by Larry Eder
Image via Wikipedia
Welcome to the 2011 BAA Boston Marathon LIVE coverage, courtesy of Runblogrun and the RunningNetwork! Check back here all day to get updates (and follow us live on twitter!). We will give you updates on RBR via five mile sections, so you can see how the race develops, then we will do a follow up, tomorrow, on how the race was won.
Women’s 1-5 miles
Kim Smith, 2010 Virgin London Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net.Kim Smith, who ran a half marathon this year in New Orleans in 1:07.36., took the lead right away, hitting the mile in 5:18, two miles in 10:37, and just three miles in 16:07. Kim has a personal best of 2:25:38, run at the 2010 Virgin London Marathon. The pack is back about twenty meters.
The difference is, that Kim Smith could actually win this thing. We shall see how it goes..Kim Smith hit the 5k in 16:41. Note that Ms. Smith has some pretty tight hip flexors, her running is pretty unique. Four miles hit in 21:27, with Smith’s lead out to 30 seconds!
In the pack, back about thirty seconds, is Hellen Mugo, Desiree Davilla, Yolando Cabellero, Caroline Kilel, Woyshinet Girma, Teyba Erkesso, Tirfi Tesgaye, Kara Goucher and Dire Tune, and right in the back of the pack, Blake Russell.
Kim hit five miles in 26:57.
Women, miles 5-10 miles
Kim Smith is leading the women’s race. Kim Smith now has about a twenty-five second lead, and Smith looks great, running very comfortably. Pack is running together.
Kim Smith has hit the six miles in 32:19, with 10k hit in 33:29.
Kim Smith hits seven miles in 37:49 and eight miles in 43:02. Smith has increased her lead to 40 seconds, running a 2:21:30 pace.
Kim Smith nine miles in 48.25, and 15k in 50.09. She has 41 second lead.
Kim Smith, who trains under Ray Treacy, Coach at Providence, is an old fashioned trainer-she runs hard, she bashes and she can win this race. Smith hit ten miles in 53;55, 5.23 mile pace, and now has a fifty second lead!
Men, miles 1-5 miles
Men have just taken off. Ryan Hall is up in the lead for the third year in the row. My take is, I find it very hard to believe that an athlete without a coach can win a major marathon. Ryan Hall could make me eat those words.
Ryan Hall, 2010 BAA Boston Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net
Hall is leading right now, and the men’s pack is following him about fifteen-twenty meters back.
Mile hit in 4:26, two miles in 9:19, and three miles in 14:00, with the 5k hit in 14:29. Four miles hit in 18:31, and five miles in 23:19.
Women, 10-15 miles
Kim Smith hit 11 miles in 59:22, she is running very well, and looks so relaxed.
Kim Smith moves on, hitting twelve miles in 64.47, thirteen in 70.17 and half way was 1:10.52!
Men, 5 miles to 10 miles
Big pack hit six miles in 28:04, 10k in 29:06. Ryan Hall in the pack now…seven miles hit in 32:45 for the men, with Peter Kamais, RK Cheruiyot, Allistair Cragg, and now Ryan Hall has taken the lead again. I am sorry, this is like watching a train wreck. I want him to do well, I just feel that he uses up some energy that he does not have to!
Ryan Hall is running with the top three, leading at 15k in 43:45! RK Cheruiyot, Robert Kipchumba, Bekana Daba, 2011 Houston Champ, Geoffrey Mutai, Gilbert Yegon, Moses Mosop, Tadese Tola, Philip Kimutai Sanga, Abhreham Cherkos in the lead pack.
Ten Miles hit in 47:02!
Women, 15 miles to 20 miles
Kim Smith continues to roll, hitting 15 miles in 1:21.21, with the 25k (15.6) hit in 1:24.15. Kara Goucher apparently having some trouble with the pace, about 15 seconds back, as the lead pack cuts the lead to 44 seconds.
Chasing pack is Caroline Kilel, Caroline Rotich, Terfi Tsegaye, Hellen Mugo, Dire Tune, Florence Kiplagat, Woynishet Girma, Alice Timbili, Werknesh Kidane, with Kara Goucher, and Desiree Davila. Kara Goucher
is about fifteen seconds back.
Kim Smith hit 16 miles in 1:26.43, seventeen miles in 1:32.22, and her lead is down to 19 seconds.
Between miles 17 and 18, Kim Smith had a very tough cramp, and this mile was run in six minutes! 18 miles was hit in 1:38.14. Just past 18 miles the pack swallowed Kim Smith, who who is now seventh.
Caroline Kilel has made a surge, with Caroline Rotich behind, four women fighting. Kim Smith is about sixth.
Women’s pack is Tune, Kilel, Cherop, Caroline Rotich, with Des Davila in sixth, running everyone down! Mile 19 hit in 1:43.38!
20 Miles hit in 1:49.08, which is where Des Davila moved into the lead and is putting some hurt. Tune is going off the back, and the Kenyans are holding on for dear life! Nice to see Des pushing it!
( Kim Smith ended up dropping out before 20 miles).
Men, 10 miles to 15 miles
Men hit the eleven mile mark in 51.53, and twelve miles in 56.35, 20k hit in 58.43, men’s 13 miles in 1:01.24 and 1:01.56 for the halfway, with Ryan Hall leading, once again.
14 miles hit in 1:06.09, and fifteen miles in 1:10.55. A surge, and Ryan Hall drops from lead to about tenth. 25km, with a pack of seven, in 1:13.15.
Geoffrey Mutai, Robert Kipchumba, Bekana Deba, Moses Mosop, Gebre Gebremariam, Evans Cheruiyot, RK Cheruiyot. Men’s sixteen mile run in 4.23!
Men’s pack down to six, Ryan Hall crawling back into the lead pack. Men hit sixteen miles in 1:15.20 and mile 17 in 1:20.14. Ryan Hall is back in lead, with eight marathoners in a pack!
Women, 20 miles to the finish: Des Davila is up front! Kilel and Davila duke it out to the finish!
Des Davila, 2010 USA Champs,
photo by PhotoRun.net
Des Davila is leading, with Kilel, Cherop in pack, working, picked up to 5.14 for the mile! 21 miles hit in 1:54.09! Timbililli is falling off the pack!
Davila is pushing hard, making her race! Des is part of the Hansons/Brooks Distance Project, coached by the Hanson brothers. Her training is high mileage and she has scored 3k and 10k personal bests.
Des Davila is running very, very well. She just hit 35k in 1:58.38, and Davila is running very hard, putting the down the proverbial hammer. She has to break them and she knows it.
22 miles was hit in 2:00.02. Des is in the lead, and pushing the pace! Kilel and Chirop. Kilel has just taken the lead!
Twenty-three miles hit in 2:05.21, with Davila, Kilel, Chirop all there. The pack is screaming and cheering. First US women to have a real chance in years, Kilel just took off!
Davila has fallen back just a bit, Chirop is right behind Kilel. Davila is moving up again.
Mile 24 hit in 2:10.35 as Des Davila, Caroline Kilel and Sharon Cherop duking it out. Kilel and Cherop overstride, Davila is extremely economical!
Kilel surges, Davila surges, and Cherop stays there! 40k hit in 2:15.14.
The surging gets even more intense. Kilel surges, Davila surges, and neither will break, Cherop just behind.
Twenty-five miles hit in 2:16.04! Kilel surged and then Des Davila took off just after 25 miles, and Des takes the lead. Kilel hangs on and just makes one, all or nothing last surge. Des Davila can not respond, her legs shot,
Caroline Kilel hits the finish in 2:22.36 with Des Davila running 2:22.38 for second! Sharon Cherop runs 2.22.42 for third place!
Right after the race, Des Davila said, “My perfect day out there, you always want to win, that is all I had. Most amazing race of my career, she just had a little more than me! “
Caroline Kilel dropped to the ground after the race, completely spent. The women’s finish was the fastest race since 1994!
Women’s 2011 BAA Boston Marathon top ten
1. Caroline Kilel, Kenya, 2.22.36
2. Desiree Davila, USA, 2.22.38-PB
3. Sharon Cherop, Kenya, 2.22.48
4. Caroline Rotich, Kenya, 2.24.26
5. Kara Goucher, USA, 2.24.52-PB
6.Dire Tune, Ethiopia, 2.25.08
7. Werknesh Kidane, Ethiopia, 2.26.15
8. Yolanda Caballero, Columbia, 2.26.17
9. Alice Timbilli, Kenya, 2.26.34
10. Yuliya Ruban, Ukraine, 2.27.00
Men’s 30k to finish: Goeffrey Mutai runs 2:03.01!
The thirty kilometer mark was hit in 1:28.22, way under record pace! Ryan Hall, the quixotic and terribly talented runner, lead at 30 kilometers. He races marathons like someone would run a fartlek workout, perhaps as Larry Rawson calls it, “the accordian “.
Hall lead through 19 miles in 1:30.03, with a 4.45 mile. 20 miles was passed at 1.34.05, which was two minutes, and 21 seconds ahead of course record pace! This race was going to be something special, as some would note!
Geoffrey Mutai put the peddle to the metal between miles 19 and 20. Dropping a 4.43 mile, Mutai took the lead by 4 seconds as Ryan Hall fell back. Mutai hit the 20 mile mark in 1:34.05, and he had the lead.
Geoffrey Mutai, who is not related to the 2011 Virgin London Marathon winner (Emmanuel Mutai), pushed hard, running 4.44 between miles 20 and 21, and broke up the lead pack.
Geoffrey Mutai ran on his own from miles 20 to 23. His mile 22 was run in 4.29, which made a few think that Mr. Mutai wanted to win here.
Moses Mosop seem to want to win the race too, and Mutai passed the 22 mile mark in 1:43.47, and 24 miles miles was passed in 1:55.18. By this time, Moses Mosop had caught up with Geoffrey Mutai, as they ran side by side through mile 25, hit in 1:57.30. Now they were 2 1/2 minutes up on course record pace!
A marathon is a difficult distance, add the battle that was going on, running miles between 4.45 and 4.29 for 26.2 miles and you are doing something quite rarefied.
Elite marathoners, to be successful, are risk takers. One of my training buddies, Gary Goettelmann, a top marathoner in the 70s, and iconoclastic owner of Ryans Sports (Santa Clara, CA), called it red lining. The way Gary said it, and it holds here at Boston, is that one must risk to get close to maximal running. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
Today, Goeffrey Mutai and Moses Mosop were red lining. They were running as fast as they could, as long as they could. Two terrific athletes, with Mosop the fastest over 10,000 meters!
Geoffrey Mutai wanted it more today, and became the fastest runner EVER at Boston, running 2:03.02. Under all conditions, it is the fastest time ever run for 26.2 miles, on any course in the world.
Moses Mosop did not give up, his 2:03.06 is the second fastest time EVER under any conditions!
It will not be a world record, as it was not on a point to point course, and the drop on the course is too much to be a record.
Anyone who has run Boston knows that you earn your time here!
Moses Mosop took second in 2:03.06!
1. Geoffrey Mutai, Kenya, 2:03.02, fastest time in World, All conditions
2. Moses Mosop, Kenya, 2.03.06, second fastest time in World, all conditions
3. Gebre Gebremariam, Ethiopia, 2.04.53, PB
4. Ryan Hall, USA, 2.04.55, PB, Best American time EVER, all conditions
5. Abreham Cherkos, Ethiopia, 2.06.13
6. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot, Kenya, 2.06.43
7. Philip Kimutai Sanga, Kenya, 2.07.10
8. Deressa Chimsa, Ethiopia, 2.07.39
9. Bekana Deba, Ethiopia, 2.08.03
10. Robert Kipchumba, Kenya, 2.08.44
For more on the Boston Marathon, please click on www.bostonmarathon.com
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