Five American Men in Top 10 at Boston Marathon 2006

Two Kenyans won first and second place at today's Boston Marathon, but Americans took the next 3 spots and 5 American men finished in the top 10. In last year's race, only two American men made it to the top 10. According to the Boston.com, no American man has won since Greg Meyer in 1983, and 12 times since then, there have been no Americans in the top 10.

Alan Culpepper came in fourth last year with a time of 2:13:39. This year he came in fifth, but his time improved to 2:11:02. According to his bio at usatf.org, Culpepper's PR is 2:09:41 set in 2002 at the Chicago Marathon

The top American man, Meb Keflezighi, finished today with 2:09:56. This was just 3 seconds from his PR (see bio).

Brian Sell was the second American man to finish with a time of 2:10:55. This blew away his PR of 2:13:18 (see bio).

Quick Stats

The average times for the top 10 male and female were much faster than the previous two years when the temperatures were much warmer. The averages seemed to improve more from last year than from 2005 compared to 2004. Going from 78°F in 2004 to 63°F in 2005, one would think the times would improve the most between these years. But there was more time difference going from 63°F in 2005 to 48°F today. Below is the full comparison:

2006 Top 10 Averages:
female : 2:27:19
male : 2:11:19
Temperature at 11:54am: 48°F

2005 Top 10 Averages:
female : 2:32:34
male : 2:14:39
Temperature at 11:54am: 63°F

2004 Top 10 Averages:
female : 2:30:20
male : 2:16:47
Temperature at 11:54am: 78°F