London Marathon

[tafnut]

Rutto: 2:06:18

Margaret Okayo: 2:22:35.

Results and story at
http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=24902.html

Plus at the Turin marathon we have:

Frederick Cherono: 2:08:38

and, while we're at it, in Hamburg

Vanderlei Lima: 2:09:39

[EPelle]

Re: London Marathon

IAAF:

Rutto, whose father Kilimo Yano was a 29-minute 10,000m runner who once raced Kip Keino...

A lot of athletes raced The Legend, but very few successfully beat him to the finish line. Keino was often declared the victor, wherease Kilimo Yano and the likes were merely mortal men who were also there and who also competed.

[dl]

Re: London Marathon

Tough SOB's in London. The top 3 all fell fairly late in the race but still recovered to run quite fast.

2:07 by Gharib confirms that his World Champs win last fall was no fluke. Baldini's solid 2:08 is another good effort in a consistent career. He's definitely a medal threat in Athens. Runs fairly well in the heat.

[5k Guy]

Re: London Marathon

Looks like Brown was the fastest from Great Britian with a 2:13. When will the GB team be named/decided.

[deuch]

Re: London Marathon

http://www.ukathletics.net/vsite/vconte ... em,00.html

[marknhj]

Re: London Marathon

Wow...I just read that the first Brit woman, Tracey Morris, had only run one marathon before and broke her pb by 1 hour 6mins yesterday to run 2hrs 33.52!

[dl]

Re: London Marathon

This from Gharib's agent:

Gharib is an animal....Especially when you
consider he was at no more than 75%.
He suffered a calf injury during Lisbon Half and it blew up when he got back
to Morocco.
Seems he missed some days training then and about 2 weeks ago he came down
with
bronchitis (was in bed with fever for 2-3 days) and was coughing up crap up
(even during the Expo
with me).

The guy even fell down near the Tower Bridge (like Rutto and
Korir)---hitting his head on the pavement
and still ran a good 2:07:02 !!

This gives me some confidence for Athens! Especially because he says he
loves hot weather.
Even trains in 35°C.

[marknhj]

Re: London Marathon

More about Tracey Morris. Quite a remarkable story. I'm trying to the movie rights!

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read. ... ead=396592

[Realist]

Re: London Marathon

C'mon fellas do the math. This just reflects how people are hung up on "barriers" in the marathon and think that a woman (or an American man!) getting close to 2:30 somehow indicates some kind of superhuman status.

Compare Morris's 2:33:52 to Radcliffe's world record of 2:15:25 and then run a percentage comparison against FloJo's 10.49 (the mark to which Radcliffe is most often compared) and it's like people going all ga-ga because somebody showed up and ran 11.92. Yawn.

[marknhj]

Re: London Marathon

You are completely missing the point. The woman is 36, took up running less than two years ago, had only run one marathon before for charity in 3hrs 39mins, and, out of the blue, ran a pb by 1hr 6mins and made our Olympic team. Of course she's not going to win anything in Athens, or get close to Paula. It's simply an astonishing feat that even she didn't anticipate.

[kuha]

Re: London Marathon

This IS a remarkable story.

[DecFan]

Re: London Marathon

Well, Realist, we could do that math this way: A sprinter runs her first race and runs 17.06 In her second race she runs 11.92.

I'd be impressed, and think that there's considerable potential to run really fast . . .

[Chucky]

Re: London Marathon

I no to good in math and faled math ,in the school unirversity. You have no time 11,seconds is not fast. I run marathons in longer times ,but she has headlies when you giving her credit to 11,seconds?

[MJD]

Re: London Marathon

Sorry to rain on everyone's parade but this isn't really that big of a deal. Completely with Realist here. We're back to the whole thing about finishing a marathon being such a big thing. Her 3:39 meant nothing and was a predictor of nothing. I realize that is a shock to those that figure a 4 hour marathon actually means something. Anyone who was actually paying attention would have read what I have duplicated below and not been that surprised. She represented her country as a junior too and that isn't mentioned. Took up running again 9 years ago and her 10 mile and 10km times predicted 2:37 to 2:39. Good for her making an Olympic team but the focus maybe should be on the woulda shoulda coulda if she never would have packed it in.

"Tracey Morris Factfile

Mon 19 Apr, 7:09 PM

1967: Born September 9 in Anglesey, Wales.

Lives: Leeds, married.

Club: Valley Striders, West Yorkshire.

Occupation: Full-time contact lens optician at Dollond and Aitchison in Leeds.

Personal bests: 10 kilometres - 33:41

10 miles 56:39

Coach: Steve O'Callaghan

Ran for Welsh Schools at the age of 17 but then spent 10 years away from athletics before starting to run again to keep fit.

1999: Competing as a fun runner raising charity money for the blind, she completed the London Marathon in a time of 3:39.

2003: Finished 13th in the BUPA Great North Run.

2004: Won the Helsby half-marathon, the York half-marathon, the Pocklington 10 miles race, the Hull 19.4 miles race, the
Wakefield 10 kilometres and the Salford 10 kilometres.

Morris was first female British athlete home in 2:33:52 (the fastest time by a Briton in 2004) at the Flora London Marathon in her
first marathon since taking up athletics seriously 18 months ago."

[Asterix]

Re: London Marathon

>Well, Realist, we could do that math this way: A sprinter runs her first race
>and runs 17.06 In her second race she runs 11.92.

Not to downplay her performance, but her big marathon run might be compared with Geb's "debut". He ran well over 2:40 years ago, but his races at lesser distances in the years since indicated he could pop a good one. Similarly, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3637155.stm

"In November 2003, she entered a 10km race in Flint, not realising beforehand that it was the Welsh championships - and won the event.

Following that victory, she raced as part of Wales' cross-country team in Cardiff the same month and in a 10km race for Wales in Leeds in December."