by Peter Vigneron/Running Times
Boston is good to Kenyan men named Robert K. Cheruiyot. On a sunny day here, Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won the Boston Marathon in 2:05:52, setting a new course record by over a minute and running the fourth-fastest marathon ever on American soil. In a confusing turn of events, he bested the course record of another Kenyan runner named Robert K. Cheruiyot—Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, a four-time Boston Marathon champion, who recorded the old mark of 2:07:14 in 2006. Kipkoech Cheruiyot, who is unrelated to this year's winner, was scheduled to appear in today's race but pulled out with an injury last month. American favorites Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
"I was trying to show my talent," Cheruiyot said shortly after finishing. "I was not thinking about 2:05."
Unlike his namesake, Cheruiyot, 21, is a relative marathon novice. He won the 2008 Frankfurt Marathon in his debut at the distance, and last year he finished fifth in his first try at Boston in 2:10:06. He set his personal best of 2:06:25 at Frankfurt in October 2009. With this victory, he takes home $175,000: $150,000 for winning, plus a $25,000 course-record bonus.
Only three men have run marathons under 2:06 in the United States, all at the super-fast Chicago Marathon. Before Cheruiyot's run, a sub-2:06 race at Boston wasn't considered unlikely; it simply wasn't considered. Until today, no man had broken 2:07 here, and only seven men in the race's history have ever run under 2:08. Cheruiyot skipped the 2:06 range entirely.
Cheruiyot's win came at the expense of defending champion Deriba Merga, who entered the race in questionable form. Merga dropped out of several recent races and said on Friday that he was not confident in his training. Still, he made a brave attempt at the win. With Cheruiyot, he pushed to the front after the 35-kilometer mark, splintering the men's leading pack of seven. Cheruiyot was unyielding, however, and after running 4:35, 4:45, and 4:36 from miles 22 to 24, he left Merga behind. Ethiopian Tekeste Kebede, whom we picked as a pre-race dark horse favorite, overtook Merga and finished second in 2:07:23. Merga was third in 2:08:39.
Cheruiyot grew up in Bomet, Kenya, a small town several hours north of Nairobi. He now trains at altitude alongside 2:05 marathoner Vincent Kipruto and is coached by William Kiplagat. Like Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, he is a member of Kenya's Kalenjin tribe, although he belongs to a different sub-tribe, the Kipsigis, than Cheruiyot, who is a Nandi. Cheruiyot said that he spoke with Kipkoech Cheruiyot about two months ago. Try to stay in the pack early on, Kipkoech Cheruiyot told him, and "'if you see them going slowly, try move.'" He did.
Like last year, Hall led the pack through the race's early stages. But by 15K he began drifting afield as the lead men began surging. He would fall behind and rejoin the pack several times before losing contact for good around halfway, which the leaders reached in 1:03:25, ahead of course record pace. Hall eventually battled back to finish fourth, 2 seconds behind Merga in 2:08:41. It is the fastest time for an American at Boston, bettering Bob Kempainen's 2:08:47 best from 1994. Hall was exuberant as he finished, gesturing to the crowd and waving his arms, even as he drew closer and closer to Merga. "I produced my best time on the Boston course, which I'm thrilled about," he said. "I don't think you can have too much fun."
Keflezighi, who won the New York City Marathon last November, was fifth in 2:09:26. Since New York, his training has been hampered by a knee injury that he sustained after slipping on ice this winter. "I ran out of time" getting ready for Boston he said, "but I don't know if I could have beat Cheruiyot today." It is Keflezighi's third consecutive marathon under 2:10. He ran 2:09:21 at the London Marathon last spring, then ran 2:09:15, his personal best, in New York last fall.
When Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot first won Boston in 2003, he told reporters at the time that the victory would change his life. Did Cheruiyot think this win would be life changing, a reported asked him after the race today. "Yes," he said. "Of course."
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