Run to Win

I don’t understand the position that some people are taking that Meb Keflezighi is not American enough to be considered the first American to win the marathon since 1982 when Alberto Salazar won.

Which is silly, because even if he had become an American citizen the week before the race he would still be an American. Our country is founded on immigrants and very few of us can trace our roots back more than a few hundred years to this soil.

It’s even sillier because Meb was not a runner when he was 12 years old and moved to the United States. His entire development and running career through high school, college and as a professional has been here in the United States.

What’s even sillier is that these racist morons all mention that an American hasn’t won since 1982 but we shouldn’t rejoice as much because Meb was born in Eritrea. If the criteria for winning as an American is that you were born here, then why not point out that Alberto Salazar was born in Cuba and has only been in the United States since he was 2 years old?

Oh, wait, Alberto Salazar is Hispanic and doesn’t have black skin. Give me a break.

I celebrate Meb’s win in New York City this past weekend the same way that I’d celebrate any other American winning a major competition. He ran a great race and I’m glad to see him win not only because he shares my nationality, but also because the couple of times that I’ve met him he’s been a very nice and humble person that is easy to like.

Want to read more than just my opinion? More information:

• New York Times (discussion)
• CNBC (racist article)
• CNBC (empty and insulting apology for said racist article)
• Sports Illustrated (no racism, just a nice article about Meb & NYC to end on)

Meb Keflezighi chose a good race for his first half marathon win as he managed to beat Dathan Ritzenhein by 10 seconds this morning in Houston at the USATF half marathon championship race. He won the race in 1:01:25.

“I just wanted to make a statement that I’m back and that I’m healthy and that if I’m healthy I can be very competitive at the US level of the international level.” – Meb Keflezeghi, 2009 January 17

Meb went out hard and built a solid lead, but kept his effort a little more conservative from mile 8.8 on in case Ritz got too close and he’d need a closing kick. Ritz did manage to close the gap by quite a bit, leading 3^rd place Brett Gotcher by 34 seconds. Brett just focused in on Ritz over the last 5 miles and let him pull him along from half a minute up.



Magdalena Boulet won the women’s race by a slightly larger margin after the race went out in a relatively slow 5:45 pace, which is easier than some of her marathons have been. She took advantage of that to come through with a 19 second lead over 2^nd place Kelly Jaske. She broke the tape in 1:11:47.



I’d also like to point out a great performance from a teammate of mine from college, Jeff Abbott, who ran in his first USATF championship race with a time of 73 minutes even, finishing in a very respectable 51^st place.

(More Info: Full Results – Video Coverage)

Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya and Gete Wami of Ethiopia were the recipients of the first $1 million payout from the World Marathon Majors this week. The majors will pay out every year going forward on a 2 year rolling cycle. Both runners received $500,000 checks.

For the inaugural 2 year cycle, there were 11 races in which runners could score. For both 2006 and 2007, the Boston and London Marathons in the Spring and the Berlin, Chicago and New York City Marathons in the Autumn scored, while this year’s IAAF world championship marathon also scored. Next year, the Olympic Marathon will also fall onto the roster.
(Click here to continue reading…)

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)

The New York City marathon was this morning. Susan Chepkemei from Kenya had some problems a few miles from the finish, and lost by about 15 seconds to Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia. I am sure the sports highlight shows will show Chepkemei vomiting as she ran before showing the finish. The men’s finish was very exciting; Meb Keflezighi (USA) could not stick with Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa or with Paul Tergat of Kenya, and finished 3rd in 2:09:56. Ramaala took the lead early and pushed the pace hard in the middle miles, even forgoing his water bottle around 16. Tergat stuck right with him and was not going to give up an inch, and the two had one hell of a sprint finish. About a half mile from the finish, maybe 2/3, Tergat took the lead and Ramaala looked like he was finished and wouldn’t be able to fight for the win. He did, though, and the two were even right up into the final seconds of the race. Tergat won by 1 second in 2:09:30; Ramaala is going to make the highlight reels with his dive after finishing. He was hurting, and perhaps I am a bad person for thinking so, but the drama of it made me giggle while I watched it.