James Kirwa’s journey to reach the Des Moines Marathon start line Sunday morning might have been more difficult than smashing the course record.
Kirwa shook off a difficult day of travel Saturday and a frantic rush to the start to shatter the Des Moines Marathon course record by more than 8 minutes. Kirwa, in his marathon debut, ran 2 hours, 14 minutes, 20 seconds on a record-breaking day for the event.
Kirwa, 26, had such a gap over runner-up John Njoroge that he waved and smiled at the spectators as he jogged the final meters to the finish line at Nollen Plaza.
“I was enjoying it,” Kirwa, a Kenyan living in El Paso, Texas, said of the cheers. “I was really tired yesterday from traveling and everything. I need to go back to the hotel and sleep.”
Kirwa flew out of El Paso to Dallas on Saturday morning. He took another flight to Kansas City, where he was supposed to be picked up by a friend yesterday afternoon.
His ride never showed.
Kirwa instead paid $45 and hopped on a Greyhound bus. The bus reached Des Moines at 10:30 Saturday night and he arrived at his hotel soon thereafter.
He was picked up at his hotel at 7:15 a.m. by local Kenyan Joe Kipnusu. Heavy traffic slowed them in reaching Nollen Plaza. Kirwa was pinning his race bib on his singlet 10 minutes before the start of the race.
“His warm-up was running to the start line. It was crazy,” said Kipnusu, who runs an organization that helps support Kenyan runners. “I could see in his face he was a little scared. I knew it would affect him, but I didn’t think he would brush it off and run 2:14.”
Kirwa was one of four men to break the previous course record of 2:22:57 set by Simon Sawe in 2003 and matched by David Chepkwony in 2007. Njoroge, a Kenyan living in Coon Rapids, Minn., covered the 26.2-mile distance in 2:17:23. Richard Kessio, who flew in from Kenya on Friday, ran 2:18:59 and Russian Andrey Bryzgalov finished in 2:22:03.
“I wasn’t thinking 2:14,” said William Kosgei, who coaches Njoroge. “I would be lying if I said that. Two-seventeen is what he (Njoroge) was shooting for.”
Two other course records were set on an ideal morning with temperatures in the 40s with little wind.
Alena Vinitskya, 37, ran 2:41:23 for the marathon to trim 9 seconds off the record set by Robyn Friedman last year.
Moses Waweru, 32, won a sprint finish over Hungarian Tibor Vegh to win the men’s half marathon in a record time of 1:05:10. Vegh, 26, was timed in 1:05:12.
“He came from nowhere and I almost fell down,” said Waweru, a Kenyan who works on a cattle farm near Madison, Wis. “Then I decided to go.”
“I won it had the finish been back there,” Vegh said, pointing to a spot 100 meters from the finish. “He saw me coming and there was nothing I could do.”
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