Women's 2006 Story
Men's 2006 Story

Women's 2006 Story

By Barbara Huebner

Rita Jeptoo sent off her passport to get a visa to come to America to run the Boston Marathon. She got the visa. The passport? Must have gotten lost in the mail, they told her.

For the 25-year-old Kenyan who often trains in Italy, it was to be her first trip to Boston. Her first trip to America, matter of fact. And now, it was all falling apart. As of Friday afternoon, the passport was still missing.

Then the call came. The precious document wasn’t lost in the mail after all. It wasn’t even in the mail. Rita Sitienei Jeptoo’s passport had just been found, in the embassy in Milan. There was still time to get to Boston. Jeptoo landed about 6 p.m. Saturday night, and the first thing she did was go for a run.

She went for another one at 11:31 a.m. Monday, and it was a humdinger. Settling into a lead pack on a great day for running – temperature in the low 50s, almost no wind for much of the race – Jeptoo respected the speed and experience of those around her, waiting until her body and the time felt right. With about three miles left, just before Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Jeptoo made a move both decisive and final. She ran the 23rd mile in 5 minutes and 6 seconds – just two seconds slower than the men were running at the same time in Mile 21 – to burn off favorites Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia and Reiko Tosa of Japan, going on to win in a personal-best 2 hours, 23 minutes and 38 seconds. It goes into the books as the eighth-fastest women’s time here in history.

“I don’t have anything to tell because I’m happy so much,” said an overwhelmed Jeptoo, after the race, smiling joyfully.

Seldom has finding a lost passport been so valuable. For her victory, Jeptoo takes home $100,000 and sits atop the leaderboard for the World Marathon Majors with 25 points. Prokupcuka (2:23:48) was second and Tosa (2:24:11) third. Defending her master’s title was 41-year-old Madina Biktagirova of Russia (eighth, 2:30:06); followed by countrywoman Tatiana Titova (2:36:57) and Tere Stouffer (2:48:15) of the United States. First American for the second year was Emily LeVan of Wiscasset, Maine (2:37:01); she was 13th.

Despite losing her bid to become the first female champion from Japan, Tosa easily ran the fastest Boston Marathon ever by a woman from her marathon-crazed nation. The previous best time was 2:26:00 by Yoshiko Yamamoto in 1992, when she finished a distant second to Olga Markova.

There was certainly no runaway this year. From the moment of the elite women’s separate start at 11:31 a.m., a pack of about a dozen broke away. Led by Tosa, they went through the first mile in 5:24, a pace from which they would barely vary until deep into the Newton Hills. The 29-year-old, who finished fifth at the 2004 Olympics and owned the fastest time in the field, dictated the pace much of the way, her rivals overtly looking to her to take their cues.

By the halfway point (1:12:19), the pack had been whittled to eight: Tosa, Prokopcuka, Zivile Balcunaite of Lithuania, Jeptoo, veteran Bruna Genovese of Italy, Kiyoko Shimahara of Japan, Olivera Jevtic of Serbia and Montenegro and Alevtina Biktimirova of Russia. A mile later, the Lithuanian began to fall off, and Biktimirova would soon follow suit.

At 18 miles, as the Newton Hills began, the pack was suddenly down to four: Tosa, Prokopcuka, Jeptoo and Genovese. In a surprise from the cautious, methodical veteran, Genovese took the lead the looked ready to put the hammer down. No go. The other three worked hard to counter her move, picking up the pace, and the Italian was back in the pack as quickly as she’d left it. Within a couple of miles, by the top of Heartbreak Hill, she was spit out the back as payment for her efforts.

Now they were three. Jeptoo, Prokopcuka and Tosa seemed so evenly matched, so in synch, that visions of three women coming down Boylston Street shoulder-to-shoulder did not seem farfetched. “I did not know where Heartbreak Hill was,” said Tosa later, when asked how she was feeling at that point. The pace quickened. Mile 22, in 5:19, was the fastest mile of the race to that point.

At 38K, Jeptoo made a decision. “I saw my body [was] still strong,” said Jeptoo. “I saw the two ladies and sensed they were finished.” If they weren’t then, they would be momentarily: Jeptoo saw to that with the blistering 5:06 mile. (“I start 100 meters fast,” she said of the surge meant to test Prokopcuka. “She not behind me.”) Within moments, the Kenyan had a nine-second lead over Prokopcuka and Tosa was fading for good. But as Genovese had said at the Friday pre-race press conference, the race is 26.2 miles, no less. By Kenmore Square, the Latvian winner of the 2005 Osaka and ING New York marathons had cut the gap to six seconds, which would dwindle to five before Jeptoo sprinted to the finish in joy.

“I wasn’t feeling tired,” she explained succinctly.

With her victory, Jeptoo gave Kenya the women’s title for the sixth time in seven years, and some believe she is the next Catherine Ndereba, the only woman ever to win here four times. Before today, her best race was a 2:24:22, seventh-place finish in the World Championships last summer, following a couple of low-key wins in Milan and Stockholm. After today, there is no telling.

Winning the women’s wheelchair race was an elated Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland, who also won here in 2002 and has now finished in the top three here five times. Her time of 1:43:42 left Diane Roy of Canada in second, at 1:48:42. “I’m absolutely happy,” she said Hunkeler, a double silver medalist (1500m and 5000m) at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. “That was really cold, and we had a headwind, and it’s not easy.”

Top of Page

Men's 2006 Story

The 2006 edition of the BAA Boston Marathon delivered all the intrigue and upsets that it promised. Defending champion, Hailu Negussie, failed in his bid to take a second win, while Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot succeeded in adding this year's race to his win of 2003. Mebrahtom Keflezighi failed in his bid to become the first US winner of this race since Greg Meyer in 1983, but he did take a superb third place in 2:09:55, just two seconds off his fastest of all time, and became the highest American finisher since 1985. Additionally, in what may be taken as continuing evidence of the resugence in US distance running, no fewer than five Americans filled out the top 10 - Keflezighi, Brian Sell, Alan Culpepper, Peter Gilmore and Clint Verran.

In the early going, there was little evidence that Cheruiyot would be the man to claim the $100,000 first place finish. He bided his time, employing the tactic that served him well in 2003 and which has proved, time and again, to be the most prudent course of action on the fabled Hopkinton to Boston course. The early leader was John Yuda (TAN), who charged to the forefront from the gun and who led the field through a first mile of 4:57, five miles in 24:20 and 10 in 48:07. In his wake through the early undulations were Keflezighi, Culpepper, Ben Maiyo (KEN), Deriba Merga (ETH), John Korir (KEN), defending champ Negussie (ETH), Timothy Cherigat (KEN, the winner in 2004), Wilson Onsare (KEN, 2nd in 2005), William Kiplagat and Kenjiro Jitsui (JPN).

Maiyo was the first to exert his influence, edging past Yuda soon after 10 miles and causing the field to stretch and thin. By 11 miles, (52:49, split of 4:42)only three remained in contention, none of whom was Cheruiyot. Maiyo appeared confidently aggressive, forcing the pace, but with Keflezighi and the surprising Merga keeping pace right alongside. Twenty or so meters in arrears, Cheruiyot kept company with 2004 winner Cherigat and the debuting John Korir.

At half way, the split was 62:43, with Maiyo, Keflezighi and Merga still in the vanguard, holding 12 seconds on Cheruiyot, Cherigat and Korir. As in many a marathon, the first half of this race was the preface to the chapters that were going to be really interesting.

Predicable may have been that the Newton Hills, from approximately 16 to 20.5, would the most impactful part of the course. In tangible terms, at the start of the hills, the leading trio was all together; at the crest, Merga was gone, Keflezghi was adrift in third, and Cheruiyot had charged through to take his place immediately behind the leader. "Sometimes, the hills are good for me," Cheruiyot explained later. "To climb is very easy for me." Once the hills were completed, Cheruiyot took that as his cue to stake his claim. At the 21 mile mark, the time was 1:41:21 for Cheruiyot, a split of 5:04. One mile later, the clock read 1:46:02 (4:41) and the writing was on the wall.

Cheruiyot did labor in the closing two miles, but not enough to give any of those chasing even the slightest hope of an upset. Hammering toward the finish line, the only question remaining was whether he would eclipse Ndeti's course mark. He cut it close, erasing that hallowed time by a mere one second; but, that single second was all it took to add $25,000 to his winning $100,000. Adding to the winner's prize package were the 25 points that he claimed in the World Marathon Majors series, of which Boston was the inaugural event. The two year, five event series - encompassing Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York - will divide a purse of at least $1,000,000 between the male and female winners. The Flora London Marathon, the second race in the series, takes place on Sunday.

In the closing miles, Maiyo and Keflezighi fought to the line in comparative isolation, Maiyo crossing in 2:08:21 ($40,000) and, Keflezighi finishing in 2:09:56 ($22,500). Culpepper could enjoy no such comfort. His compatriot Sell, surged past him on the very last turn of the course - "I thought it was some guy who jumped on the course," Culpepper laughed - the two reaching the finish line in fourth and fifth respectively, Sell in 2:10:55 ($18,000) and Culpepper in 2:11:05 ($14,000). Of the five Americans in the top 10, Culpepper observed, "Some of us who make our living from the sport are not as surprised at this as some others may be. This has been a work in progress for the last five or six years. I think it bodes very well."

"My hat's off to everybody who ran really well," proffered Keflezighi. In this particular race, that encompassed an awful lot of people.

In the master's race, the victory went to Sammy Nyangincha (KEN) in 2:26:37, a win worth $10,000. Second was Richard Cartier (CAN) in 2:32:06 ($5000). Third was Louis-Philippe Garnier (CAN) in 2:33:19 ($2500).

Top of Page