Americans have realistic chance in Boston Marathon

BOSTON - Like Red Sox fans of yore, American marathon hopefuls pour through Kenmore Square every April thinking this could be their year to win the Boston Marathon.

For the past 26 years, top contenders from Bob Kempainen to Alan Culpepper have lined up in Hopkinton, Mass. on Patriots Day, hoping to claim the most prestigious prize in road running. Deena Kastor, Marla Runyon and Kara Goucher have tried to end a drought for the American women that has reached 24 years, but they, too, always wound up chasing Kenyans or Ethiopians or Russians into the Back Bay.

Not since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach's victory in 1985 has "The Star-Spangled Banner" played in Copley Square to celebrate a U.S. victory in the world's oldest marathon.

But with New York City Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi and fellow Californian Ryan Hall in the field for the 114th edition tomorrow (Elite Women's division starts at 9:32 a.m., Elite Men at 10 a.m.), the Americans think this could be their chance to win in Boston.

"We're not dreaming any more. There's a realistic chance of having a male American winner here," Mary Wittenberg, director of the New York race, said. "We've seen since Meb's win that American athletes are standing taller. Once one person crashes through, it makes all the difference."

Americans won often in the early days of the Boston Marathon - someone from the U.S. or Canada won all but two of the first 50 races, including four for Bill Rodgers from 1975-1980. When Greg Meyer crossed the line first in 1983, it was the seventh U.S. men's victory in nine years and the 43rd overall. But there hasn't been an American winner since.

"We thought it would keep going on . . . I thought I'd do it again," Meyer said. "But for American marathoners, that was the high-water mark." Meyer would like nothing more than to lose the distinction of being the "last American man to win in Boston." He is in Boston to support Hall, Keflezighi and other U.S. runners.

Keflezighi has shown he knows how to win with his New York victory, Meyer said, and Hall (third here last year in his Boston debut) is more experience and might be better prepared for tactics necessary to outlast the field on the grueling 26.2-mile course.

"It really takes one effort in Boston to know what you're doing on that course," Meyer said. "You look at Ryan Hall and he's the new Bill Rodgers. But he needs to learn the tactics. The Americans have been missing that element."