25 YEARS AGO TODAY, ONE OF THE WILDEST CHICAGO MARATHONS EVER
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission
NOTE: Here is my original Race Results Weekly story from the 2001 Chicago Marathon –Ed.
CHICAGO (07-Oct-2001) — Two equally unexpected outcomes at today’s competition left both race organizers and the media wagging their heads in disbelief. Who would have imagined that the five-time world cross-country champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist, Paul Tergat, would be relegated to second place by a young pacesetter who had never broken 2:15 in the marathon before? Who would have predicted that defending champion Catherine Ndereba could smash Naoko Takahashi’s one-week-old world record by nearly a minute after running the first three miles at a 2:30:00 pace?
Yet it happened, much to the delight of executive race director Carey Pinkowski, who saw his race in trouble early on. Designated pacemakers Godfrey Kiprotich, Ben Kimondiu, Joseph Kariuki and Henry Tarus bolted from the starting line and, by the 5 km mark, had already set a sub-2:07:00 pace. Unfortunately, none of the other contenders followed. The quartet of Kenyans built their lead over the main field with each passing kilometer, to 16 seconds by 10-K and 37 seconds by 15-K.
“I have no explanation as to what happened,” said Pinkowski about the pacemaking. “I thought our guys did a good job,” pointing out that they were running at the agreed-upon 1:03:00+ first-half pace. But why didn’t the others follow them? “It appeared to me they had no interest in that,” Pinkowski offered.
“I didn’t know if we were going fast and were going to destroy ourselves,” Tergat later said of his decision to hold back.
Shouting instructions from the press truck, Pinkowski sent Kiprotich and Tarus back to join the main field, which included Tergat, Ondoro Osoro, Peter Githuka, Noriaki Igarashi, Eder Moreno, and Mohamed Ouaadi. But Kariuki and Kimondiu, trying to do what they were contracted to do, kept pushing the pace. The television show began to look like a Saucony commercial, as the two Kenyans clad in their mixed blue Saucony kit sped through the streets of Chicago. As if to underscore Kimondiu’s lack of profile, Frank Shorter, handling the commentating duties in the television studio, repeatedly misidentified him as either “Kahugu” or “Tarus.”
Kariuki and Kimondiu hit the half-way mark on schedule in 1:03:21, 49 seconds ahead of the Tergat group. Then, in one of the strangest scenes in recent road-running memory, the two abruptly slowed and began to jog, waiting for the race to catch them.
“You feel a bit relaxed; it is good,” Kimondiu would later say about this breather, where he literally lost about half a minute.
Through 25 km (1:15:50) the race was back together, but like a ticking time bomb it was bound to explode soon. The slack pace continued for another kilometer until Kiprotich and Kimondiu, trying to get it going again, found themselves up the road ahead of the others. Githuka moved up to join them, but Tergat wasn’t reacting. After a brief break, Tergat quickly returned and launched his move. He surged ahead of Kimondiu and Tarus, and the trio passed the 30 km point (1:30:36) with a 12-second lead.
“The pace was going up and down,” Tergat would later say, pointing out how tiring this was.
The pace was definitely up now. Having fulfilled his obligations through 30-K, Tarus soon retired, leaving Tergat and Kimondiu alone at the front. Their lead grew steadily, reaching 35-K in 1:45:42 and giving them a 23-second cushion over Ouaadi and Githuka, the only other athletes left in contention. Kimondiu, with his high arm carriage, sturdy build and only modest height, was the picture of contrast next to the tall, gangly Tergat. But he looked smooth and determined, constantly forcing the pace. He had made up his mind to go the distance.
“I said to myself, I’m going to finish the race,” Kimondiu recounted. “When I started, I had no idea of finishing.”
Tergat seemed to be perfectly positioned for victory. Surely this track star could overwhelm his rival with superior leg speed and blow past him in the last 400m to win. Tergat tried to move on Kimondiu twice, but the Kamba tribesman who trains in Limuru answered each time and kept the pace up. Entering the finishing straight, Tergat looked flat-footed, and Kimondiu pulled away. Waving his arms joyfully like a windmill rotating left then right, he crossed the finish line first in 2:08:52, knocking some seven minutes off his career-best time and taking the wind out of Tergat’s sails. Tergat crossed four seconds later, holding off Githuka, who had been gaining on the leaders.
“Actually, it’s a great achievement,” said Kimondiu, calmly evaluating his unlikely victory over one of the greatest runners of all time. “I’ve never dreamed of beating him, but I dreamed of running a great race.”
NDEREBA DIGS DEEP
After their spirited duel in last year’s race, all eyes were on defending champion Catherine and runner-up Lornah Kiplagat. Their battle last year led to the fastest women’s marathon of the year, but as the 2001 race got underway, the pace was ordinary. They crossed the 5-K point in 17:41, barely below a 2:30:00 marathon pace. Any chance of a course or world record seemed to have evaporated, and the two-time Boston Marathon champion was alarmed.
“I did not notice where the first mile was,” she explained, “and the second one I didn’t see it. I said, oh my God, this is not the pace I want. I have to wake up and run my pace.”
She quickly jump-started the race and locked in a 3:18 per km pace (5:18 per mile). Only Kiplagat and late entrant Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia could keep up. They hit the 10-K in 34:10. Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland worked her way up to join them, and the four athletes made 15-K in 50:40, a more-than-respectable 2:22:30 pace.
But fast wasn’t fast enough for Ndereba. She found another gear and dropped to an impossible 3:10 per km (5:06 per mile). She was quickly alone in uncharted territory. She had some company in American Robert Johnson, but Ndereba stayed close to him to avoid the draft. Wearing black knitted gloves and a headband for warmth, she needed two hands to scoop up her slippery water bottles at the elite fluid stations because she was running so fast.
The kilometers rolled by, and Ndereba held her pace. Despite the sluggish start, she was already running below Naoko Takahashi’s world record pace by the 27th kilometer. Her mind and body fought the clock.
“All what I’ve done all those months,” she said. “All that sacrifice, all the hard training. Sometimes it’s hard, but I have taught myself to run by myself. In my training I don’t rely on somebody I just rely on myself.
Running the last 10 kilometers in an eye-popping 32:35, she toppled Takahashi’s week-old record by nearly a minute. Holding her hands over her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, she was overwhelmed with emotion. Her strong religious faith clearly played a role here.
“It had been my prayer and my dream,” she sobbed. “I thank Him, and I worship Him. God is there for those who don’t have strength. If I feel great. I’m overwhelmed.”
While Ndereba became the first athlete in history to win Boston and Chicago back-to-back, Lornah Kiplagat was in deep trouble. Although she had recorded a time of 2:00:13 at the 35-K mark, she had already stopped more than once.
“She couldn’t breathe any more after 25-K and stopped a few times and tried again,” said Pieter Langerhorst, her companion and manager. “At 24 miles she had to drop out.”
After some confusion, Kiplagat made it into an ambulance and into Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a blood clot in her right lung. She will likely remain in the hospital for the remainder of the week, according to Langerhorst.
Top Results:
MEN (prize money doubled for Americans in top-10) –
1. Ben Kimondiu KEN 2:08:52 PB $75,000+15,000i
[1:03:21 / 1:05:31]
2. Paul Tergat KEN 2:08:56 45,000+15,000i
3. Peter Githuka KEN 2:09:00 35,000+10,000i
4. Mohamed Ouaadi FRA 2:09:26 20,000+10,000i
5. Noriaki Igarashi JPN 2:09:35 15,000+10,000i
6. Rod DeHaven USA/WI 2:11:40 PB 20,000+ 3,000i
7. Ondoro Osoro KEN 2:11:44 7,500+ 3,000i
8. Shaun Creighton AUS 2:11:54 5,000+ 3,000i
9. Mitsunori Hirayama JPN 2:12:25 3,000+ 2,000i
10. Simon Mphulanyane RSA 2:12:44 2,000+ 2,000i
11. Tomix da Costa BRA 2:12:50 2,000i
12. Andrew Sambu TAN 2:13:04
WOMEN (prize money doubled for Americans in top-10) –
1. Catherine Ndereba KEN 2:18:47*WR $75,000+100,000i#
[1:10:15 / 1:08:32]
2. Elfenesh Alemu ETH 2:24:54 45,000+15,000i
3. Kerryn McCann AUS 2:26:04 35,000+10,000i
4. Malgorzata Sobanska POL 2:26:08 20,000+10,000i
5. Nives Curti ITA 2:28:59 PB 15,000+ 5,000i
6. Kayoko Obata JPN 2:32:19 10,000
7. Ichiyo Naganuma JPN 2:34:02 7,500
8. Anne van Schuppen, 40 NED 2:41:51 5,000
9. Karin Schön SWE 2:42:27 PB 3,000
10. Kelly Keeler, 39 USA/MN 2:43:06 4,000
11. Jennifer McNutt USA/TX 2:46:44
12. Wendi Ray USA/WI 2:46:44
i = Earned time incentive bonus
*World record; previous 2:19:46, Naoko Takahashi, Berlin, 30-Sep-2001; also course record; previous 2:21:21, Joah Benoit, 1985
#Also earned a Volkswagen automobile for world record
+Training run in preparation for the NYC Marathon; Cordell was actually in
ENDS
