We've got a couple of those threads going on our forum again—the decline in American running. How bad off is running in America? A housemate of mine turns 50 this August and he's trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon. He thinks the talent is that weak. Really.

But it's not as bad as all that. Greg Hitchcock wrote a couple of years ago that American running will come back. It's all a matter of birth rates. You can read about it here. Do you want a little evidence? In Southern California we have a high school track meet called the Arcadia Invitational. Here were the top 15 places in the boys 3200 meters a couple of months ago:

1. Solinsky, Chris 8:43.24
2. Vaughn, Brent 8:45.60
3. Moe, Carl 8:48.04
4. Curtis, Bobby 8:48.39
5. Debole, Matt 8:50.16
6. Hassen, Steven 8:52.75
7. Ruiz, Manuel 8:55.80
8. Trafeh, Mohamed 8:55.87
9. Kollar, Christopher 8:56.35
10. Nelson, Tim 8:58.89
11. Alizzi, Mark 8:59.63
12. Dalpiaz, Brian 9:01.20
13. Romero, Alex 9:02.77
14. Hampton, Charles 9:04.62
15. Burrell, Ian 9:04.78

Yes, this is a big race, and many of these kids flew in from other states. But in my 30 years of high school running—4 years living it, 26 years reliving it—I don't believe I've ever witnessed any race where 9:04 netted you 15th place.

What's my point? I don't think you'll find the problem in high school, or at any age level prior to that. It seems to me that in spite of unwed mothers, video games, fast food, teen sex and drugs, falling after-school sports budgets, Title-9, lack of work ethic in this current generation, and the deline of American morality (not least by those who write of "the decline"), high schoolers and their coaches and parents have conspired to produce impressive speed and depth in the distances.

So, unless Arcadia High School, along a few select institutions, have surreptitiously conspired to shorten their tracks to 390 meters, what's the explanation? And what happens to these kids when they graduate?

One thing that happens is that they continue to run fast. Courtesy of David Monti's Race Results Weekly, I picked one random weekend (first weekend in June) and noticed that the equivalent of a sub-4 minute mile was achieved by Americans 15 times over that Saturday and Sunday, mostly by college students. These times are for 1500M, add roughly 18 seconds for the mile equivalent:

Jason Lunn NIKE 3:37.59
David Krummenacker ADIDAS 3:37.83
Jesse Strutzel NIKE 3:39.94
Michael Stember NIKE 3:41.41
Dan Wilson ASICS 3:41.81
Matt Gonzales New Mexico 3:42.83
Martin Robeck Minnesota 3:42.88
Tom Parlapiano Villanova 3:42.93
Brendon Mahoney Georgia Tech 3:43.30
James Bowler Nebraska 3:43.36
Ibrahim Aden NIKE 3:43.96
Sean O'Brian American 3:43.41
Chris Lukezic Georgetown 3:43.59
Brent Wilberts Drake 3:43.61
Jorge Torres Colorado 3:43.80

The only problem, of course, is that here is what happened the same weekend in one Dutch race, for the mile:

1. James Kwalia KEN 3:50.39
2. Gert-Jan Liefers NED 3:51.39
3. Anis Selmouni MAR 3:52.66
4. Benjamin Kipkurui KEN 3:52.89
5. Hillary Chenonge KEN 3:53.29
6. Michael Too KEN 3:53.69
7. Vyacheslav Shabunin RUS 3:53.74
8. Graham Davidson RSA 3:53.86
9. John Mayock GBR 3:54.93

And it's a bigger problem when the really good guys step up, like Daniel Komen and Hicham El Gerrouj.

I don't think it's an issue of money, per se. When you consider how America has been getting its fastest marathoners over the past fifteen years the answer is simple: immigration. Our best male marathoner is former North African Khalid Khannouchi, and before him it was former South African Mark Platjees. Did they have a wealthy upbringing? I don't think so. My guess is that the myriad of Kenyans and other East Africans, East Europeans, and North Africans are likewise not of the upper crust. What do they have that we Americans don't have? Enclaves.

I've been privilaged to have been a part of two enclaves in two sports. When I was a 15-year old in between my sophomore and junior years my mother married a fella who lived in South Lake Tahoe, and up we moved from Huntington Beach, California. I was crestfallen to leave my "enclave" of runners from South Orange County. But when I arrived in the "running wasteland" of South Lake Tahoe I couldn't believe my eyes. At the local grocer, in the sporting goods store, and especially at the local Summer all-comers meets, I saw in the flesh all my stars I'd been reading about in Track & Field News: Tracy Smith, Chuck LaBenz, Tom Von Ruden, Alvaro Mejia, Victor Mora, John Halberstadt. I had plopped into a real enclave.

I saw the triathlon version of that in San Diego in the 1980s.

I don't think it's so different in sports than in other ventures. Whether its Big Auto in Detroit, biotech in North Carolina and San Diego, golf in North San Diego, or high tech in Silicon Valley, having all those companies in one place makes them all better. Yes, they are eventually competitors, but they're also strategic allies. They challenge each other. They raise the bar. And if you're part of it you see it all up close. You're sucked in. You can't help but be brought along.

Paula Newby-Fraser and Donna Phelan were up training with us this past weekend, and we were talking about this. Yes, there's Boulder (for both triathlon and running) and Albuquerque for running, and so forth. But it's just not like it used to be. Even where there is an enclave, there just isn't the same sort of energy. A lot of people tend to do their own things. They don't realize the strategic benefit of working together.

Largely this is because there isn't the comeradery anymore. There isn't the we're-all-in-this-together atmosphere. Many Americans have forgotten this important element that the rest of the world seems to understand. Personally, in my own investigations, I haven't found any reason to think that Col Stewart, Brett Sutton and Lance Watson have any specific knowledge or insight that sets them apart as coaches. But they all have this one thing: enclaves. I don't think it's the coaching that makes their athletes succeed, I think it's the environment in which their athletes live and train.

In fact, I think the modern element of "coaching" can be part of the problem. What does it matter when all these triathletes live in Boulder or San Diego, if their coaches have them all doing different workouts? Only the wise (and few) coaches among them realize the benefit of having their athletes train together with others, even when the "others" are doing workouts not on the coach's schedule.

Why aren't American women runners and triathletes suffering as much as American men? Because they are in enclaves. What we do have in America are a lot of mid-level pro, and top-level age-group, males. They make up the enclave that a top woman pro seems to need. But the best men need the challenge of a lot of other world class men in close proximity. This is the case in triathlon, or in any of its three constituent individual sports.

It seems to me that none of the national federations—any of them—understand the urgency of this. They seem to want to make their own enclaves happen instead of helping those which seem to want to naturally emerge. I doubt you'll see a national federation funding an enclave that exists anywhere outside of Colorado Springs or perhaps Otay Mesa (the other national training center).

So how will it happen? I don't know. But until and unless it does, world class American male running will suffer and, to a certain degree, world class American male triathlon will suffer as well. To USAT's credit, its two top-10 finishers in last week's Gamagori World Cup were from its NGB "enclave" in Colorado Springs. But I fear these athletes might not raise themselves much beyond the level of their own constituent abilities.

As for American marathoners, if I was head of USA Track & Field I don't think I'd pay Americans any more in stipends than I do now. I guess I'd take a poll and see where the fastest current Americans live. Then I'd contact all foreign marathoners running under 2:09 and pay their room and board to move to wherever that is.