I heard recently that the strength in depth of British distance running (Mrs Radcliffe aside) has dropped dramatically. I was told that in the very early days of the London Marathon over 100 British male runners finished in under 2.20, in 2002 this had dropped to 4. Indeed in my local races the vets seem to claim a disproportianate share of the top placings (congrats of course).
Yet every year we hear of record entries into London and the Great North run. Is running enjoying a renewed boom? Or are we seeing a shift away from elite competition and towards "trendy" races with loads of c-list celebrities and a "lets get on the TV and brag at work" attitude.
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From 800m up, from club level to elite level the standard is nowhere near what it was 20 years ago.
The reasons are many...
Also, the media are partly to blame. They print page upon page about the game in the national press every day, but athletics gets very little press coverage.
Athletics is often seen as elitest and unsexy. It's the job of every single runner to try to do their best to change this misconception.
Even amongst older runners, training hard isn't very popular, nor is serious competition - most runners seem to be content with recreational racing, rather than seriously trying to win or place in their age group.