Reflections on New York

Speed and drama were the words of the day at Sunday’s 2011 ING New York City Marathon. New York is always seen as the finale of the marathon season and this spectacle under brilliant blue skies and ideal conditions didn’t disappoint. The sun shone radiantly on Central Park and the show in the Big Apple capped a truly remarkable, breakthrough year for the classic 42.2K distance.

Geoffrey Mutai showed that his astonishing run in Boston was no fluke, destroying an antiquated Men’s Course record (2:07:43) that had stood since 2001, by more than two minutes, with his 2:05:05. Both second- and third-place finishers, Emmanuel Mutai (2:06:28) and Tsegaye Kebede (2:07:13) were under the old mark.

The women’s race began with speed and ended in drama as Ethiopia’s Firehiwot Dado — who was sixth in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2010 — passed Kenya’s Mary Keitany in Central Park for the victory in 2:23:15. The world record holder for the half-marathon distance (1:05:50), Keitany ran hard and aggressively from the gun, passing 21.1K in a fearless 1:07:56, building up a lead that stretched to more than two minutes. For the longest time, the chase pack of five (that included Dado, Buzunesh Deba, Worknesh Kidane, Caroline Kilel — fourth at STWM in 2008 as well as 2011 Boston champ – and Alene Amane Shewarge) were out of sight and out of contention. At 25K Keitany’s lead was up to 2:19. Gradually, however, there were signs of strain on the face of the courageous Kenyan, and the lead had shrunk to 1:48 by 30K. Her 1:38:57 split at 30K was actually slower than Mare Dibaba and Koren Yal’s 1:38:31 at STWM 2011, and Liliana Shobukhova’s 1:38:23 in Chicago. By 35K the gap was down to 1:19, and the commentators were saying that the pursuing sharks sensed “blood in the water.” At this point, the “sharks” were Deba and Dado, with Kilel and Kidane another 32 seconds back. The drama unfolded, as in so many other NYC Marathons, in Central Park, as the two Ethiopian pursuers caught Keitany, only to have her valiantly surge forward again to gap them. Then, in the last mile, Dado broke clear of Deba in pursuit, hauled in Keitany, and took the victory by just four seconds over Deba who chased her all the way home. This was the second smallest margin of victory in the history of the NYC Marathon women’s race. Keitany hung on for third in 2:23:39.

Sunday was a fitting end to a fantastic year for the marathon that has seen London get its long-awaited 2:04, plus an astonishing 20 women under 2:30. The times in Boston still stretch the bounds of our current belief. Then Berlin delivered a new men’s world record with Patrick Makau’s 2:03:38; and not to be outdone, Frankfurt followed up with Wilson Kipsang’s 2:03:42 last weekend. Now New York has moved from the 30th rank to the seventh fastest marathon in the world. The buzz, the excitement is unparalleled, as the numbers everywhere show. There were 47,000 who toed the line for the ING NYC Marathon — a world record for starters.

I had the pleasure of watching part of the race with Tokyo Race Director Tad Hayano who reminded me of the 300,000 applications for 30,000 places in their 2011 race, and the fact they now have a Tokyo Marathon Fan Club with 200,000 members.

I’m thrilled that the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront has been a part of this. Our first- and sixth-place women from 2010 have gone onto place third at Boston and the IAAF World Championships (Sharon Cherop) and win New York this year. Koren Yal’s STWM time (2:22:43) is 11th fastest in the world so far this year and her 1:38:31 with Mare Dibaba is a new African 30K record. Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis have given us a huge amount to cheer about in Canada and hopefully will give us more at the 2012 London Olympics. It has been a very special year, with the promise of lots more to come.

In a New York minute…

• 47,438 starters
• 46,795 finishers (Largest number of marathon finishers in running history. Previous was 45,103 at NYC in 2010)
• 118 countries represented
• Male finishers 29,867
• Female finishers 16,928
• Weather at start: 10 C, wind 15 km/h SW
• Prize money plus time bonus payments = $1,205,000. The largest ever in race history.