What got my attention, other than the location, was how fast the times were across the board. The winner ran 49:35, 87 runners went sub-60, the first 222 went under 65, 434 went under 70, and the median runner (1200 out of 2400) ran 82 minutes and change!
Dungarvan, the town where the race was held, has a population of about 10,000 people, by the way.
Kind of crazy to see the depth and competition of Irish racing compared to road racing here. With the possible exception of the Bolder Boulder, which has at least 20 times as many runners overall, I’m fairly certain there is no road race with anything resembling that kind of depth in Colorado. And if you really compare apples to apples, as in percentile finishers up and down the field, I’m fairly certain no race in Colorado comes anything close.
To cherry-pick one example, there was a 10-mile that happened in Denver a week ago called the Frosty's Frozen Five & Ten. 243 people finished the race.
The winner ran 54 minutes and change, 3 runners ran sub 60, 10 ran sub 65 22 ran sub 70, and the median runner, (122 out of 243) ran 93 minutes.
Not to criticize any individual competitor, but as a whole, this is just so much less competitive than the race in Ireland. And it’s not just this race; I honestly don’t know of any race in the US that would feature such robust depth from the 99th-percentile on down the line as was run in that race in Ireland. Maybe the Carlsbad 5000 or something, but that’s an internationally-renown event. I think the John Treacy Dungarvan 10-mile is just a local race.
Not sure what phenomena are leading to the complete divergence in road racing standards here vs. there, but it definitely seems like a thing.
The one thing that does seem obviously different to me is the club system. Clearly, over there, local clubs are training runners and competing against each other in road races and in XC. That ain’t happening here. We're a bunch of lone wolves.
Anything else I’m missing? Is this just Irish genetic superiority or something more complex?
Look at some of the Japanese races if you want to really see the culture difference. THey will have half marathons with hundreds of guys under 70.
ReplyDeleteLots of reasons this could be but the American hey day of road racing at this depth was in 83-84. While we are competitive at the pointy end of the stick, we just don't have that breadth in the bigger road races like Ireland or Japan.
I have wondered how our HS or NCAA programs stack up against those countries but I have never had the itch to really research it.
A couple of years ago, I remember looking at an old youtube clip of the Cascade Run-Off 15k, and at one point they panned out on the field and it looked like a thousand people were running within a few minutes of the leaders, who were running like 43 minutes. The hay-day of US road racing is in the past, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI think our college programs might still be the world's best, though. At least in the English speaking world many if not most of the best athletes come here. Perhaps the four best Irish runners ever ran at Villanova (Ron Delany (1500 gold medalist), Marcus O'Sullivan, Eamonn Coughlan, and Sonia O'Sullivan). And probably the best of the last decade, Ciaran O'Lionaird, ran at Florida State. Same for Aussies and Kiwis (see this year's DI XC winner, Willis, Aish, etc.)
There's some emphasis on U-18 and U-23 competitions, but I don't think high school or inter-collegiate athletics is as big of a thing elsewhere.
Overall, the US running scene is about finishing, not competing. In your typical office, a 58 minute half marathon would be viewed as half as good as someone running a seven hour Rock and Roll marathon.
ReplyDeleteWhat blows my mind is the lack of competitive men's marathoning. The USA is basically Rupp, a few (like two or three) 2:12 dudes and a bunch of 2:14 dudes. 2:12 isn't even considered elite nowadays.
I think one of the things that's weird to me is how few college runners follow through as pros or semi-pros or even weekend duffers. I mean a 34 minute 10k is about fast enough to get you dead last at DIII national XC, but yet it would make you a superstar on the roads these days. Yet few stick with it.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I ran ustaf XC club nats, the top 100 guys broke 31. You’ll never hear of 98 of those guys two years after that
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