Here's an article from the Chicago Tribune Internet Edition about today's Chicago Marathon.
Congratulations to all the runners who finished the Marathon today! I used to run until a few years
ago. I ran track and cross-country in high school and also ran 5Ks and 10Ks from time to time. I'm
thinking about running again, and I'm also thinking about running a marathon one day. The marathon
runners inspire me because they are very hard workers.
Tony Rivas Chicago/Franklin Park, IL, USA
Source: chicagosports.chicagotribune.comcs 031012chicagomarathon,1,371Open ↗
4077.story?coll=cs-home-headlines
Beginner's pluck? No, he's good Kenya's Rutto runs fastest debut time ever for the 26.2-mile event
By Lew Freedman Tribune staff reporter
October 12, 2003, 9:52 PM CDT
The first little move was a test. Evans Rutto's surge about 19 miles into the 26th LaSalle Bank
Chicago Marathon on Sunday morning was brief. He glanced over his shoulder, as if to ask the rest of
the contenders, "Who's game?"
A mile later, when the 35-year-old veteran runner from Marakwet, Kenya, accelerated again, he made
sure nobody was. At 20 miles, Rutto led by one second. At 21—after scorching a 4-minute-34-second
mile—he led by 10 seconds. Two miles later it was 32 seconds.
For most of the sunny, clear morning, the novice marathoner blended unobtrusively into a full
orchestra. Suddenly, he was a soloist, playing his own tune. And he turned in a virtuoso
performance, completing the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours 5 minutes 50 seconds, the fastest marathon
debut in history.
"I was not expecting to run such a time," Rutto said. "I'm very, very happy."
Rutto's extraordinary outing in besting the field of 33,155, including a legion of top Kenyans who
swept the rest of the top five, was just shy of the 2:05:42 course record Khalid Khannouchi set in
1999. It earned him the $100,000 first-place men's share from the record purse of $550,000 and a
$125,000 time bonus.
Svetlana Zakharova, 33, of Russia, a run-from-behind specialist, did not take the lead until
the final 2 miles but added the Chicago women's title to her spring Boston Marathon triumph
with a dramatic
2:23:07 run. Constantina Tomescu-Dita, 33, of Romania, led most of the way but couldn't repel
Zakharova's charge.
Following a similar pattern, picking off runners one by one in the last miles, Mebrahtom Keflezighi,
28, originally from Eritrea, but now of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., burst into the front ranks of
American marathoners by placing seventh in 2:10:03. The time, one of the fastest by an active
American, makes the former UCLA runner a favorite for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004.
Jenny Spangler, 40, of Gurnee, surprised herself and her cheering section among the estimated 1
million fans, by setting an American women's masters division record of 2:32:39 in her first
marathon since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The old record of 2:35:08 was set in 1991 by Laurie
Binder. "I didn't even know what the masters record was," Spangler said.
The record field from 96 countries and all 50 states, including more than 15,000 runners from
Illinois alone, poured into Grant Park as the sun rose over the lake. It was breezy and 53 degrees
for the 8 a.m. start.
A youngster held up a "Go, Dad, Go" sign, and 47 runners competed under the prominently displayed
banner of the Polish Marathon Club of Chicago. The Eggings, a married couple from Emporia, Kan.,
proclaimed their inexperience at the distance, T-shirts reading "Matt Marathon Virgin" and "Katie
Marathon Virgin."
Later, the festive day was marred when a 29-year-old woman collapsed just past the finish line about
noon and was pronounced dead at Michael Reese Hospital. She was identified by the Cook County
Medical Examiner's Office as Rachael Townsend of The Plains, Ohio.
Chicago's course is considered one of the fastest in the world, and race officials straightened some
turns near the end in hopes it would prove even faster. Yet with four-time champ Khannouchi out with
minor injuries, there was no identifiable star.
South African Gert Thys, a 2:06:33 marathoner and an assigned pace-setter, towed the field through a
1:03:20 half-marathon and led past 18 miles. Once, Thys waved to the pack of about 19 runners to
hurry up. Briefly, it seemed possible he would slip away for the victory.
Rutto, who has a 13:02 5-kilometer best, would not stand for a race turned into a walk in
Grant Park.
Paul Koech, whose 2:07:07 in second also represented a remarkable marathon debut; Daniel
Njenga, third in 2:07:41 after placing second last year; Peter Chebet, fourth in 2:08:43; Jimmy
Muindi, fifth in
2:24:57; and Abdelkader El Mouaziz of Morocco, sixth in 2:09:38; were part of the lead pack from
the start.
Many of the Kenyan countrymen wore identical bright red jerseys and red shorts, but not Rutto and
Koech.. Sometimes the leaders battled head winds and at other times they benefited from a tail wind.
Event newcomers Rutto and Koech tucked behind the seasoned front-runners and avoided a rash pace.
"The only problem I had," Koech said, "I didn't understand if it was the right pace. It was only
halfway I realized we were running slow."
Too slow for Rutto, at least.
"I saw the guys were not really moving," said Rutto, who eclipsed the first-timer mark of 2:06:47
set by Kenyan Wilson Onsare in Paris in April.
The 4:34 mile fried his foes and Rutto's next 2 miles, 4:42 and 4:41, and blistering final 10k
of 29:26, kept relentless pressure on them. "I was expecting guys to come," Rutto said. "It
didn't happen."
Rutto ran on with firm strides, arms pumping in a comfortable, almost loosey-goosey fashion, his
black-and-white racing singlet casually untucked. When he finished there was no red jersey in sight.
Copyright © 2003, The Chicago Tribune