I was curious as to how many American men have held the world record for the marathon in the past 100 years, so I did a little looking through the marathon records kept by the International Association of Athletics Federations and the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. There have been three U.S. men to hold the world record for the marathon in the past 100 years:
- 1925 - Albert Michelsen (2:29:01)
- 1963 - Leonard Edelen (2:14:28)
- 2002 - Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38)
Since 2003, Kenya and Ethiopia have been the two countries to have runners set the world record for the men's marathon. The country who has had runners that have achieved the marathon world record the most in the past 100 years is the United Kingdom (10 times).
In the past 100 years the men's marathon world record has lowered from 2:38:00 to 2:02:57 -- a drop of 35 minutes! How long will it be until a marathoner breaks the 2-hour mark for the 26.2-mile distance? It's hard to tell, but it's only 177 seconds away!
From Him, Through Him, For Him (Romans 11:36),
Paul J. Staso
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Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek
Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:
- United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
- Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
- Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
- Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
- The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
- Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
- Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
- Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
- Some Cycling Moments From The Past
