Makau, 24, who ran 58:52 for his PB in February at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon, possibly missed a World record at that race, if not for a stiff head wind. He has nine sub-one-hour half marathons on his resume and is a two-time runner-up at the World Half Marathon Championships. In addition to Ras Al Khaimah, the tactically aggressive runner has notched half-marathon wins at Reading, City Pier City, Berlin and Rotterdam. He has a marathon PB of 2:06:14, in his debut at Rotterdam this year.Macharia, 28, on the other hand, is a three-time winner at Bogota - he won for the first time in 2004 - and has a 1:00:48 PB. He was the Great Scottish Run Half Marathon Champion in 2007, and has runner-up finishes at the 2007 Delhi Half Marathon and the 2008 Dubai Half Marathon. He has a marathon PB of 2:07:16.
But if one race stands out in this head-to-head match it would be round one, Bogota in 2007. There, Macharia got the best of Makau…by a lot. Macharia’s winning time of 1:03: 40 was almost two minutes up on Makau (1:05:33) in fourth place. Of course, that was two years ago and Makau should be better ready for Bogota’s altitude, as well as Macharia’s race tactics. Last year Macharia went virtually from the gun.
Waiting in the wings to possibly steal the race are Kenya’s Wilson Chebet and Morocco’s Ridouane Harroufi.
Chebet was 40 seconds back of Makau at Ras Al Khaimah this year (for the fourth best time of the year) and has 2009 wins at the Pardubice and Rabat half marathons.
This year Harroufi was second at the Peachtree Road race and the winner at the Boilermaker 15K. Last year was Harroufi’s debut in Bogota and he struggled with the altitude, finishing 8th in 1:07:02. The second time around he should be a lot closer to his PB of 1:01:37.
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