is a starch (e.g., pasta) or simple carbohydrate (e.g., table sugar). For example, a baked potato has a GI of 98, which is close to the value of 100 for glucose.

But the glycemic index concept does have limitations. The numbers that are available are largely based on tests on simple foods. High glycemic foods often don’t affect the glycemic response when they’re combined with other foods in meals. For example, bread has a high GI, but when you add margarine, fruit, and milk to the mix, the GI of the meal is medium to low. Also, the glycemic index is based on equal grams of carbohydrate, not average serving sizes.

EATING ONE HOUR BEFORE RUNNING

Research published in the late 1970s by Carl Foster and colleagues at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, suggested that consuming 75 grams of glucose (300 calories) 30 minutes prior to exercise reduced endurance by causing hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and early fatigue. The result of this study led to the recommendation that endurance athletes avoid consuming carbohydrates (liquid or solid) in the hour before exercise.

Insulin is secreted by the pancreas in response to an increase in blood glucose. Insulin lowers the blood glucose level by promoting the uptake of glucose into cells. When the blood glucose drops, some people begin to show the symptoms of hypoglycemia (weakness, dizziness, nausea, confusion, and partial blackout), or they become exhausted sooner. Fortunately, these insulin and glucose responses are temporary and will not harm performance unless you’re sensitive to having your blood glucose lowered.

Research published in 1991, however, indicated that consuming carbohydrates an hour before exercise may help performance. Michael Sherman and colleagues at The Ohio State University in Columbus found that performance was improved by 12.5 percent when subjects consumed liquid carbohydrate (a glucose polymer drink) an hour before cycling exercise. Eating one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight helped subjects maintain blood glucose levels during exercise.

Does Carbo Form Matter?

Does the form of the preexercise carbohydrate influence performance? Diane Thomas and colleagues at the University of Sydney in Australia found that athletes consuming one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight of lentils (yes, lentils!) an hour before cycling improved exercise time by 20 minutes. Compared to an equal amount of carbohydrate from a baked potato or a glucose drink, the lentils (which have a GI of 29) provided a more gradual rise and fall in blood glucose, thereby maintaining blood glucose levels at higher levels during exercise. The Thomas study results suggest that a low-glycemic solid carbohydrate is the preferred preexercise meal. Yet, the Sherman study results indicate that performance is improved following the consumption of a high-glycemic liquid carbohydrate as well. There hasn’t been a lot of research in this area (in fact, the Thomas study is the only one that has examined the GI of preexercise meal), so experiment to find your “best” preexercise meal. There is also the obvious consideration of whether certain foods (liquid or solid) give you gastrointestinal distress. Some folks can’t eat solid food prior torunning without risking a bathroom break and/or gut distress—nausea, cramps,

Ellen Coleman CARBO SCIENCE i 49

or diarrhea. My advice is that you try different liquid and solid carbohydrates with high and low glycemic indexes to find out what works well for you. The research by Sherman and Thomas suggests that you should consume one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight an hour before exercise (to get your weight in kilograms, divide your body weight by 2.2).

If you think you are sensitive to having your blood glucose lowered, you have several options. You can consume a low-glycemic carbohydrate, take in aliquid or solid high-glycemic carbohydrate a few minutes before exercise, or wait until you’re exercising to eat a carbohydrate. The rise in the exercise hormones (epinephrine and growth hormone) blocks the release of insulin, thereby countering the insulin’s effect in lowering blood glucose.

EATING TWO TO FOUR HOURS BEFORE RUNNING

Runners are often advised to eat several hours before exercising to allow enough time for the stomach to empty. The rationale is that if any food remains in the stomach when you start running, you can become nauseated when blood is diverted from the stomach to the exercising muscles.

Rather than getting up at the crack of dawn to eat, however, many folks who run in the morning simply forgo eating. This overnight fast lowers your liver glycogen stores (the source of blood glucose) and impairs performance during prolonged runs (over several hours) that rely heavily on blood glucose. During long runs, you rely heavily on your preexisting muscle glycogen and fat stores. Although the preexercise meal doesn’t contribute immediate energy, it starts to provide energy when you run longer than an hour. It can also prevent you from getting hungry, which in itself may impair performance.

Eating a high-carbohydrate meal two to four hours before morning exercise helps restore liver glycogen, which will help during long runs. If your muscle glycogen levels are also low, the meal can also help increase them as well, as long as you eat several hours before your run.

Does the form of the carbohydrate eaten two to four hours before exercise influence performance? Probably not. Sherman and colleagues found that cycling performance was improved by 15 percent when subjects consumed a liquid carbohydrate (a glucose polymer drink) four hours before exercise. Darrell Neufer and colleagues at Ball State University found that cycling performance was improved when subjects consumed a mixed meal (cereal, bread, milk, and fruit juice) four hours before exercise.

Try different liquid and solid carbohydrates two to four hours before running to find out what works best for you. Sherman’s research suggests that you

should consume one to four grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight, one to four hours before exercise. To avoid potential gastrointestinal distress, reduce the size of the meal the closer it is to the exercise. For example, a carbohydrate feeding of one gram per kilogram of weight (four calories per kilogram) is appropriate an hour before your run, whereas four grams per. kilogram of weight (16 calories per kilogram) can be consumed four hours before your run.

Examples of good high-carbohydrate foods for prerace meals include fruit, bread products (adding jam or jelly increases the carbohydrate content), sports bars, and nonfat or low-fat yogurt. Fruit juices and nonfat milk are good highcarbohydrate beverages. You can also use liquid meals (see Table 1).

LIQUID MEALS

Liquid meals have several advantages. They leave the stomach more rapidly than regular meals, which helps to avoid nausea. Liquid meals also produce a low stood residue, which helps keep immediate weight gain to a minimum. Because they don’t contain fiber, liquid meals are also less likely to necessitate a bathroom break during your run.

You can concoct your own home-made liquid meals by mixing milk, fruit, and nonfat dry milk powder in a blender. For more variety, add cereal, yogurt, and flavoring (vanilla and chocolate). Sugar or honey may also be added for additional sweetness and carbohydrate. There are also several brands of “instant breakfast” powders that can be mixed with milk.

EATING ON THE RUN

Eating carbohydrates during runs lasting an hour or longer enhances endurance by providing glucose for your muscles when they run low on glycogen. Thus, carbohydrate utilization (and, therefore, energy production) can continue at a high rate and endurance is enhanced. Eddie Coyle and colleagues at the University of Texas in Austin have shown that consuming carbohydrates during cycling exercise at 70 percent of VO, max can delay fatigue by 30 to 60 minutes.

As the muscles run out of glycogen, they take up more blood glucose, which places a drain on the liver glycogen stores. The longer the run, the greater the utilization of blood glucose by the muscles for energy. When the liver glycogen is depleted, the blood glucose level drops. Though a few people experience symptoms indicative of hypoglycemia, most runners are forced to reduce their exercise intensity due to leg muscle fatigue.

TABLE 1 LIQUID MEALS

Calories Carbohydrate Protein Fat

Beverage Flavors (per 8-oz.serving) (grams) (grams) (grams) GatorPro® Chocolate, 360 58 16 7 Sports vanilla Nutrition Supplement The Gatorade Company Sport Shake® Chocolate, 310 45 4) 10 Mid-America vanilla, Farms strawberry Endura Chocolate, 260 57 11 less Optimizer® vanilla, than 1 Unipro, Inc. orange Sego Very® Chocolate, 180 27-34 9 1-4 Pet, Inc. chocolate malt,

strawberry,

vanilla Protein Repair Vanilla 200 26 20 15 Formula® PurePower Sports Nutrition Metabolol ll® Plain 260 40 20 2 Champion Nutrition Sustical Chocolate, 240 a3 a5 14.5 Mead-Johnson _ vanilla, Nutritionals strawberry Nutrament Chocolate, 240 34 65 1] Mead-Johnson __ vanilla, Nutritionals strawberry,

banana,

coconut Ensure Chocolate, 254 25 9 9 Ross vanilla, Laboratories strawberry

REE SMI SC ST RPE PRT PE EE OE AES EM TET I OT From Eating for Endurance. Reprinted with permission of Bull Publishing.

The influence of carbohydrate feedings on running performance has also been evaluated. During a40-kilometer run in the heat, Melinda Millard-Stafford and colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta found that a liquid carbohydrate feeding (55 grams per hour) increased blood glucose levels and enabled runners to finish the last 5 kilometers significantly faster compared to when subjects consumed a drink that didn’t contain carbohydrate. Ina treadmillrunat 80 percentof VO,max, Randall Wilber and Robert Moffatt at Florida State University in Tallahassee found that when subjects consumed a carbohydrate drink (35 grams per hour) the run time was 23 minutes longer (for a total of 115 minutes) compared to the run when subjects consumed a carbohydrate drink (92 minutes).

What Form of Carbs?

Does the form of the carbohydrate consumed during exercise influence performance? No. Manuel Lugo and colleagues at The Ohio State University found that liquid and solid carbohydrate feedings were equally effective in increasing blood glucose levels and improving cycling performance.

Coyle’s research suggests that you should consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate (120 to 240 calories) for every hour of exercise. Try experimenting with both carbohydrate-rich foods and sports drinks. Sports drinks containing 6 to 8 percent carbohydrate are a practical source of carbohydrate. They provide the right proportion of water to carbohydrate to provide energy and replace fluid losses. Drinking 5 to 10 ounces of a sports drink containing 6 to 8 percent carbohydrate (about 56 to 77 calories per 8 ounces) every 15 to 20 minutes supplies the right amount of carbohydrates.

High-carbohydrate foods (see Table 2) provide a feeling of satiety that you won’t get from drinking fluids. Eating one banana or four graham crackers or four fig bars or one sports bar per hour provides the recommended amount of carbohydrates.

Sports bars, fig bars, and cookies have a very low water content so they are compact and easy to carry. By comparison, high-carbohydrate foods that have a high water content, such as fruit, take up more room. For example, to get the amount of carbohydrate supplied by one PowerBar (47 grams), you’d have to eat 1.5 bananas (45 grams).

However, the low water content of some solid high-carbohydrate foods also has a downside. You’d better drink plenty of water when you eat solid food, especially a sports bar. Otherwise the food will settle poorly, and you may feel like there’s a rock in your gut. In addition to aiding your digestion, drinking water while eating solid foods helps keep you adequately hydrated.

TABLE 2 CARBOHYDRATE SNACK COMPARISON

Try to eat or drink your carbohydrates before you feel tired or hungry, usually within 30 to 60 minutes into your run. Consuming small amounts at frequent intervals (every 30 to 60 minutes) helps prevent gastrointestinal upset. Your foods and fluids should be easily digestible, familiar (tested in training), and enjoyable (so you’ll want to eat and drink them).

Consuming a high-carbohydrate preexercise meal adds to the benefit you get from consuming carbohydrates during exercise. David Wright and colleagues at The Ohio State University found that cyclists who consumed carbohydrates both before exercise and during exercise were able to exercise longer (for a total of 289 minutes) than those who consumed carbohydrates during exercise (266 minutes) or just before exercise (236 minutes).

However, the improvement in performance when carbohydrates are consumed during exercise was greater than when carbohydrates were consumed before exercise. My advice is that if you want to have a continuous supply of glucose during exercise, take in carbos during exercise.

EATING AFTER RUNNING

Consuming carbohydrates immediately after prolonged training and competitions lasting several hours increases muscle glycogen storage and helps you to recover faster. John Ivy and colleagues at the University of Texas in Austin compared glycogen storage when carbohydrate consumption was delayed for two hours after exercise. When the carbohydrate feeding was delayed for two hours, glycogen storage was cut in half when measured four hours after exercise.

Does the form of the carbohydrate influence muscle glycogen syntheses? No. Michael Reed and colleagues at the University of Texas in Austin found that postexercise liquid and solid carbohydrate feedings were equally effective in promoting muscle glycogen repletion following cycling exercise.

Replacing muscle glycogen stores after exercise is particularly beneficial if you train hard several times a day because you will get the most out of your second workout. Ivy’s research suggests that you should consume 1.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight within 30 minutes of completing your run, followed by an additional 1.5 grams per kilogram feeding two hours later.

Many runners aren’thungry after heavy training. If this is the case, consume a high-carbohydrate drink such as fruit juice or a commercial high-carbohydrate supplement (see Table 3) for your first feeding. This practice also promotes rehydration. Then, your second feeding can be a conventional highcarbohydrate meal.

TABLE 3 HIGH-CARBOHYDRATE BEVERAGES FE A LN A TOE TE AA TANTS

Carbohydrate Carbo- % Carbohydrate — (concentration) hydrate Sodium Beverage Flavors Ingredient 12-0z. serving (grams) (mg) GatorLode® Lemon, Maltodextrin, 20 70 95 The Gatorade citrus, glucose Company banana Carboplex® Plain Maltrodextrin 24 82 0 Unipro, Inc.

continued SR TAA ES RT A TSR EEE ET ETA, CES PRON VASES

Carbohydrate Carbo- % Carbohydrate (concentration) hydrate Sodium

Beverage Flavors Ingredient 12-02. serving (grams) (mq) Carbo Power® Lemonade, __ Maltrodextrin, 18 64 76 Nature’s Best strawberry, _ high-fructose Food fruit punch, — corn syrup Supplements orange,

grape, tea Ultra Fuel® Lemon, Maltodextrin, 21 715 0 Twin Labs lime, grape, glucose,

fruit punch, fructose

orange ProOptibol®105 — Wild berry Glucose, 19 66 0 Next Nutrition fructose Cybergenics Lemon, Glucose 21 79 15 Cybercharge® lime, polymers, L & S Research grape, fructose Corp. Carbo Fire® Tropical Glucose 24 83 60 Weider Health punch, polymers, & Fitness orange fructose

From The Ultimate Sports Nutrition Book. Reprinted with permission of Bull Publishing.

Remember that for the endurance athlete, carbohydrates in either liquid or solid form constitute the primary fuel for going the distance, whether it’s the standard 26.2-mile marathon or the 24 Hours of LeMans …er…a24- jy hour track race. Bs

SPECIAL REPORT

in Search of the Perfect Marathon

U.S. Marathons Come in All Shapes, Sizes, and Personalities. Which is Best for You?

KEN LEE

Every marathoner hopes someday to run the perfect marathon—that timeless race in which everything comes together inasymphony ofathletic and spiritual fulfillment. The weather is perfect, the course is perfect, the training has been perfect, and the pacing is perfect. Everything is going so well you wish the finish line were still an hour away so you could savor the moment more profoundly. Ah, heaven. Ah, ecstasy. Ah, daydream?

Not really. Some marathoners have experienced that quintessential marathon. Consider Frank Shorterin Munichin 1972 and Joan Benoit in Los Angeles in 1984. While some runners have experienced marathoning —_ Big Sur International Marathon in Carmel, nirvana, othershave avisionof California. what a perfect marathon would be like and are resolved to run marathons until they experience one.

Certainly the backbone of a perfect marathon is perfect marathon training: hard work, dedication, sensible hard and easy workouts, delayed gratification, inner focus, and outer resolve.

A marathoner in search of the perfect race can do little about the weather beyond studying past weather patterns for specific races and knowing that the best marathon weather is in the spring and fall. What the marathoner does control completely, though, is the size and style of the race to enter. The race committee and the race location determine the style of each marathon. But the size of a race can profoundly affect the event as well. For a runner to feel comfortable—and confident—in a marathon, the size of the race must fit the runner’s personality.

Some runners who move up to the marathon seek the inspiration and sensory overload of a megamarathon to tap into the raw and wired energy of thousands and thousands of other runners. Others go in the opposite direction, seeking a marathon that seeps serenity and solitude, where the course provides a link to the music of the spheres.

Seasoned marathoners have experimented with small marathons (fewer than 2,000 entrants), large marathons (2,000 to 10,000 entrants), and megamarathons (more than 10,000 entrants). Some runners can see the benefit of each type of marathon while others have become more firm believers that one or the other is the right size for them.

To give our readers—from novice marathoners to grizzled marathon veterans—a perspective on the benefits and shortcomings of small, large, and megamarathons, we solicited articles from a fan of each type of race and told them to throw objectivity right out the window.

Tim Martin lives in northern California and trains on the Avenue of the Giants and the Humboldt Redwoods marathon courses. A former winner of the Russian River Marathon and a staunch supporter of small marathons, Tim makes a case for serenity.

Scott Keenan is the race director of the reasonably large-sized and famed Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. Scott provides a view from inside his race to show how it is structured to do what it does so well.

And Sarah Lorge is a member and staffer of the New York City Road Runners Club. We didn’t need to hire detectives to uncover her prejudices on behalf of megamarathons.

As you will see, each advocate exudes passion for his or her favorite style and size of marathon. One underlying fact becomes clear from all three pieces, though: We live in a golden age of marathoning, where there is not one but scores of marathons, something for every marathoner’s taste—a smor- i gasbord waiting to be sampled. Bon appetit! Bs

FINDING THE PERFECT MARATHON

Small Is Beautiful

For Some Runners, the Smaller the Starting Field in a Marathon, the Better the Race

By TIMOTHY MARTIN

[ *M NOT sure at which point a small marathon becomes a large one, much less amegamarathon, but my guess is that the change has not so much to do with the number of participants as it does with the character and atmosphere of the race. Keep in mind that in its early years the New York City Marathon was run inside Central Park as a club race and boasted only a few hundred runners. It wasn’t until the race left the park that it “mega-sized.”

I’ve run a few big marathons in my time. I’ve hunted for parking in the slave gangs of traffic, stood in registration lines that would make Russian housewives balk, been buffeted like a dinghy in a stormy sea of 20,000 runners, and the best way I can think to describe the experience is to say I felt devalued, like a peso.

I’ve run in my share of small marathons, too. I’ve searched desperately for out-in-the-boondocks starting areas, gone without elapsed times, mile splits, the support of spectators, and the free samples of Tylenol, Ultra Fuel, PowerBars, Breathe Right strips, and carbonated, cantaloupe-flavored water, and the best way to describe those marathon experiences is. . .unplugged.

There are hundreds of marathons to choose from, and they come in all sizes. After all, this is the United States, the land of options and choices. Megamarathons are great for runners in search of flat expanses of blacktop and fast times. And large marathons are perfect for those seeking less stimulation and more elbow room. But for those who like open air, breathtaking scenery, and a more laidback, casual atmosphere, the small marathon beckons like a neon “Eat at Joe’s” sign in a lonely desert night.

SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN TRAIL MARATHON

Baz Hawley, director of California’s Saddleback Mountain Trail Marathon, is one of those people. “Last year the Saddleback Trail Marathon had 127 starters

Timothy Martin SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL i 59

and 119 finishers,” says Hawley. “In arace this size there is less pressure on the runners. It’s great for those intimidated by large groups.”

The Saddleback Trail Marathon, held in late November in the Cleveland National Forest, near San Juan Capistrano, California, attracts runners from as far away as New York and Boston.

“Predominately, these people have all run in big marathons, and they’re tired of the hoopla,” says Hawley. “They’ve found that in a marathon like the Saddleback it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you are. You can set your own pace. Small marathons are not about keeping track of times, competition, mileage, or PRs. They’re about remembering why you run.”

Saddleback is a special event, explains Hawley. For many of the runners who come back year after year, the race has become something of a necessity. Why? Because at Saddleback, runners are not treated like cattle or rental cars at a NASCAR drivers’ convention. The event is well-organized, well-directed, and all problems are addressed quickly and without fail.

“We’re the same as any other marathon,” says Hawley. “If I make a mistake, the runners give me hell.

“Not everyone wants a PR or a course record,” adds Hawley. “Tt pleases a lot of people just to Looking for a trail marathon? Try finish a marathon. The winner in California’s Saddleback Mountain Trail this year’s race finished in 3:18. Marathon.

‘COURTESY OF BAZ HAWLEY

Last place cruised in ina casual 9 hours. [knew both of the runners.”

Hawley, himself a veteran of over 100 marathons and ultras, appreciates the thick, visceral camaraderie found only in small events. “Small races are more casual and less competitive,” notes Hawley. “In the ’96 event, Rob McNair, of Huntington Beach, California, was leading the race. He saw a trail-marking ribbon in the wrong place, so he stopped and put it in the correct spot. In that same race, four or five competitors stopped to help a fallen runner. Each runner is aware of the other runners and is very supportive. More and more people are coming back to small marathons for just that reason.”

SMOKY MOUNTAIN MARATHON

Another advantage of the small marathon is its cost. With the entry fees of bigname races approaching $100, it’s nice to know there are still marathons open to even the most financially challenged. Sherman Ames, director of the Smoky Mountain Marathon, held in February in Knoxville, Tennessee, is hoping to keep it that way. With an entry fee ranging from $20 to $25, the Smoky Mountain Marathon is described in The Ultimate Guide to Marathoning as one of marathoning’s best deals. As an additional bonus, the race is held on the cusp of the Great Smoky Mountains—a breathtaking wilderness that grabs you by the ankles and pulls you into its vortex.

“We get a lot of the same people year after year,” says Ames. “It’s an intimate affair. A lot of people enjoy seeing each other, even if it’s just once a year. One fellow sent me a fax after the last race that said, ‘Sorry I had to miss the annual gathering of the tribes.’ The marathoners feel an affinity for each other. A smaller race leads to that much more exclusively.”

According to Ames, small, rural races like the Smoky Mountain Marathon are a great place to get away from it all. They provide many runners with a great sense of normalcy in a busy world. In a small marathon there is less pressure and expectation (self-imposed or otherwise) and more time to enjoy running. When the starting gun sounds in a small race, spectators vanish, the field thins, and thoughts turn inward. The mind becomes serene, meditative. Stress fades away. Doubts vanish like conquered ghosts.

“We don’t hold out our marathon to be a flat, fast qualifier,” says Ames. “The course is pleasant and scenic and runs beside an unpolluted river, and there are no crowds. It’s a wonderful race for the sheer contemplation of running.”

The scenic, uncrowded Smoky Mountain Marathon course lets runners contemplate their sport.

COURTESY OF SHERMAN AMES

NORTHERN CENTRAL TRAIL MARATHON

Beautiful scenery also plays a leading role in the Northern Central Trail Marathon in Towson, Maryland. Race director David Cooley describes the course as being so exquisite, his description makes you want to sing some primal song of celebration.

“The Northern Central Trail Marathon is a beautiful race,” says Cooley. “The runners are thrilled with the whole concept of it. The course is run on a former railroad bed. It’s very historic—Lincoln’s train rode over it when he went to Gettysburg to give his address. The running surface is flat, hard-packed dirt, so it’s easy on the legs. And the scenery is absolutely incredible.”

The out-and-back marathon, which is held in Gunpowder Falls State Park (15 miles north of Baltimore) at the end of November is in no danger of growing into a larger event.

“The Maryland Department of Natural Resources limits the race to 300 runners,” says Cooley. “It is very rural and attracts very little spectator involvement.

AVENUE OF THE GIANTS

Rich Gilchrist, a veteran race director for the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, held in Weott, California, in early May has a similar no-frills philosophy when it comes to hosting races. A self-described traditionalist and advocate of clean amateur athletics, Gilchrist does not offer appearance money, travel assistance, free lodging, or prize money to top runners. He believes in competing for what he calls “the thrill of competition,” an interesting variation on the traditional thrill-of-victory maxim.

Gilchrist has hosted and directed the Avenue of the Giants Marathon for 25 years and lives by the old-school runners’ philosophy: run for the enjoyment and not for the bucks.

“Small marathons keep running pure,” says Gilchrist. “You’re supposed to learn something from a sport and not expect to be paid for doing it. Big races offer money and awards. Small marathons, like The Avenue, offer the satisfaction of running 26.2 miles.”

Gilchrist states that small marathons also offer a wide range of flexibility that larger events are unable to provide. “We can tolerate early starts,” notes Gilchrist. “And the volunteers can stay later, so we can handle walkers. We like to help the athletes in other ways, too. When they call and ask about the race, we help them find hotels, motels, and the best places to eat.” The first Avenue of the Giants Marathon, held in the early ’70s, had 35 participants. Today the race attracts over 400 runners.

Gilchrist describes the race as “an apocalyptic 26.2-mile run through the heart of redwood country.” The course, a double out-andback, takes runners through redwood forests, over gently rolling hills, around blithe, fern-shaded meadows, and beside a chattering river—so many landscapes, running Avenue is like crossing a whole uninhabited continent.

“It’s probably still the word of mouth that gets runners up here,” says Gilchrist. “One runner talking to another. They love the scenery. The Avenue would have probably become a large race because of its beauty, but the numbers are limited ee core because of the [California State]

park [restrictions].” “I wantrunning to stand on its own merits,” adds Gilchrist. “In a race like The Avenue, I think it does just that.”

The Avenue of the Giants Marathon takes runners through the heart of redwood country.

WINEGLASS MARATHON

What if you’re a runner who craves the peace and tranquillity of a small marathon, but can’tresist the amenities of a big race? What do you do? Mark Landin, race director for the Wineglass Marathon (see page 108 fora profile of the race), in Corning, New York, may have the answer.

“T call the race a large-town, small marathon,” says Landin. “The runners get a little more attention in a race like this.”

According to Landin, any runner—from the most laid-back guy with the mongrel ensemble of dorky T-shirt, ripped shorts, and dog-chewed shoes to the jaded, Lexus-driving, junk-bond trading, cell-phone-talking yuppie—would feel comfortable at the Wineglass Marathon.

“It’s not a crowded race,” says Landin. “There’s a lot of open area for running. And we offer all kinds of gifts and prizes. We have long-sleeve Tshirts, crystal trophies, commemorative glass medallions, finishers’ certificates, wine, champagne, and $4,500 in prize money.”

Wineglass, which finishes in the town of Corning (population 12,000) and attracts fewer than 800 runners (including relay team members), is now in its 16th year. .

“We also offer free lodging and race entry to elite runners [generally those with times under the current course record],” adds Landin, “and we try to keep our cost down. Our entry fee is only $25.”

Not all race directors agree that less is better, but they do agree on one important point: Small marathons offer an unparalleled opportunity to enjoy the adventure, the challenge, the beauty, and the solitude of an event. Inexpensively. And without crowds.Who needs big when you’ve got races that are big on intimate? Pe,

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