Geoffrey Mutai, 2011 BAA Boston marathon winner, photo by PhotoRun.net
The 2011 Boston marathon will go down in history for some tremendous performances. One of the factors was the high level of competition on both the men and the women’s sides. Boston did not use pace setters. The World Marathon Majors allows the race directors of the various members to make their own decisions about pace setters.
In London, they had pace setters, in both the men and women’s races, and while they did help keep the races on a fast pace, both races finally got to serious racing, and Virgin London had a course record and a women’s sub 2:20 marathon!
I have to admit that I enjoyed both races for different reasons. Both London and Boston have great fans, strong media support and the desire to run both great city marathons continues to grow with the running community.
Several observations: adidas won the marathon wars this weekend. As sponsor of both Virgin London and BAA Boston, adidas had tremendous licensed apparel at both-the jackets could be seen everywhere in both cities. adidas athletes (Emmanuel Mutai, Mary Keitany) won Virgin London, and in Boston (Geoffrey Mutai, Caroline Kilel) won BAA Boston. Spencer Nel, adidas sports marketing director, told RBR, ” there could not have been a better day or better marathon weekend!”
This was a perfect marathon day, and they must be appreciated for what they are-the perfect storm of a marathon day!
Statistically significant records set in the Boston marathon. First men
1) Of the top 8, only Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot is the only one who failed to record PR
2) As a reference top 4 finishers of 1994 Boston Marathon, Ndeti, Espinosa, Kipngok and Hwang Young Cho
never improved their Boston PR.
3) In 2009 Eindhoven marathon, Geoffrey Mutai covered last 7.195K in 20:29.
In Boston, today, he covered the last 7.195K in 20:27, but Moses Mosop did even better.
He covered the last 7.195K in 20.25.
Mutai covered the last half in 61:04, the fastest ever recorded. Previously on his way to the world record,
da Costa ran the last half of 1998 Berlin Marathon in 61:23.
Moses Mosop, 2011 BAA Boston marathon, 2nd place, photo by PhotoRun.net
Mosop covered 35 to 40Km in 14:07, the fastest 5Km lap time in the world class marathon.
4) The top 10 performance average of Boston marathon improved from 2:07:22 to 2:05:39.
Boston is now has fourth fastest top 10 average behind Rotterdam (2:05:07), Berlin and London.
5) Moses Mosop shattered marathon debut record with 2:03:06, improving 2:05:50 by Evans Rutto.
6) On the category of fastest marathon runner based on the average, Mutai is the fastest based on
the average of top 3 performances since 2008 (2:04:22), and second fastest based on the average
of top 5 performances (2:05:36). Gebrselassie is fastest based on top5 average with 2:04:57
7) The best marks for place for 1st through 5th and 7th through 9th were set
8) The fastest time in month of April was set
9) The fastest time for 25 years old was set by Mosop , while the fastest time by 29 years old was set by Mutai.
10) The number of sub 2:05 performers (& performance), 5, is most ever replacing 3 from last year.
11) The top 5 average (2:04:08) as well as top 10 average (2:04:56) is the best ever.
12) Geoffrey Mutai became only the second runner to run sub-2:05 marathon more than once.
Gebrselassie has three sub-2:05
For more on the Boston Marathon, browse www.bostonmarathon.com
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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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