Boston bound: Meb Puts Fifth-Place Finish into Perspective

by Sabrina Grotewold/Running Times

Meb Keflezighi knows how to persevere. But, this isn’t a unique quality among marathon runners. What differentiates the 2004 Olympic marathon silver medalist is his phoenix-like ability to fight his way back from injury, disappointment, and talk of retirement to become the first American to win the ING New York City Marathon since 1983.

The question the world asked before Keflezighi toed the line in Hopkinton was: Would he become the first man since Kenyan Ibrahim Hussein to achieve back-to-back wins in New York and Boston?

The answer would be no, not this year.

“If it were that easy,” Keflezighi said about the 1983 race, that last time an American man won, “it would have happened again already.”

By the second mile, Ryan Hall had secured a two-step lead. It was like a replay from last year’s race. Tucked comfortably into the lead pack and able to draft off the frontrunners was Keflezighi. Both Americans donned USA jerseys—Keflezighi’s reminiscent of the singlet he wore when he won New York last November—but the differences in each of the runner’s strategies became apparent by mile 9. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot and Deriba Merga surged and left Hall running even with Keflezighi. By mile 10, Merga had increased the pace by 19 seconds—Hall didn’t answer right away, but Keflezighi did.

“I tried to say within 3 to 5 seconds behind the leaders like I did in New York,” Keflezighi said. “But they were surging a lot, and it started to feel like a rubber-band effort.”

A slower pace through mile 11 allowed Hall to resume the lead; Keflezighi, the ever-calm veteran, remained patiently tucked behind the front line. After the men passed the shrieking throng of Wellesley women, Keflezighi pulled in and out of the lead pack, but ended up getting dropped by Cheruiyot and Merga in the Newton hills. Was the knee discomfort that kept him from competing in the NYC Half Marathon in March flaring up again?

“Today, the knee wasn’t too much of a factor, but I had cramping in my quads and a stomach issue,” Keflezighi said.

While Cheruiyot and Merga were on course-record pace at mile 22, Keflezighi, whose left knee was circled with Kinesio tape, was running alone wearing a pained expression.

Despite the knee pain, Keflezighi finished a very respectable fifth in 2:09:26, just 11 seconds off the PR he set in New York last fall. “We trained really hard to get it right, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to hit a home run each time,” Keflezighi said. “I ran my heart out and I cried afterwards.”

The Keflezighis have no intention of packing it in. Keflezighi’s wife, Yordanos, provided insight via telephone from their home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where she tuned into the race while caring for their 3-month-old girl. “There is no disappointment. We’re successful if we give 100 percent—that’s what we teach our kids,” said the stay-at-home mother of three girls.

The family has endured too much change over the past two years to be disheartened by a fifth-place finish. To be closer to altitude training and the Mammoth Track Club facilities, the Keflezighis left their San Diego base in 2008 and relocated permanently to Mammoth Lakes. It took over a year to come back from the hip stress fracture Keflezighi sustained during the 2008 Olympic marathon trials, but Keflezighi earned redemption last November in New York, a title he will defend this fall.

Will seven months prove an adequate amount of time for the veteran to rise again from the ashes? Only time will tell.