BLOOPERLAND

The choice of jersey had not been entirely Meb Keflezighi’s, but in one triumphant surge in Central Park on Sunday, he became the perfect person to be wearing a U.S.A. shirt at the New York City Marathon. He was one of several Americans striving to break the 27-year men’s drought in the race, but he represented the American dream more than any of them.

A child immigrant from war-torn Eritrea, and one of 11 siblings in a village with no electricity, Keflezighi traveled an arduous journey to the finish line here and carried decades of American hopes with him.