A few months back – just before the winter-that-never-showed-up settled in – the usual large group of us where huddled over our mugs of coffee at the local designer coffee shop, rewriting the history of that Sunday morning’s 25-kilometre jaunt through the streets of Mississauga, Ont.

Whitlock the Younger – fruit of the loins of Ed, the world’s fastest 70+ year-old marathoner – pulled it out: a copy of the race results from the 1981 Ottawa marathon.

As most people who dabble in long-distance running do, we pored over those numbers. Well over 3,000 people ran that race, including Whitlock the Younger and Whitlock the Elder – both finishing comfortably in under three hours.

Last year, about the same number showed up for the Ottawa marathon – now the Canadian Marathon Championship. Ninety-two of them managed to break three hours. Twenty-four years earlier, more than 600 broke three hours. A little better than one in six. The Whitlocks – speedy as they were that year – were well off the pace.

Canadian marathons are attracting a lot more participants than they used to. Registration for Mississauga’s marathon – and related races – is up more than 250 per cent from last year. Organizers are hoping that within five years, they can attract 12,000 people to the mid-May event and become the country’s largest marathon. But with a top prize of $1,000, you won’t see the cream of the marathoning crop.

Canada may be in the grips of a running boom but we aren't getting any quicker.

Not since Jerome Drayton in the mid-1970s has there been a Canadian man who had a chance of winning a major marathon. Drayton was the last Canadian man to win Boston – in 1977. Two years earlier, he ran 2:10:08 – a mark that still stands as the Canadian record.

Canadian women haven’t fared much better. Not since Jacqueline Gareau took Boston in 1980.

Nicole Stevenson set a personal best of 2:32:56 in January when she finished second in the Houston Marathon. That’s almost two minutes quicker than Gareau’s winning time in Boston but four minutes shy of what the Canadian Olympic Committee demanded for female marathoners for a trip to the 2004 Athens games.

Yeah, I’ve got a theory. It’s the same as why there are so few really good catchers in major league baseball – it bangs up the body too much. If you’re looking to make a living at the distance, there aren’t enough big paydays to make it worth your while.

Canada’s most serious threat may be Congo native Danny Kassap – except that the federal government has turned down his application for refugee status twice. His 2:14:51 in 2004 stands as the best time by a wannabe-Canadian since Canada’s last Olympic marathoner, Bruce Deacon, ran 2:13:18 in 2002. He was less than one second per kilometre off the pace to meet the COC’s Athens qualifying standard.

And I bet you've never heard of Danny Kassap, never heard him speak, never seen him on television.

Which brings to mind a commercial on American TV a week or so ago that surprised me. This guy – dressed in running gear – walks out of a movie theatre with a bucket of popcorn and a large drink. Announcer came on and said something like, “It’s nice to know you can catch a matinee and still be ahead of the pack.”

Oh yeah, I thought. That’s Meb Keflezighi, silver medallist in the marathon at Athens. The first American since 1976 to win an Olympic medal in the sport.

Catch a commercial featuring a Canadian athlete and you’re likely to see Wayne Gretzky selling just about anything, Steve Nash promoting computers or Haley Wickenheiser hawking something you mix with ground meat.

Here’s hoping a Canadian marathoner – either from the current crop like Nicole Stevenson and Lioudmila Kortchguina, or a newcomer – will come to the forefront, like Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes did at Torino.

Don’t know about you, but my eyes were glued to the TV screen that last Saturday of the Winter Olympics. Which isn’t a good thing when you’re trying to nail down quarter-round along the family room walls. My black toenails now have some fingernails with which they can share war stories.

But absorbing the performances of Klassen and Hughes was worth the damage. The image of Hughes sprawled on the ice, body heaving, with absolutely nothing left after her gold-medal performance in the 5,000-metre race moistened even my cynical eyes. And Klassen’s five medals? Well, they speak for themselves.

Here's hoping that those amazing displays of athleticism and grit inspire a new generation of Canadians – runners this time, not skaters -- to say "it's worth it." It's worth enduring blackened toenails, pulled muscles, stress fractures and numbing cold and smothering heat to be able to claim that you're No. 1.

Not just to finish the race, as the burgeoning thousands do every year in Ottawa and Mississauga, but maybe even to win it.