Moses Mosop set a course record in winning the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds, and Liliya Shobukhova became the first runner to win a third straight title, taking the women’s race in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 20 seconds.
Mosop of Kenya has won the Chicago Marathon in a course-record 2 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds.
Mosop put aside lingering pain in his left Achilles tendon and pulled away over the latter stages, beating Sammy Wanjiru’s previous mark by four seconds while winning his first major marathon.
Shobukhova was the fastest woman on the course for the third time straight time.
Running alone for nearly the entire second half of the race, the 33-year-old from Beloretsk in the Ural Mountains became the second fastest woman in history with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 20 seconds.
Shobukhova fastest woman on course — for 3rd time
9:53 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
Liliya Shobukhova hit the trifecta.
She became the first runner to win a third straight Chicago Marathon title.
She lowered her personal best, which was the national record.
And she got both legs up on a place in Russia’s Olympic team at the 2012 Olympics.
Running alone for nearly the entire second half of the race, the 33-year-old from Beloretsk in the Ural Mountains became the second fastest woman in history with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 20 seconds.
Shobukhova’s time was slower only than three by Paula Radcliffe, including a 2:17:18 at Chicago in 2002. Radcliffe’s best is 2:15:25 at London in 2003.
Russian officials will pick its two fastest women from Sept. 1, 2011 to Jan. 1, 2012 as Olympic team members, reserving a third spot. It is unlikely anyone can top Shobukhova, whose previous best was 2:20:15.
“To be in the history of the Chicago Marathon is something special,” she said.
Moses Mosop sets new course record
9:41 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
Moses Mosop said his fitness level was only 80 percent of optimal because of training time lost to an Achilles tendon injury.
After the Kenyan’s performance in Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, one can only imagine what he would could do if 100 percent healthy.
In his Chicago debut, the 26-year-old Mosop clocked 2 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds, breaking the late Sammy Wanjiru’s course record of 2:05:41.
More Top Picks Is Red Wine Good For Your Heart
Mosop reacted to a surge by compatriot Wesley Korir in the 19th mile by covering the move, surging himself and immediately tearing apart the field.
He rattled off miles of 4:40, 4:37, 4:38, 4:40 and 4:39 before slowing in the final three miles but hanging on for the record, a first prize of $100,000 and record bonus of $50,000.
Moses Mosop wins in course record time
9:35 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
Moses Mosop of Kenya wins the Chicago Marathon in record time.
Fearnley wins wheelchair race
9:32 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
Kurt Fearnley won the men’s wheelchair race with a time of 1:45:00, 31 seconds off the 19-year-old course record set by another Champaign-based racer, Ann Walters.
Defending men’s wheelchair champion Heinz Frei was just five seconds behind Fearnley.
A kiss for runner 5 seconds ahead of pace
9:24 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
When Deb Arnold’s husband spotted her waiting on State Street, he stopped running and gave her a long, deep kiss.
“He’s five seconds ahead of pace,” she explained after Paul, 46, ran off. The couple is from Fort Atkinson, Wis. “This is very exciting. I’m so proud of him.”
Lisa Bun, 26, of Lincoln Park, held a handmade sign that said, “Go Ryan.”
“It’s hard to spot them,” she said of runners she and her friends were looking for.
“It’s a marathon for us too. We have to go and get somewhere else,” said Bun’s friend, Val Aliti, 26, of Elgin.
Mesfin Bekene and Jeff Fisher, both employees at the Union League Club of Chicago, watched as the runners hurried past.
“It’s great to see everybody participating in a massive spectacle like this,” said Fisher, who works as a doorman at the club.
Men pass 10K mark on course-record pace
8:35 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
The leading men went through 5 kilometers in 14 minutes, 53 seconds, about six seconds per mile slower than Sammy Wanjiru’s pace in his course record run.
The women were fast at the same point, ahead of the split (16:27) Paula Radcliffe posted on the way what then was a world record time of 2:17:18.
The women were running so quickly that the lead group had dwindled to three — Liliya Shobukhova, Kayoko Fukushi of Japan and Ejegayehu Dibaba of Ethiopia — after three miles.
A dozen men — three of them pace-setters — were together at 10 kilometers, which was passed in 29:40, right on course-record pace. Moses Mosop and Ryan Hall, who traded his usually shaggy haircut for a buzz Saturday, were among the leaders.
Shobukhova and Dibaba were running side-by-side as they went through nine miles, when the pace translated to a 2:18:35 marathon. Fukushi was a couple steps behind.
Dibaba is the older sister of Tirunesh Dibaba, 2008 Olympic champion at 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Another Ethiopian, Belainesh Gebre Zemedkun, and another Russian, Maria Konolova, were about a half-minute behind the lead three at 15 kilometers.
The men’s lead pack actually included Hall, seven East Africans — five Kenyans, two Ethiopians — and a Brazilian.
At 20 kilometers (12.2 miles), the pace was a 2:06 marathon.
‘I’m ready to go’
7 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
Thousands of people have crowded into Chicago to watch The Bank of America Chicago Marathon this morning.
“You can feel the energy,” said Kathy Kanak, 55, a volunteer at a water station on the course.
The 26 mile course starts in Grant Park and finishes there. Organizers say 45,000 runners are expected to take to the course through 29 of the city’s neighborhoods and an estimated 1.7 million spectators will be out watching and cheering.
About 7 a.m., runners flocked to the starting line.
“I’m ready to go,” said Peachy Benson, 34, of Oak Lawn.
If past times are any indication, the first runners from the elite class will cross the finish line around the two hour mark.
More Top Picks Best Indoor Electric Heaters For Large Rooms
Temperatures this morning are cool, but are expected to go up as the day progresses. The National Weather Service said the 7 a.m. temperature at Midway Airport was 57, with 72 percent humidity and no wind. Race organizers indicated yellow, or moderate conditions as of 7:10 a.m.
Eating a bagel before the start of the race, Rob Maurice, 46, of Denver, said he has one thing on his mind: “To finish.”
Running without Wanjiru
6 a.m. CDT, October 9, 2011
There are 45,000 runners registered to start Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
The man whom some think is the greatest marathoner in history should have been among them.
Said Californian Ryan Hall, one of the favorites in Sunday’s race.
“The great Sammy Wanjiru will be missed by all of us.”
Two-time Chicago champion Wanjiru, 24, died May 15 in a fall from a balcony at his home in Kenya, under murky circumstances apparently related to money, a mistress and a failing marriage.
When Chicago race officials showed a video of Wanjiru’s career highlights at the end of Friday’s elite athlete press conference, the star athletes watched with as much rapt attention as the audience.
Wanjiru set the course record of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 41 seconds in winning the 2009 Chicago Marathon, then waged a stirring duel with Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia to win again last year.
He ran seven marathons, finished six, won five, was second in the other. His slowest time — still remarkably fast — was the debut, 2:06:39.
But it was his victory at the 2008 Summer Games that made him a legend in a country whose runners have awed the world for nearly 50 years. Although Kenyan’s have won 22 Olympic titles in track and field, Wanjiru’s was the first in the marathon, the race which stands for long distance running.
It was not simply winning but the way he did it. In stifling heat and humidity, Wanjiru broke the Olympic record by more than three minutes with a time of 2:06:32.
“He made all of us very proud,” said Moses Mosop.
Mosop, who never had met Wanjiru, hoped Sunday to break Chicago’s course record to honor his compatriot’s memory.
Bothered by an Achilles tendon injury that limited his summer training, Mosop estimated he was at 80 percent of his optimal fitness. And he would be coping with unseasonably warm weather, as temperatures were expected to reach the low 70s by the time the top men finish just after 9:30 a.m.
In Wanjiru’s absence, Russian Liliya Shobukhova was trying to become the first person to win three straight Chicago titles. A dozen runners have won back-to-back titles.