New York City Marathon

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.