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By Laura Pappano

Lately, major marathons have become a showcase for record-breaking male performances and today’s New York City Marathon was no exception: Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai finished in 2:05:05, setting a new course record (all three top male finishers broke the record).

So much men’s record-breaking has been going on, in fact, that American marathoner Meb Keflezighi predicted that a two-hour marathon was not only possible, but “hopefully we can see it soon.”

This is not happening on the women’s side. But something else IS happening: We have more top women runners, more contenders, more speedy women clustered at the top of marathon finishes. Consider New York.

While Ethiopian Firehiwot Dado won New York with a 2:23:15, New Yorker Buzenesh Deba was just four seconds behind — and the top 10 female finishers were within 5:48 of Dado. Last year, the top 10 women were within 1:35 of one another.

Obviously, each year’s particular field changes, but if we go back a decade – to 2001 – top finisher Margaret Okayo’s time of 2:24:21 was 7:22 ahead of #10.

In 1991, the difference between Liz McColgan’s 2:26:32 and #10 was 14:34.

In 1981, Allison Roe’s winning time, 2:25:29 was 17:21 ahead of 10th place.

In 1971, we didn’t even have 10 top women, but let’s just say that the gap between #1 Beth Bonner at 2:55:22 and #4 was, well, nearly two hours.

This, believe it or not, is progress. In the decade marks between 1981 and 2011, the top female finisher’s time improved by just 2:14, but the spread between #1 and #10 over that time improved by a stunning 11:33.

Yes, we need to be faster, to break records – and we can. But to have so many top women in contention is surely a start.

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• Marathon
• Running
• Sports
• SportsPLUS
• Sexism

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There are 2 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

BBrothers says:

It's pretty interesting how Ms. Pappano has consistently advocated for men and women competing directly against each other but when faced with the reality of something like the spread between world class men and women marathoners continuing to become greater she wants to talk about how women are improving vs women. Not the most logical argument. Maybe she should make up her mind or be less vocal and continue to focus on the performance at the all women organizations she is associated with.

Monday, November 7, 2011 at 1:48pm EST

Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi says:

Good "by the numbers" analysis!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 5:31pm EST

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