2009 Flora London, Update 3-by Larry Eder

Hassan and Tola Poised to Dominate Out of Stadium Athlete of the Year Honors

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CJ Albertson Eyes Improvement After Chicago Marathon Personal Best, Aims for More Success

Since early on, Irina Mikitenko and Mara Yamauchi have been running with each other, the women hit 25 kilometers in 1.24.09, with Mara Yamauchi there and Zhou Chunxiu of China starting to fall back. Chunxiu started to fall back by 26 kilometers. She was ten meters back, quickly and just kept falling back.
The women’s second pack was just over a minute, ten seconds, with Catherine Ndereba, Lilya Shobukova, in her debut, Tomo Moromoto of Japan, Berhane Adere of Ethiopia, Geta Wami of Ethiopia, Sventlana Zakharova and Lyudmila Petrova of Russia in the pack.
The battle up front from, 25k kilometers to 35 kilometers was Mikitenko and Yamauchi. Just around 30 kilometers, in 1:41, Mikitenko pushed up the ante. Yamauchi would fall back, then come back, then fall back, then come back. By 35 kilometers, Mikitenko, the 2008 champion, had a nine second lead over Yamauchi.
Irina Mikitenko has been relentless, and she continued to build the lead over Mara Yamauchi.
On the men’s side, the men have been crazy. Hitting ten miles in 46.24, the lead men’s pack hit the fastest EVER for ten miles in a marathon! The pack of Gharib, Goumri, Wanjiru, Tadesse, Kebede, Mutai, Ramaala, Sato.
The lead pack of men hit 1:01.13 for the halfway-the best performance ever in a major marathon.
The lead men hit 25 kilometers in 1:13.35-with Meb Keflizighi in 1.15.29 and Dathan Ritzenhein in 1.15.27, with Luke Kibet in 1.16.10

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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