The Boston Marathon -- a Patriot Day staple -- took place Monday and the results were, well, both shocking and encouraging for the U.S. Ethopia's Deriba Merga and Kenya's Salina Kosgei were the winners of the men's and women's races, respectively, but America managed to place third in each division as well, as Kara Goucher and Ryan Hall led the way for the U.S.Perhaps third is not what most competitors strive for, but America's finish is the best in quite some time, considering that no American has won the event since 1985 when Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach took home the women's title.
Kosgei, the women's winner, said the weather made finishing the race difficult.
"I decided I must try. So, I tried," she said in a television interview. "The wind was a bit stronger. ... So, it was very hard."The weather didn't seem to bother the Americans too much, though, as Hall finished the race 62 seconds off the winning pace (2:09:40), while Goucher finished just nine seconds behind Kosgei (2:32:25).
Ultimately, though, Ethiopa and Kenya dominated the races, placing a ridiculous 14 runners total in the top-10 of both the men's and women's races, and showed that America still has some ground to make up when it comes to marathon racing.
(But, at least Hall and Goucher appear to be rebutting some companies' idea that America is getting fatter.)
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hey thanks for posting this, I didn't get a chance to watch it.
Ryan Hall apparently had the fastest qualifying going into this race. Last spring he ran a 2:06:17 at London, which, unbelievably, was only good for fifth place! In comparison, when I first started running in 1992, the world's best time was 2:06:50, which had stood for three years and seemed like a fluke because I don't think anyone had run another 2:06. Now just last spring Haile Gebrselassie ran a 2:03:59 which is unreal. It averages out to 4 min. 43.7 sec. per mile! Ryan Hall is also the first American ever to run the half-marathon (13.1 miles) under an hour. 59:43 last I heard.
This only Kara Goucher's second marathon and she's reached the medal stand both times. In her debut last November in NYC she ran a 2:25:33 behind the world record holder Paul Radcliffe and one other runner, but she beat the defending Boston champion who edged her out today. She has track speed, I believe she placed 8th and 9th respectively in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at Beijing, but double-check all these times and places.
I believe Americans Kim Jones placed 2nd in Boston in 1993 and Meb Keflezighi 3rd in 2006, but if I remember correctly, 2005 was the year of the American comeback at Boston, related to training methods, perhaps corporate sponsorship of training camps similar to those used by athletes in other countries. It's hard for American athletes who are often working on advanced degrees to commit to the kind of training that's required to win in the marathon. Well that's my non-expert opinion.
Here you can see the number of top American finishers in 2005:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/109th_Boston_marathon_takes_place
I'm going to guess the weather didn't bother Goucher much. She grew up in northern Minnesota.
It is a bummer that you can't watch the Boston Marathon, one of the United States longest running sports on television. They should put it on the weekend so many people can watch it.