Eliud Kipchoge and Rita Jeptoo win Chicago: The view from Europe, from EME News/with Alberto Stretti

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Eliud Kipchoge and Rita Jeptoo,

photo courtesy of Bank of America Chicago Marathon

CHICAGO (USA, Oct 12): Superb edition of Chicago Marathon run in perfect weather conditions. The men’s race went out fast, with a first mile of 4:34. They then settled to a 4:45 average pace, with Tariku Bekele bringing them through half way in 62:12. Girmay Gebrselassie and Geoffrey Kirui then paced the pack to 30km in 1:28:46. The first important move of the day came shortly before 35km, with a first kick by Eliud Kipchoge, Sammy Kitwara and Dickson Chumba. At around 38-39km Kipchoge made an impressive break, moving strongly away from the field to give him a big enough margin to be able to relax and smile over the final metres. Kipchoge crossed the line in 2:04:11, just 6 seconds shy of his PB; leading home Sammy Kitwara (2:04:28 PB) and Dickson Chumba (2:04:32 big PB), the former gardener of Martin Lel; making it a Kenya 1-2-3. Ethiopian track great Kenenisa Bekele could finish 4th in 2:05:51, with jet lag and sleeping problems given as possible reasons for his inability to stick with the front group. Bernard Koech of Kenya (2:08.30) completed the top five, while Bobby Curtis (USA) ran 2:11.20 to be the first American and non-African over the line as 9th. Eritrean Ghirmay Gebrselassie deserves a special mention for pacing until 30k and still being able to finish the race in a good 2:09:08 for sixth place. Looking at the marathon splits, Kipchoge ran 35:25 for the last 12 195 m, which is only 4 seconds slower than Kimetto did during his world record; and 2 seconds slower than Kipsang did during his. Kipchoge’s last 2195m was run in 6:18, which is 10 seconds faster than Kimetto ran in Berlin. In the women’s race, they ran a slower-than-predicted 1:12:35. The leading group stayed together until 35k. Over the next 5km, Rita Jeptoo made her big move for the gold and nobody was able to answer her; she had a 34 second gap when she reached 40 km. She won in 2:24:35 and became the first woman to win 4 majors consecutively. Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba clocked 2:25:37 for second, while third went to Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat (2:25:57), who appeared very tired during the last part of the race. In 5th position, was the the first American and first non-African; Amy Hastings (2:27:03). With the help from Alberto Stretti.

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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