For a lot of these guys and gals their marathon times are just not amazing(still fast but no way near elite runners, and even In a lot of cases good quality club runners). Beth Pascall (4th at Western and the UTMB I think) has a 2:50ish marathon. It’s good but not Earth shattering. What sets them apart is their ability to maintain momentum, deal with the bad times, keep fuelling etc. It’s a mindset thing. I’d recommend Adharanand Finns podcast with Beth. It’s really interesting, as are all his podcasts.
Also it’s probably worth noting lots of these FKT ares set by amateurs because they have the ability to timetable it, whereas an elite runner must win big races to maintain contracts etc. If som of the elite Kenyans/Ethiopians moved into ultras I think we’d see a lot of these records go way down.
Edit: really well done John! Cracking effort and hope you enjoyed Northumberland again
Post edited at 22:21