Last year’s New York City Marathon was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, but two Kenyans took this year’s race by storm on Sunday, Nov. 3, each of them winning convincingly.

One was the defending champion, the other was running New York for the first time.

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya returned to form after a year of marathon difficulties, which included DNF’s at both the Boston and London Marathons, to win the men’s race in New York with a time of 2:08:24. The defending New York champion, he won by almost a minute.

His countrywoman, Priscah Jeptoo, made his first visit to the New York City Marathon a winning and extravagantly profitable one as she ran 2:25:07. She also won by almost a minute. 

The London Marathon winner earlier in the year, who dedicated her victory there to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, Jeptoo’s victory in New York made her the women’s World Marathon Major Champion for 2013 – and earned her the  $500,000 bonus that goes with it. That bonus included, her New York City Marathon victory netted her something in the neighborhood of $630,000!

Oh, it’s going to be a wonderful plane ride back to Kenya for her.

Geoffrey Mutai trains in Kenya with such remarkable marathoners as new world recordholder Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto.  Of course, Mutai himself has run the fastest marathon ever, the 2:03:02 at Boston in 2011 (4:42 per mile!) – a time that has not been ratified as a world record because of the elevation drop on the Boston course. In New York Mutai ran in the lead pack of runners for most of the race, generally letting others, larger in physical stature than him, break the wind.

However, 1 hour, 42 minutes into the race, at about mile 21, he made a move which splintered the lead group immediately and opened an initial gap for him. His taller countryman Stanley Biwott, winner of many world-class shorter road races this year, soon regained contact, but by mile 22 Mutai had opened a gap and was on his way to victory.

He was quoted after the race as saying, “When I go (make a move), I know I can hold the pace to the finish.” Which he did, although the second-place finisher Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia, who had led a good part of the race, seemed to be closing on Mutai in the last section in Central Park.

Financially, it was Kebede, running 2:09:15, who was the big winner in the men’s race in New York. Like Jeptoo, his performance in New York made him the men’s World Marathon Major Champion for 2013 – and he won a cool half-million dollars as a result. Mutai made something in the neighborhood of $150,000 for his victory, which is still a very nice neighborhood, as no one would deny.

Kebede had won the London Marathon and finished fourth in the marathon at the World Championships in Moscow earlier in the year. Of course, if Mutai had not dropped out of both the Boston and London Marathons, it very well might have been the Kenyan star, rather than Kebede, who took home the biggest pot of gold after New York.  

Finishing third in the men’s race in New York, with a time of 2:09:45, was Lusapho April of South Africa. Fourth place went to another South African, Julius Arile, who ran 2:10:03, and struggling home in fifth place in a time of 2:10:41 was Stanley Biwott of Kenya, who had gone after Mutai when the latter made his move and ultimately paid for it.

In the women’s race Priscah Jeptoo, who trains with Rita Jeptoo (no relation), winner of this year’s Chicago Marathon, didn’t contest the lead early on as Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia, who now lives and trains in the Bronx, led mile after mile – and actually opened an appreciable gap.

However, at 24 miles, with the race on the line and a vertitable fortune in the balance for her, Jeptoo caught Deba and took the lead. Running strongly and smoothly, never in any apparent distress, she ran powerfully to the finish line in her loose, feet-flailing-out-on-the-backstride style to win convincingly.

Jeptoo’s 2:25:07 gave her a 50-second cushion over Deba, who ran 2:25:57 – Deba had also been second in the last New York City Marathon, held in 2011.

Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, the New York City Marathon champion in 2005 and 2006, finished third in 2:27:47.

The weather for the race was a bit cool, but not uncomfortably so. The big news, in the end, was that the New York City Marathon is back, and the old news is – the Kenyans are back on top!

Comments

Congrats to all the winners at the New York City Marathon this morning...we run stronger than ever!!!!
Bob Anderson 11/3/13 4:59 pm