Best Frequent Marathoners 2012
This is an effort to identify those marathoners who a) run a lot of marathons, and b) run marathons fast. The emphasis is on being able to do both. There are some runners who can run a lot of marathons, and there are some runners who can run them much faster than the rest of us; I want to find those runners who can do both.
The metric I use for speed is the difference between a runner’s time and the median time for that sex. For example, if a man runs 2:57:50 in a marathon in which the median time for men is 3:58:08, then he receives a credit of 1:00:18. I add the credits a runner receives in each of his races to get a total credit, then I rank runners by total. (I have separate listings for men and women.) A runner who runs slower than median time receives zero credit (negative credit is not considered).
For example, here are the results for Robert Reese for 2012.
|
Marathon |
Hr. |
Min. |
Sec. |
In seconds |
Median seconds |
difference |
|
Dallas White Rock |
3 |
6 |
38 |
11198 |
16435.5 |
5237.5 |
|
Philadelphia |
2 |
57 |
50 |
10670 |
14288 |
3618 |
|
Marine Corps |
3 |
12 |
21 |
11541 |
16339 |
4798 |
|
ING Hartford |
3 |
10 |
7 |
11407 |
14333.5 |
2926.5 |
|
Maine |
3 |
17 |
3 |
11823 |
15014 |
3191 |
|
New Hampshire |
3 |
13 |
18 |
11598 |
15508.5 |
3910.5 |
|
Grandma’s |
3 |
16 |
10 |
11770 |
14922 |
3152 |
|
Vermont City |
2 |
52 |
45 |
10365 |
14514.5 |
4149.5 |
|
Big Sur |
3 |
2 |
20 |
10940 |
17698 |
6758 |
|
Gansett |
2 |
57 |
38 |
10658 |
12228 |
1570 |
|
First Light |
3 |
16 |
40 |
11800 |
16291 |
4491 |
|
Mississippi Blues |
2 |
59 |
37 |
10777 |
15931 |
5154 |
|
Youngling Shamrock |
2 |
59 |
22 |
10762 |
15386 |
4624 |
The total difference is 53,580 seconds, or 14:53:00 in hour:minute:second format.
I relied almost entirely on results listed at marathonguide.com. Their list is by no means complete, I think especially with respect to races in the western U.S. I did include some results from athlinks.com, but I am still missing results from many marathons. I have also included results not listed at national sites which were sent to me by runners. If anyone knows of a good source for sex-differentiated results for marathons not listed at marathonguide.com or athlinks.com, I would be delighted to hear about it.
There is absolutely no guarantee that these lists are complete. I checked hundreds of runners but each year there are thousands of runners who run multiple marathons. If you know of someone you suspect may qualify for this list, please let me know.
I included only those marathons held in the 50 states or the District of Columbia, and I included only marathons, not ultra marathons.
Here are 16 women who accumulated 11 hours or more of difference in 2012.
|
Name |
Number of Marathons |
Total Difference |
|
|
||
|
Traci Falbo |
22 |
27:40:44.5 |
|
Michelle Walker |
29 |
27:38:35.5 |
|
Nadia Ruiz |
19 |
25:08:01 |
|
Talva Parker |
15 |
18:19:29.5 |
|
Alicia Eno |
14 |
16:21:22 |
|
Hope Fox |
20 |
16:06:45 |
|
Mary Flaws |
14 |
14:39:12 |
|
Heather Zeigler |
19 |
13:48:38.5 |
|
Beth Woodward |
8 |
13:14:23.5 |
|
Bekki Manville |
14 |
12:45:11.5 |
|
Allison Lassoe |
21 |
12:01:06;5 |
|
Kim Gray |
11 |
11:58:22.5 |
|
Shannon Hays |
14 |
11:57:40.5 |
|
Julie Musselman |
12 |
11:52:59 |
|
Tammy Perez |
16 |
11:47:44 |
|
Leah Thorvilson |
8 |
11:11:05.5 |
|
|
|
|
And now here are 21 men who accumulated 12.5 or more hours of difference in 2012.
|
Name |
Number of Marathons |
Total Difference |
|
|
||
|
Gary Krugger |
40 |
58:23:31.5 |
|
Justin Gillette |
24 |
38:56:38.5 |
|
John Lui |
39 |
30:19:06.5 |
|
Vincent Ma |
70 |
26:06:59 |
|
Steven Lee |
26 |
24:35:02 |
|
Chuck Engle |
16 |
22:29:01.5 |
|
Tony Stafford |
20 |
22:18:36.5 |
|
Cade Remsburg |
25 |
22:01:04.5 |
|
Hideki Kinoshita |
32 |
21:26:39.5 |
|
Gregg Walchli |
16 |
17:48:55.5 |
|
David Holmen |
24 |
17:31:28 |
|
Tony Phillippi |
17 |
15:16:35 |
|
Brian Wright |
26 |
15:15:09 |
|
Robert Reese |
13 |
14:53:00 |
|
Karsten Brown |
12 |
14:38:59.5 |
|
John van Steenbergh |
10 |
14:05:49.5 |
|
Keith Schlottman |
15 |
13:54:08 |
|
John Piggott |
9 |
13:32:31 |
|
Michael Wardian |
9 |
12:59:43.5 |
|
Jack McDermott |
12 |
12:53:50.5 |
|
Thomas Tisell |
9 |
12:32:15 |
This is the fourth year I have done this. Here are links to the previous three compilations.