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|  ATF Newswire: real,- Berlin Marathon---The Elite Race By Larry Eder September 24, 2006 atf newswire, Vol. 9, no.44 Berlin, Germany
****** The sport of marathoning, like our sport of track and field is
one where hours and hours of running and training come
down to one competition. The personalities of the great
athletes shine through, and it is only after athletes have
attempted Herculean challenges that we bestow great titles
on our favored athletes. The 33rd real,- Berlin has nearly 40,000 runners and 8,000
inline skaters. The skaters had their own event Saturday
night. Next morning, the marathon weather was nice, about
55 degrees Fahrenheit, 15 degrees Celcius at the start. The pre-race talk was about Sammy Korir and Haile
Gebrselassie. Korir, a man with an unsually long marathon
career, ran his first over a decade ago in 2:12:33 on
December 14, 1996 in Cancun, Mexico. When asked this
weekend on how many marathons he had run, Sammy
said, " 21 or 22, I am not sure." In 2003, Korir, who was supposed to be the rabbit for Paul
Tergat, came in a close second to Tergat's world record, set
at real,- Berlin that year, in 2:04: 55, Korir was rewarded with
his 2:04:56, second fastest of all time. Last April Korir ran
2:06:38 at Rotterdam. The veteran marathoner versus the best distance runner
ever . . . No one but Gebrselassie would consider his marathon
career spotty, but Haile still has goals to achieve. Last
February, after the RNR Arizona Marathon, where the
Emperor as he is called, set the current world marathon half
record of 58:55, Haile had this to say, " Gebrselassie can
run a great race, even win, but without a record I have let
someone down. Racing is hard, it is more than records." We are seeing a career unprecedented in our sport. Haile
Gebrselassie has won it all, World junior championships,
World Outdoor championships, Olympic Games. Consider
this, in 1996, the final 5k was run in 13:05! Last night, most
of the betting was on Sammy Korir. My hopes were with
Haile, but my thoughts were, either Haile breaks Korir early
or it comes down to a ferocious kick. Well, the main characters have been set, and now the real
race. ******* The race, how it happened . . . "All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous
beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or
in a restaurant's revolving door." ---Albert Camus The quote above came from my brother Brian, the other day,
and I feel it is particularly appropriate for the 33rd running of
the real,- Berlin marathon. The marathon is won, not by
some bold move, but by the conditioning done over hours
and hours and focus. The race for real,- Berlin, for
Gebrselassie, started as he finished ninth last April in
London. The race got off on time and at the start, the official
pacemakers outnumbered the top men. The first kilometer
was hit in 2:47, and a group of four pacemakers were in
front, with Haile Gebrselassie running relaxed, Sammy Korir
to his right and five more pacemakers in the pack. The early splits, 2;47 for one kilometer, 5:44 for two
kilometers, and 8:45 for three kilometers, kept them on their
goal, an average of 2:57 per kilometers, or world record
pace. Four kilometers was passed in 11:40, with Korir,
Gebrselassie in the first pack. The 5 kilometer was covered
in 14:43, and the race was on. This early in a race, the elite runners are focusing on their
own running, trying to achieve the early splits as easily as
possible and trying to stay five to ten meters back from the
pace makers. Gebrsealassie was running within himself,
his crisp stride repeating itself, step by step. Haile still looks
like a fast track runner on the roads. Sammy Korir, runs with
much more motion, however, his stride looked fine and he
was also viewing the pack and running well within himself. The pacemakers did their job. It was quite evident that there
was some breeze on the course, but the lead pack, with
Haile and Sammy hit ten kilometers in 29:54 9 a second five
kilometers of 15:11. The eleventh kilometer was passed in
32:51, with 12 covered in 35:51, 13 in 38:57 and 14 in 41:46.
The pace was hot, under world record pace and the two
challengers were on game. The pack hit fifteen kilometers in 44:51, with Gebrselassie
in fourth and Korir in fifth place, but all still in a pack, within
five meters of each other. The third five kilometer was
covered in 14:58. Seventeen kilometers was passed in
50:47. Looking at the runners, Haile was looking strong
and crisp, his short track strides just bouncing along, with
Korir not laboring, but making a bit more effort. At this time, it
looked like Mr. G was starting to take control of the race. As we observed Haile Gebrselassie, the pacemakers were
beginning to labor, in fact, the pack of nine was down to
three at the fifteen kilometer mark. It was at seventeen
kilometers, passed in 50:47, that Sammy Korir's race
began to fall apart. He started to drop back from the lead
pack, first by five meters and then by about twenty meters. A
pace maker stayed with him, and it was this writer's first
thought that Korir was using this as a tactic. Let Haile push
the pace and hammer him over the last five kilometers. One
problem with this tactic--one must stay in the race in order to
pursue a tired leader over the last kilometers... At eighteen kilometers, passed in 53:41, Haile
Gebrselassie must have noticed that Korir had dropped
back, as he seemed to relax, and the pace was relentless.
Mr. G and now two pacesetters passed nineteen kilometer
in 56:33, twenty kilometers in 59:30, twenty-one kilometers
in 1:02:27, and the half way in 1:02:58. By the half way point,
Korir had dropped back dramatically and he was no longer
a factor in the race. "I was okay at halfway, and I knew I had a chance for the
world record, " commented Haile Gebrselassie after the
race. And so, the race was changing, from a battle between two
marathon warriors, to a run for the win and a run for the
record. The pace was strong, as 22 kilometers was passed
in 1:05:20, the 23 kilometer mark in 1:08:19, and 24
kilometers was passed in 1:11:22. It was at this point that
Haile had one pace makers left. As they passed 25
kilometers, in 1:14:09, it was now Haile Gebrselassie's
race, and he was 28 seconds ahead of world record pace! At twenty six kilometers, Sammy Korir retired from the
competition, leaving Haile Gebrselassie to go for the record,
which is just what he did. The race, for all but Gebrselassie,
became a battle of attrition, as most of the elite joined pace
makers in the next group back from what they had planned
on. Twenty seven kilometers, passed in 1:20;22 showed a
focused Gebrselassie, now by himself and running into a
strong wind. How would the win affect him? On one side, it
kept the heat down for the runners, but on the other hand,
the wind was definitely a factor in this world record pursuit. Haile Gebrselassie did not relent, from 27 to 35 kilometers,
he pursued the world record, hitting 30 kilometers in
1:29:27, and thirty-five kilometers in 1:46:27. At thirty-five
kilometers, Haile Gebrselassie was twenty-two seconds up
on the world record, and that is close as he got. "The last five kilometers really hurt, I could not run at all",
commented Haile after the race. From 1:43:37 at 35 kilometers to the finish, Gebrselassie
felt what many of us have felt over the last five kilometers of
a marathon -- that we are, alas, human. There is that time in
a race, whether one is first or 40,000th, that one knows that
the heart is willing, but the mitochondria are beat up, and
hence, each step becomes a battle of will. One knows that
he or she can finish. One knows that he or she is also in a
lot of pain, and one knows that this pain is, like the race,
fleeting. Gebrselassie pursued his victory first, his world record
attempt second and was rewarded, after a unusual race,
where he ran most of the second half by himself, with the
seventh best performance of all times and a personal best
of 2:05:56. When asked at the finish how he felt, Haile had
this to say about his race: " It was okay, not bad. The time
was fantastic. The wind came a different way, but the race
was fast. I am very happy." The German interviewer tried to
get Haile to confirm that he was dejected about his
non-world record race, but Haile would not submit. And
Gebrselassie was right -- this race shows again, that the
sport of marathoning, like the middle distance track world, is
all about the competition. On a windy day, in tough
conditions, Haile Gebrselassie showed that he has a spirit
comparable to his lungs and stride, and the 33rd running of
the real,- Berlin marathon has its male champion! Top Ten Men
Wami broke the race open at 20 kilometers, getting a lead of
14 seconds over Kosgei . By the half marathon, there were
22 seconds and Wami took off. Wami ran solo in the heat and wind about the same
distance as Gebrselassie, and the former Boston Marathon
winner hit the half marathon in 1:10:20, 25 kilometers in
1:23:11 and 30 kilometers in 1:40:06, with a lead over
Kosgei of one minute, fifteen seconds. Wami extended her
lead and broke countrywoman Adere's Ethiopian record by
19 seconds with her final time of 2:21:34. Salina Kosgei
stayed in second, running a personal best of 2:23:22. In
third, Monica Drybulska of Poland ran 2:30:12. Top Ten Women
******* The weather was a definite factor on the course. The wind
did cool it down for the day, but the sun was tough and it
was very hot. One observer said, " Probably the best hot
marathon I have ever seen." Many of the elite dropped back
and slowed down, having been hurt by the wind and heat. In the end, Haile Gebrselassie and Gete Wami, both of
Ethiopia, came here and defended their reputations, their
country's pride and add to their illustrious race histories . As
the field of 39,636 runners and walkers complete their
journey, we bid you good bye from the real,- Berlin
marathon. ******** atf newswire is published for the good of the sport by
shooting star media, inc.
(www.shootingstarmediainc.com), all rights reserved,
copyright 2006. shooting star media, inc. is proudly represented by the
Running Network, LLC (www.runningnetwork.com)
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