Run to Win

This weekend saw a lot of great racing, with at least 10 runners below 2 hours and 7 minutes in races around the world. Six of them were in Paris alone!

Most impressive, of course, is Duncan Kibet and James Kwambai’s 2:04:27 marathon in Rotterdam, where Kibet just edged Kwambai as both ran a time faster than everything other than the past 2 world records, both set by Haile Gebrselassie over the past year or so (2:04:26 and 2:03:59.)

The finish, with tens of thousands of spectators packed into the city’s Coolsingel center district, was a thriller for the final 500 metres. Kwambai who ran a strong and impressive race was the first to enter the broad central Rotterdam thoroughfare.

He was several metres ahead of his compatriot, the Kalenjin tribesman Kibet, who came back in the last few hundred metres, fell back only to come back again to finally edge Kwambai at the finishline to become Kenya’s new national record holder, surpassing former World record holder Paul Tergat. The distance between the two was nearly not visible.

I would have loved to have seen that race live; it must have been a real treat for the spectators at the finish line. You’ll also note in the photo above that Duncan Kibet is doing his best impression of Shiva (pictured left in a bronze statue from the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

There were 4 people in Rotterdam under 2:07, a race which has produced 3 world records in less than 30 years.

(More Info: IAAF – Runner’s World – Photos: Rotterdam Marathon (Kibet) – Wikipedia (Shiva))

The 10^th annual TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10k was this morning in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. As always, it was a closely contested race that is great for spectating. While the temperature was not very high during the race, it was quite humid. Unlike last year, the fog never burned off so that combined with a low tide caused the race to not quite lead up to it’s reputation as one of the more scenic New England races.

Leading the way was Ed Muge of Kenya, who had to battle it out with Maregu Zewdie of Ethiopia to earn his 0.6 second win in 27:52.4. Duncan Kibet fell back to 4^th place in 28:21 this year.

The women’s race was also pretty exciting, despite there being a slightly larger lead. The race was won by masters runner Edith Masai of Kenya in 31:55.6, followed by Liudmila Biktasheva of Russia (although she now resides in New York, I believe.)

The Maine race was won by 22 year old Ben True in 31:01.8, over 40 seconds ahead of a pack of Mainers that all came in right under 32 minutes. Women’s winner Kristin Barry set the Maine record, dropping it by over 6 seconds to 34:37.1. She was working hard for that win, and you can see how much pain she was in at the finish line in the news video, but she regained her composure by the time I turned to see her come through the finishing chute.

There were a total of 5248 finishers, the first time that the race has cracked 5000 finishers in it’s 11 year history. That the race sold out in about a day this year is just a small testament to the popularity of what Joan Samuelson has brought to her hometown.

My race went pretty well; I just barely run negative splits (17:05/17:03) to finish in 34:08.1, getting outsprinted by PR Racing’s TJ Hesler to the finishing line. I felt really good, though, and I know that I need to have a lead on TJ at the end of a race if I am going to beat him. He is especially hard to edge out when he has a downhill finish.

WCSH6 has full video coverage of the race, including 5 minute videos that show everybody coming across the line. I picked out my wife’s finish and you can clearly see her disgust with her time after she crosses the line and checked her watch.

Congratulations to everybody that ran this morning and thank you to everybody that came out to support or cheer at the race. Almost everybody that I spoke with ran well today and enjoyed themselves and the crowd support was as good as it normally was. The race also requires a large number of volunteers who are all kept extremely busy from hours before the race to hours after, and we appreciate the hard work that goes into putting this event on.

(Official Results – Full Results w/better formatting – Race Photos – Photos Source: Home Page)

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The 10^th annual TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10k was this morning in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. As always, it was a closely contested race that is great for spectating. While the temperature was not very high during the race, it was quite humid. The fog burned off over the first 4+ miles before the race began, but was still present in the last few miles for a good portion of the race.

While warming up this morning, I thought that I saw Meb Keflezighi jogging around. I assumed that it was just somebody who looked like him, but I was wrong. He was here, and he was the first American to finish. Meb came through the finish line about 6 seconds behind the leaders to finish in 27:57.8 for 4^th place. The race was won by Duncan Kibet of Eldoret, Kenya. Evans Cheryiout came through in second place, just over a half second behind. Ayalew Taye was the first Maine finisher, but could not accept the $1000 purse because he is going into his freshman year at Georgetown University this Autumn.

Luminita Talpos of Romania has been in the top 5 four times, and finally achieved a win for the first time by running 32:20.3. She was followed by Natalyia Berkut in 32:28.5. In the Maine division, Emily LeVan ran a strong 35:01.3 to win by over a minute. Emily had quite the cheering section around 4.6 from her nieces and nephews.

Last year or the year before, my picture made it into New England Runner from right before I passed Emily a half mile from the finish. It took me a little longer to pass her this year; I edged her out in the last quarter mile and she finished less than a couple seconds behind me. Fellow B.A.A. runner Mariko Holbrook finished not too far back from us; she traded places with me quite a few times during the race.

The race as always encouraged me to go out about 15 seconds faster than I wanted to. I made up for that by being about 15 seconds slow at the halfway point. I did run my negative splits, however; my 6^th mile coming up the hill to Fort Williams was just as quick as most of my other miles. Once again, the hill remembered me. Even so, I think that next year I will need to make an effort to get some practice on the course ahead of time. I would like to get my body used to not going out quite so quickly, and these past two years I have not taken enough advantage of the down hill mile from 3.5 to 4.5. Overall, I am happy with my race, if a little disappointed with my time. I ran 35 point from the gun with a net time of 34:58.7.

Joan Samuelson ran 41:59.3 to finish her own race (for just the second time) in 364^th place. Race director Dave McGillivray had $1 donation to the race beneficiary for every runner that beat Joannie to the finish line.

(Official Results – Full Results w/better formatting)