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Jan-18-2009
Records Toppled at Chevron Houston Marathon
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
HOUSTON (18-Jan) -- One of America's oldest road racing records was toppled here today, as Ethiopian star Deribe Merga crushed Richard Kaitany's 19 year-old Chevron Houston Marathon record with a superb 2:07:52 solo effort.
On the women's side, Dire Tune's one year-old course record was also surpassed by her friend Teyba Erkesso, who ran 2:24:18 in her first completed marathon.
Merga, who finished fourth in the Beijing Olympic Marathon and who was the overwhelming favorite here with a 2:06:38 personal best, attacked the course from the gun with the assistance of three pacemakers: Gebo Burka and Tilahun Regassa of Ethiopia, and Festus Langat of Kenya. Actually running ahead of the USA Half-Marathon Championships field on a parallel course through the first mile, Merga reached 10 km in 29:57 and half-way in 1:02:44.
"I was racing with a team," said Merga through a translator about the first half of the race.
The race starts before dawn, and when the sun began to show itself over the horizon in a cloudless sky after about 45 minutes of running, the temperature pushed past 60°F. Sweat poured from Merga's body because of the high Southern Texas humidity. He was still on pace to run sub-2:06 through 30 km (1:29:17), but a new foe began to show itself: the wind.
"There as also a wind factor," said Merga who slowed significantly in the final seven kilometers.
Nonetheless, as the crowd lining the finish straight cheered for Merga on his way to breaking the finish tape, race director Brant Kotch had to be a happy man. Kaitany's 1989 course record of 2:10:04, long a thorn in Kotch's side, was history.
"We are on the verge of the 20th anniversary of the men's marathon record,"
Kotch had told the media at last Friday's press conference shaking his head.
"We've really put a target on the back of that record."
Also vanquished was three-time champion David Cheruiyot who was unable to finish the race. Kenyan Benson Cheruiyot finished a distant second in 2:11:53, and Russian Yuriy Abramov was third in 2:12:21.
Like Merga, Erkesso also ran aggressively. She was assisted by a male pacemaker, Mindaugas Pukstas of Lithuania, but she also had the company of an experienced rival: Romania's Nuta Olaru. She and Erkesso went through half-way just slightly slower than course record pace (1:12:23), but only Erkesso was able to hold that pace in the second half of the race. In fact she went faster, dropping a 1:11:55 for the second half to get under Tune's
2008 course record by a comfortable 22 seconds.
"I'm not good speaking English, sorry," Erkesso told the press after the race wearing the ceremonial cowboy hat given to the race winners. "My shape was good. Really, I'm happy."
When asked if Tune would be mad at her for breaking her course record, she laughed and looked a little embarassed as Tune looked on from the side of the podium. "No, she's happy," she said. "We're best friends."
This was not Erkesso's first marathon, but it was the first she had finished. She had made her debut in Chicago in 2007, the year it was extremely hot. She reached 30 km in 1:52:17, on pace to run about 2:38, but she dropped out.
Behind Erkesso, Olaru held on for second in 2:27:25, and Canada's Lioudmila Kortchaguina ran a solid 2:30:43 in third.
Both Merga and Erkesso earned $35,000 in prize money, plus $10,000 bonuses for breaking the course records.
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