“Who wants to read about a Kenyan marathoner who runs 2:21?” Boaz Cheboiywo asks.
Upon closer inspection, the answer becomes evident: Cheboiywo, 31, was a two-time NCAA champion at Eastern Michigan. Last fall he ran 1:01:35 and finished sixth in the Philadelphia Distance Run as part of his preparation for the New York City Marathon – where he ran an ignominious 2:21:40.
That soul-crushing result after years of preparation nearly convinced Cheboiywo to quit the sport altogether. But he rebounded and will run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Cheboiywo’s conservative goal is to break 2:10 – a time that would make him just one of dozens of Kenyans to compete at that level. But by next summer, Cheboiywo should be a U.S. citizen, and 2:10 – should he run it – will make him one of the fastest American marathoners ever and a frontrunner for national teams.
Cheboiywo grew up in Tirap, a village near Eldoret, herding goats on the family farm. After high school, he attended a teachers college before leaving Kenya to run at Eastern Michigan University. There, Cheboiywo made the most of his two years of athletic eligibility, receiving all-American recognition seven times. After graduating in 2003, he continued to compete in cross-country and on the track, notching PRs of 3:35.20 for 1,500 meters and 13:19.21 for 5,000 meters; he ran his 10,000 meter PR of 27:44.15 last year.
“But after you’re past the NCAA, and if you’re not affiliated with USATF, you tend to be forgotten,” Cheboiywo says. So he took to the roads, where he has consistently raced well. This summer, Cheboiywo finished fourth at the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta and second at the Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine. “Even if you run good races, but don’t win, it really doesn’t open any eyes,” he says. Thus it was last year when he finally heeded the call of road racing’s 26.2-mile glamour event.
“I had prepared so well for New York, training at altitude in Boulder, the Philly run, everything was going in the right direction,” Cheboiywo recounts during a recent phone call. “I was ready to run 2:10 or 2:11, but on race day everything went wrong. I missed my water at 5K and 15K, then I fell at 20K in a scramble for water [with the reigning world champion, Abel Kirui, who later did not finish]. I picked myself up, pushed to catch up, but then I started to struggle
“I slowed down again, thinking it would get better, but the nightmare continued. Three or four toenails fell off and then I hit a wall the last 10K. My movement was frozen and I was done. I felt like I was going to the slaughterhouse.”
Cheboiywo ran 38:56 for the last 10K – 6:20 per mile pace – and went from racing Kirui to holding off Paula Radcliffe by only a little more than two minutes. “The marathon is a different, difficult animal,” Cheboiywo says. “New York – I don’t count that as my time.”
Cheboiywo recovered physically, but the mental scars took longer to heal. “After New York, I thought about retiring,” Cheboiywo says. Finally, several months after the race and bolstered by marriage to his longtime girlfriend in Michigan, his outlook brightened: “I decided I want to show that I can be a marathoner.”
Cheboiywo set his sights on Chicago because he knows the course, having helped paced last year’s race through 17 kilometers; Evans Cheruiyot won on a sweltering day in 2:06:25.
“This race is life and death for me,” Cheboiywo says of Sunday’s marathon. “If I blow up again, run 2:20 … that would be an awkward situation. Realistically, I see myself in the top five, by starting conservatively, not running in the first group with [Olympic champion and pre-race favorite Sammy] Wanjiru. I want to run negative splits.”
Cheboiywo believes Wanjiru can get the world record on Sunday – “he’s a freak of nature, just phenomenal. He can run 2:03:30. [Wanjiru] ran 61 [:13] minutes [in Spain for a half marathon eight weeks] before running 2:05:10 in London [last year]. Now he ran 61 [:08] in Rotterdam this fall – I think he’s ready for a world record.”
But racing Wanjiru is the farthest thing from Cheboiywo’s race plan: “I’m not running with the leaders like I did in New York. My way is to be like Wesley Korir.” Korir, a fellow Kenyan and former University of Louisville star, ran Chicago last year with the “citizen” runners en route to a 2:13:53 fourth-place finish – worth no prize money – and then took home nearly $200,000 by winning the 2009 Los Angeles Marathon in 2:08:24.
“If Korir can do it,” Cheboiywo says, “I can do it, too.”
And if he does, he will breathe new life into his running career, which for him has been and always will be a means to an end. “Running, I love,” he says.
But Cheboiywo plans to pursue a doctorate in physiology in the not too distant future; his wife is already preparing for veterinary school. “Education is the gateway to prosperity, either here or in Kenya. Running is good, but education let’s you do anything.”
What can Browne do … - U.S. World Championship marathoner Dan Browne lost his race (he has won three times) and his 2004 course record of 47:32 at the Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, to Ethiopian Alene Reta, who ran 46:59. While Browne ran well – 47:49, good for third place – he cited fatigue from his 2:16:49 24th-place finish in Berlin and said he may skip the New York City Marathon on Nov. 1. “I need to talk with my coach [Bob Larson] and make a rational decision,” Browne said.
On to New York - Meb Keflezighi won the San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in 1:01:00 on Sunday, a personal best by 20 seconds, in a strong tuneup for the Nov. 1 marathon. And at the 10-mile national championships in St. Paul, Minn., Abdi Abdirahman won in 46:35, Josh Moen was second in 46:38 and Jason Lehmkuhle took fourth in 47:16. All three are prepping for New York.
Happy Birthday, Grete - On Monday, her 56th birthday, Norway’s Grete Waitz was honored as one of the “Marathoners of the Decade” by the New York Road Runners, part of the club’s 40th anniversary New York City Marathon celebration. Waitz won seven her nine titles during the 1980s, including five straight from 1982 to 1986. With three wins and a fourth in her sights on Nov. 1, Paula Radcliffe was selected as the current decade’s top female marathoner.
Northside/Southside challenge - Chicago high school boys and girls will compete in an invitational meet over the home stretch of the Chicago Marathon course next Sunday, the marathon’s race day. The 2.62-mile race will take place during the marathon but well before the first runners reach Mile 24 at Michigan Avenue and 31st Street.
ShareThis