Professional Men's Field: Part 2 (of 3)

Robert Cheruiyot
Kenya
Age: 31
Cheruiyot will forever be known as the first male champion of the World Marathon Majors series -- his three wins and a fourth place for the 2006-07 competition gave him a commanding victory. Cheruiyot is the youngest man to have won four Boston Marathon titles, and he won the 2006 Chicago Marathon. At six-feet, two inches tall and 143 pounds, Cheruiyot stands out. When he's not training, he enjoys farming and spending time with his wife and daughter.

Jaouad Gharib
Morocco
Age: 37
The defending Olympic marathon silver medalist and a two-time IAAF World Champion at that distance, Gharib holds the Moroccan records for the half-marathon and marathon. He withstood the repeated surges made by eventual Beijing Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru in a tough battles for the gold, yielding only in the final two kilometers. Now 37, Gharib shows no signs of slowing down; his 2:05:27 at this year's London Marathon was a personal best.


Marilson Gomes dos Santos
Defending Champion
Brazil
Age: 32
Gomes is the defending champion of the ING New York City Marathon and will attempt to become a three-time winner this year. Nearly unknown when he won the race in 2006, he became the first South American champion after making a surprise breakaway on First Avenue. In 2007, Gomes ran the fastest half-marathon ever by an athlete from the Western hemisphere with his 59:33 seventh-place finish at the IAAF World Road Running Championships; this year, he was 16th in the IAAF World Championships Marathon.

Ryan Hall
United States
Age: 27
Hall surprised the running world in 2007 when he cut more than a minute off the American record at the half-marathon in his first try at the distance. Later that year, he ran the fastest-ever debut marathon by an American, 2:08:24, to take seventh place in London. He smashed the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon record when he ran 2:09:02 in Central Park in 2007. This fall, Hall and his wife, Sara, also a professional runner, announced the formation of The Hall Steps Foundation, a charitable initiative that will fund programs to create a better life for youth living in poverty.

Meb Keflezighi
United States
Age: 34
The 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the marathon, Keflezighi won the USA Cross Country Championship and national road titles at seven miles and the half-marathon so far this year, and his ninth-place 2:09:21 in London in April was a personal best. Keflezighi was born in Eritrea; his parents moved his family of 11 children out of the country when a war with Ethiopia would have forced the boys into the military. They lived in Italy and eventually relocated to San Diego, CA; Keflezighi became a U.S. citizen in 1998.

James Kwambai
Kenya
Age: 26
Kwambai is now the third-fastest marathoner of all time after losing this year's Rotterdam Marathon to Duncan Kibet by less than one second. He was also the runner-up at the 2007 Boston Marathon. In 2006, Kwambai won the Brescia (Italy) Marathon, the Beijing Marathon, and the Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach Half-Marathon. He set his half-marathon personal best of 59:09 in Rotterdam this year.