Below is a table with the kilometer splits (those we got) from today's Chicago marathon, which saw Sammy Wanjiru win his fourth major marathon - Fukuoka, Beijing, London and now Chicago.His time? 2:05:41, one second inside the course record, so mission accomplished, at least from that point of view. The world record eluded him, but the cold, the wind and the pace-making (too fast early, didn't last long enough) didn't allow that.
The splits make for interesting reading. The early pace was unbelievably fast - 5km was reached in 14:34 and 10km was covered in 29:10, projecting a finish time under 2:03. It was hardly surprising that the pace slowed, and the second half of the race would be covered in 63:40, compared to the first half of 62:01. Abderrahim Goumri was sensible and probably ran the closest to an even split - 62:50 and 63:14.
Wanjiru's decisive move came just before 35km, when he shifted to drop the Kenyans who had kept pace up to that point.
The wind certainly played a role - it was coming from the North, and if you look at the table below, you'll see some really slow final kilometers - that's partly due to the race situation, the fast early pace, but also the wind, because the final stretch of the race is run directly into that wind.
Enjoy the splits below!
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