Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya won the race in a time of 2:06:32, smashing the 24 year old Olympic marathon record by nearly 3 minutes. The most impressive part of this race was not his time (2:06 is no small feat, but at the same time nothing to get too excited about), but the conditions in which he won the race. The temperature by the middle of the race was consistently in the mid to upper 80s and the humidity was over 50%.
For anybody who has ever run in the heat, you will no how difficult this is. Heat raises the heart-rate, making the runner much less efficient. In addition to this, the high humidity makes it more difficult (sometimes impossible) for sweat to evaporate.
Brad Hudson, coach of US Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein (2:11:59, 9th place) has said that Ritz was in shape to run 2:07, which makes one wonder if Wanjiru could run 2:06, what could he run in ideal conditions? 2:04? 2:03? Who knows?!
All of the US marathon team ran very respectable races: Ritz finishing first for the US in 9th place (2:11:59), Ryan Hall finishing 10th (2:12:33), and Brian Sell finishing 22nd in a solid time of 2:16:07. Go team!
I’d like to end with a note that Haile still has my respect as the greatest marathoner of all time (so far), and at the very least my favorite.
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