Chicago Marathon

The men’s race at Sunday’s Chicago Marathon was a thriller.  If you haven’t seen the result, I won’t spoil the video below but it came down to a battle between Sammy Wanjiru (in red) and Tsegaye Kebede (in purple).

Runners didn’t use to run marathons until their track careers were more or less over.  But these two are only 23, and not short of experience.

Wanjiru is Olympic Champion, won London and Chicago in 2009 and has a PB of 2:05:10.  He was though starting to look like a light that burned too bright after a very quiet 2010 which included a DNF in London.

Kebede has recently been Mr Consistent:  winning Fukuoka last year and London this year, with a PB of 2:05:18 and with 3 of his last 4 marathons under 2:06 (and the fourth being a 3rd place finish in the World Championships).

The two best marathoners in the world.  $500,000 to the winner.  Irresistible force meets immovable object.

After running 62:35 to halfway, Kebede took the lead with 8 miles to go and, soon after, only he and Wanjiru were left.  If you never watch another marathon, watch the last mile of this one:

There is a good recap and live report of the race at the Science of Sport.  They call it the Rumble in the Concrete Jungle!