Teyba Erkesso Wins 114th BAA Boston Marathon: How the Race Was Won, by Larry Eder

In one of the most exciting races in the long and proud history
of the Boston Marathon, 23,071 starters enjoyed cool weather and winds
between 2-7 miles per hour to run gutty races on
both men and women’s sides!

Robert
Cheruiyot dueled with Deriba Merga to set a new course record in
2:05:52. On the women’s side, Teyba Erkesso broke the race open about
fifteen miles and barely held on, winning by five seconds at the finish
over Tatyana Pushkareva of Russia, 2:26:11-2:26:14.

The 114th BAA Boston marathon featured races that were both gutsy and epic on both the men & women’s sides!

Women’s race: Teyba Erkesso shows her stuff

On the women’s side, Yurika Nakamura of Japan lead the pack of fifteen to eighteen women (Salina Kosgei, Weiwei Sun, Bruna Genovese, Tatyana Pushkareva, and Lidiya Grigoreva, among the usual suspects), hit the mile in 5:29, then proceeded to run 11.01 at two miles,
16:34 for three miles and hit the 5k in 17:05 and 10k in 35:06.

Nakamura has a very short stride, very efficient, but very short. The lead pack included Dire Tune, Waynishet Girma, Lidiya Grigoreyeva, Koren Yal, and Chaofeng Jia of China in her debut.

Two Chinese runners, WeiWei Sun, and Jia Chaofeng, was intriuging, but Nakamura persisted, leading through 15k in 53:03. Tatyana Pushkareva, in her fourth marathon,
took the lead over jsut before ten miles, hit in 53:59. Nakamura was not ready to give
up the ghost, and pushed back, to lead at eleven miles in 59:23.

The weather was a factor, with the temperature, fine, the start a fine 49 degrees, and by
ten miles, the temperature at 53 degrees. But, a slight headwind, North to Northeast, persisted
during the race, from 2-7 miles per hour.

Teyba Erkesso, who won Chevron Houston the past two years, this year, in a stunning 2:23:53, took the lead and lead through twelve miles in 1:04:38, with Dire Tune of Ethiopia and Koren Yal in tow. Teyba dropped a bomb between 12 and 13 miles, running a 5:17, hitting
the halfway in 1:14:52.  Koren Yal, Dire Tune and Teyba Ekresso had made an eight second break, and the race was, on….

The race, for the women, was just starting. In a series of miles that resembled a fartlek workout, Erkesso droped a 5:18 in mile 14, 5:23 for mile 15, when Dire Tune had some stomach distress and dropped off the pace (we believe she did not finish).

Erkesso ran her fastest 5k of the race between 20k and 25k: 16:21! Splits for our gentle readers who understand the metric system are as follows: 20k in 1:11:22, 25k in 1:27:43, and 30k in 1:40:16!

Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia ran a 5:06 mile for the sixteenth mile, followed by a 5:29 for mile 17, another 5:29 for mile 18,  and a 5:26 for mile 19. Erkesso  hit 20 miles in 1:51:55, running that mile in 5:27. This was the apex of Erkesso’s lead over the next runners, which reached over 90 seconds.

All good things must come to an end, and after a 16:21 5k, between 20k and 25k, and then a nifty 16:48 between 25k and 30k where Erkesso  continued to dominate the race.

Teyba was running an amazing race, she continued to build her lead until 21 miles, which she seemed to have stomach problems (RBR observed her possibly throwing up some sports drink), whatever the case, between mile 20-21, Teyba Erkesso ran her slowest mile of the second half, a 5:48. Erkesso continued her gutsy race, running a 5:21 mile.

As Teyba Erkesso started to falter, Tatyana Pushkareva of Russia, continued to run a superb race, cutting the lead Erkesso had developed, down from 90 seconds to 30 seconds with three miles to go.

Pushkareva was flying between 23-25.2, as Erkesso, who continued to run bravely, slowed down, and it looked, very likely that Tatyana Pushkareva had a shot at winning! By 25.2 miles, the lead was down to eleven seconds.

Tatyana Pushkareva, who was a competitive ball room dancer before she began running marathons four years ago ( RNR Roll San Antonio, in November 09, 2:30.30-win, 2nd at UA Baltimore, Oct 2009, win at Country Music in 2:36:44, 4th at RNR San Antonio 2008, and her first marathon was the Siberian Marathon, 2:34:55 in August 2008). As a junior, Pushkareva
had run 34:11, to finish third in the Russian 10,000m champs.

Pushkareva was running fast, and starting to focus on Erkesso, who was just holding on. Between 25.2 and 26 miles, the lead was cut to five seconds. Somehow, Teyba Erkesso held off Pushkareva for the win, in 2:26:11. Tatyana Pushkareva was second in 2:26:14.Salina Kosgei took third just before the finish, in 2:28:35, with Waynisher Girma of Ethiopia in fourth in 2:28:36. Bruna Genovese of Italy took fifth in 2:29:12.

Sixth place was Lidiya Grigoryeva, the former BAA Boston and B of A Chicago winner, in 2:30:31. In seventh, Yurika Nakamura of Japan, ran 2:30:40. Eighth was WeiWei Sun of China, in 2:31:14, and ninth was Nailaya Yulamanova of Russia in 2:31:48. Tenth was Albina Mayorova-Ivanova, in 2:31:55.

First American was Paige Higgins, who ran 2:36:00, in thirteenth place.

The women’s race was as exciting as any race I have ever witnessed! The history of Boston plays with a great tactical race. When I asked Guy Morse, about the race day, Guy replied, “This was the greatest Boston ever!”  Enough said!

For more on the race, please click on www.baa.org.