Wall Street Journal 4/6/12: Book Review: 14 Minutes. Alberto Salazar was the last in a troika of American male distance runners—along with Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers—who ruled the roads in the decade from 1972 to 1982. Mr. Salazar, who had been a high-school champion, won his debut marathon in New York in 1980 while attending the University of Oregon; the next year he broke the marathon world record. A year after that, he was done. Plagued by injuries and illness, Mr. Salazar would never recover his earlier form. The dreams of U.S. distance running died with him. Since that time, no American man has been ranked first in the marathon or won an Olympic gold medal in any distance event.