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Lead Stories: Friday, November 21, 2008

A comparison of performances by American marathoners: 1980 vs. 2005

Posted April 21st, 2007 at 3:29 PM by Jim Fortner

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TheFinalSprint.com. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.

In 1999 I posted two essays titled “The Decline of American Marathoners” & “Why Have They Declined?” on Runner’s World and Merv Competitive forums, which I subsequently updated in 2001.

They generated extensive discussions concerning the deterioration in performance of American marathoners throughout the 1990’s, as compared to the 1970-80’s.

The decline at the elite level was well documented by official records. Not only were U.S. elites no longer competitive on the international racing scene, but they could not even match the performances of their predecessors a decade or two earlier.
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Lessons From the Past . . .

Posted October 27th, 2006 at 12:00 PM by Jim Fortner

Section: Running & Training

Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TFS. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going through a cabinet where I store books that I have owned for as long as 35 years. I have the complete works of two of my favorite authors, Hemingway and Faulkner, that I read 25-30 years ago and have decided to reread this summer.

While selecting the volume with which I will start….Hemingway’s, “The Sun Also Rises”….I came upon the first book about running that I bought when I started running 20 years ago. It’s the first edition of Runner’s World’s “The Complete Runner” which was published in 1973. I had forgotten that I have it.

The content of it is quite different than that of the latest (1997) edition. Some of the articles are reprints that had previously appeared in RW’s magazine. Others were written specifically for the book. Most are as valid today as when they were written. A few are a bit archaic, however. Read the rest of this entry »

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