Top 1000 running times of the St. George Marathon!

[Adam R Wende]

Looking forward to seeing the posting. It would be nice if the race directors took advantage of your work. I would not suspect that it would require much server space to include all the results much less your interesting analysis...

[jtshad]

Pretty cool stats, man do you have some time on your hands! 

[Mike Schramm]

Well, jtshad, do i have time on my hands?  ......well, not really.  But, what I do have is a belief that the St. George marathon is really one of the best marathons in the US, and, now that it is on its 34th year, is starting to have some historical perspective.  I wonder if there is any recorded race recaps from prior years, probably not, except in brief articles in the local paper.
I decided to look at the results from different angles, and found some interesting stats that I decided to share.
I am also very close to finishing the top 50.  I have the top 30 done, and am trying to strip away another 15 runners of the 35 I still have ranked to come to 50.  Soon to come....

Another interesting fact.......Here are the fastest times for each place in the race on the Mens side.  For example, the "fastest" 6th place time in the history of the St. George marathon is Brian Larson, who finished 6th place in 1987 in 2.19.30, no one that ever finished in 6th place in the St. George marathon had a quicker time than his that year.

Here are the rest.
Of course 1st place is a tie between Criss James ('87) and Paul Cummings ('81) in 2.15.16.
2nd  David Peterson ('91) in 2.17.13.
3rd  Brian Larson   ('91)  in 2.17.19
4th  Fernando Vazquez  ('87) in 2.18.56
5th  Chris Schallert ('87) in 2.19.08
6th  Brian Larson ('87) in 2.19.30
7th  Stan Holman ('95) in 2.19.54
8th  Christopher Morlan ('95) in 2.20.40
9th  Matt Messner ('95) in 2.20.59
10th  Phil Olsen ('95) in 2.21.33
11th  Travis Grappo ('95) in 2.21.54
12th  Ken O'Brien   ('95) in 2.22.00
13th  Gordon Hyde ('95) in 2.22.27
14th  Gus Hermes  ('95) in 2.22.39
15th  Eric Peters  ('95) in 2.23.35
16th  Taha Mahmood  ('95) in 2.23.55
17th  Paul Okerberg  ('95) in 2.23.59
18th  Michael Cahill  ('95) in 2.24.28
19th  David Ronco  ('95) in 2.24.50
20th Deron Scott  ('95) in 2.25.22

[Tom]

Interesting list. So what was up with all the fast times in 1995? More than 1/2 the list came from that year.

Well, jtshad, do i have time on my hands?  ......well, not really.  But, what I do have is a belief that the St. George marathon is really one of the best marathons in the US, and, now that it is on its 34th year, is starting to have some historical perspective.  I wonder if there is any recorded race recaps from prior years, probably not, except in brief articles in the local paper.
I decided to look at the results from different angles, and found some interesting stats that I decided to share.
I am also very close to finishing the top 50.  I have the top 30 done, and am trying to strip away another 15 runners of the 35 I still have ranked to come to 50.  Soon to come....

Another interesting fact.......Here are the fastest times for each place in the race on the Mens side.  For example, the "fastest" 6th place time in the history of the St. George marathon is Brian Larson, who finished 6th place in 1987 in 2.19.30, no one that ever finished in 6th place in the St. George marathon had a quicker time than his that year.

Here are the rest.
Of course 1st place is a tie between Criss James ('87) and Paul Cummings ('81) in 2.15.16.
2nd  David Peterson ('91) in 2.17.13.
3rd  Brian Larson   ('91)  in 2.17.19
4th  Fernando Vazquez  ('87) in 2.18.56
5th  Chris Schallert ('87) in 2.19.08
6th  Brian Larson ('87) in 2.19.30
7th  Stan Holman ('95) in 2.19.54
8th  Christopher Morlan ('95) in 2.20.40
9th  Matt Messner ('95) in 2.20.59
10th  Phil Olsen ('95) in 2.21.33
11th  Travis Grappo ('95) in 2.21.54
12th  Ken O'Brien   ('95) in 2.22.00
13th  Gordon Hyde ('95) in 2.22.27
14th  Gus Hermes  ('95) in 2.22.39
15th  Eric Peters  ('95) in 2.23.35
16th  Taha Mahmood  ('95) in 2.23.55
17th  Paul Okerberg  ('95) in 2.23.59
18th  Michael Cahill  ('95) in 2.24.28
19th  David Ronco  ('95) in 2.24.50
20th Deron Scott  ('95) in 2.25.22

[Paul Petersen]

Something was obviously in the water in '95. Well, either that, or it was the final race before the '96 Olympic Trials window closed.

[Mike Schramm]

The 95 race was my first marathon.  I remember it being very cold at the start, I have run 11 St. George marathons, and this was the coldest, so that had to help running conditions.  Also, the 96 Olympic trials brought out some great runners.  Additionally, Runners World had an article before the marathon documenting how fast St. George was, the main intention was to qualify for #100 Boston, but it also resulted in Trials competitors putting the marathon in St. George on their radar screen.

How about this new stat.....

Winning Time difference as compared to 2nd place.
For the 33 marathons, on the mens side, the average time difference between 1st place and 2nd place is 2 mins 33 secs.   That difference has come down each decade, with the 70's the biggest difference, the average was 4 mins 27 secs, the 80's, 2m29secs, the 90's 2m24 secs, and the 00's, 2m13secs.  There has only been SIX marathons that had a time difference between #1 and #2 under 60 secs.  The closest race was in 2003, when Trevor Pettingill beat Ken Pliska by a mere 13 seconds.   The largest difference was 1977, when Steve Naylor beat Tom Hensley by 9 mins and 3 secs.

On the womens side, the average time difference between 1st place and 2nd place is much larger, 4 mins 21 secs.   That difference has drastically come down each decade, with the 70's the biggest difference, the average was 15 mins 51 secs, the 80's, 4m33secs, the 90's 2m 2 secs, and the 00's, 3m 1sec.  There has only been SEVEN marathons that had a time difference between #1 and #2 under 60 secs, although all seven have been since 1996, so in the last 14 marathons, 7 under and 7 over 60 secs.  The closest race was in 2002, when 3 time winner, Kayoko Nomura beat Karen Steen by only 4 seconds.   The largest difference was 1978, when Jane Wipf beat the runnerup by 19 mins and 24 secs.

[Superfly]

That 95' race looks like one for the record books. Pretty loaded. I thought my 2007 2:25 and 13th place was bad.
Again Great work Mike. This is fun for us STG guys to see.

[Mike Schramm]

Hey Clyde

It has been entertaining to look at this race from a different perspective.  You made a comment about it being fun for the STG guys, but as i have looked at these results, the race has been dominated by No. Utah runners.

I now have what I think are the 50 greatest male runners in the history of the St. George Marathon.  I let the city marathon staff know, to see if they have interest, if not, i will start to post the listing.  Interestingly, from the top 50, 32 are from Utah, 6 from California, 2 from Massachusetts and Oregon, and then 1 each from Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Minnesota, Washington, Colorado, and then one from Japan.  With the 32 from Utah, I don't believe any of them are anywhere near So. Utah, 13 are from Salt Lake City, 7 from Provo/Orem, and then the rest of the cities appear to be around the SLC/Provo area.
Mike

[Mike Schramm]

Ok, starting tomorrow, I will post the top 50 Male Performers in the St. George marathon.  I will list 5 per day and detail some of the stats that made their involvement in the race impressive.
The listing is loosely based on the following:

1.  Speed - based on rank in the top 1000.
2.  Performance - How many times they finished in the top 10 of the race, and top 5 of the Masters race for each particular year.
3.  Longevity -  The more years that they did well, the increase in their "resume" which will influence the ranking.

Now remember, when the rankings come out, I am not insinuating that a runner ranked ahead of another means that they are a better runner, I am basing it on the overall performance in the St. George Marathon through the years.   If it is was just to be based on talent which is based on speed, the ranking is easy, #1 is whoever ran the marathon the fastest (2:15:16 tie between Criss James and Paul Cummings).  This list will be about the 3 items listed above.
Mike

[Sasha Pachev]

Mike - would like to host that list on the Fast Running Blog. E-mail it to me to sasha at asksasha dot com. Or if you want I can give you a directory that you can update from time to time on the Fast Running Blog. We can call it Mike's corner or something.

[Mike Schramm]

Ok, I will write you an email.
thanks

[Adam R Wende]

When it is up and running, put a comment in this thread so we get notification.
Thank you.

[Mike Schramm]

Yesterday I met with the St. George Marathon race director Kent Perkins, and he was very interested in the info that I have, so he will be utilizing it in some manner.