Five of the nine fastest New York City Marathon times by American men were recorded in the 1980s or before. The other four belong to Meb Keflezighi

How did American men perform so well 30 to 40 years ago? Although the five-borough course has been altered a few times since it was first run in 1976, the changes aren’t significant enough to explain the difference. We asked Bill Rodgers Alberto Salazar , and Ken Martin for their thoughts. All three ran strong, fast New York City Marathons several decades ago. (See the chart at bottom for the top 10 American performances in New York.)

Bill Rodgers won the New York City Marathon four times, with a best performance (2:10:10 in 1976) less than a minute slower than his PR, 2:09:27.

The psychology: In 1976, I had a foot injury at the Montreal Olympics [where he finished 40th]. The race crushed me. I remember afterward, sitting in the dark alone, and seeing the Olympic screen light up with “See you in Moscow in four years.” I thought, “That’s a long, long ways off.”

I needed something sooner. New York was it. I was absolutely fired up for a comeback race. It was such a big, spectacular new event, with that incredible start on the Verrazano Narrows bridge. I was wired as hell.

The course: I liked the undulating course. I was always leery of the flat courses. I found them boring. I liked courses that demanded my attention every step of the way.

Hometown advantage: I always ran well at Boston and New York City, because I grew up in Hartford, about midway between them. I had more drive and spirit in Boston and New York. They were like my home courses. They gave me an extra motivational push.

Alberto Salazar ran and won the New York City Marathon three times: 1980, 1981, and 1982. His best time at New York, 2:08:13 in 1981, was 39 seconds faster than his best at Boston, 2:08:52 in 1982. (Salazar’s 1981 time was initially considered the world record, but the course was subsequently found to be roughly 150 yards short, which translates to about 25 seconds slower.)

The course: It’s hard to get a good tempo going for a long time in New York. One mile you run a 4:45 and the next a 5:10, but the effort is the same. There’s always a bridge, a little hill, the variations in the road surface. Mentally and physically, there are so many variables running through your mind. I was a good cross-country runner, so it didn’t bother me that much.

The lack of pacers: These days, without the kinds of pacers they have in Berlin and London, it’s hard to run fast times in New York. With pacers, you might have 2:06s. Without them, you get 2:08 or slower. No one’s willing to take the lead, and push the pace. Things change too quick. You feel good one moment, but know the next mile might turn bad. You’re thinking about that, and it seems too risky to lead.

Then and now: Maybe we weren’t that fast back in the old days. We would run New York in more or less the same time as other marathons. Whereas now, the times are much faster at other marathons—the 2:03s and 2:04s. If you analyze the race theoretically or physiologically, it doesn’t look that hard. The hills aren’t big, steep challenges. But things keep changing. You can get too jacked up and go too fast on First Avenue. Then you pay in Central Park. By the end, your body is really beaten up.

Ken Martin finished second in the 1989 NYC Marathon with a lifetime best of 2:09:38. He ran a number of other competitive (but slower for him) marathons on courses that included Boston, Chicago, Berlin, and Cal International, where he recorded a 2:11:24.

A long taper: I look at the online training logs of some of today’s best Americans, and I feel like they’re doing too much, too close to the marathon. The last three weeks, I ran 70 miles, 50 miles, and 30 miles. By race day, I had fresh legs. I was chomping at the bit. I was ready to go.

Consistent training: I also wasn’t trying to do more in training all the time. I didn’t necessarily try to increase my mileage every year. Instead I followed a similar training plan year by year, and let my body get stronger. I wasn’t aiming to go longer and faster. I never did more than three times a mile, and a 20-minute tempo run was enough. I wasn’t constantly trying to ratchet things up. All that does is, eventually it whips you.

The competition: I was never going for a certain time in marathons. I was running against the other guys, running to win. In New York in 1989, we had some miles in the 4:30s on the flats in Brooklyn, and I matched them. We were in the 1:03:40s at halfway. It was impossible to keep that going with the hills in Central Park at the end, but the other guys died worse than I did. That’s how I got second. [Juma Ikangaa won in a then-course record of 2:08:01.]

The table below shows the 10 best American times on the five-borough New York City Marathon course. As noted above, the course has undergone slight changes over the decades, and Salazar’s 1981 time was on a course that was estimated to be about 25 seconds short at Salazar’s pace.

Time Runner Year 2:08:13 Alberto Salazar 1981 2:09:13 Meb Keflezighi 2011 2:09:15 Meb Keflezighi 2009 2:09:29 Alberto Salazar 1982 2:09:38 Ken Martin 1989 2:09:41 Alberto Salazar 1980 2:09:53 Meb Keflezighi 2004 2:09:56 Meb Keflezighi 2005 2:10:10 Bill Rodgers 1976 2:10:36 Ryan Hall 2009

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