By Duncan Larkin

Braving the cold, Sammy Wanjiru set two records in Chicago on Sunday. © www.photorun.net

The weather at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is almost always a factor. In the past couple years it’s been unseasonably hot. This year, however, the opposite was true with temperatures hovering barely above freezing and slight winds.

Leading the way was the Olympic gold medalist in Beijing, the 22-year-old Sammy Wanjiru from Kenya. Chicago was the first time he had ever raced in the United States. Wanjiru won the race with record-setting 2:05:41 hours. The records he broke—and only by a second—were the course record and fastest marathon ever run on U.S. soil. Both records previously belonged to Khalid Kannouchi who set them in Chicago in 1999. The laurels in the women’s race went to Liliya Shobukhova. The Russian runner broke the tape in 2:25:56.

The men’s race was thrilling from the start. On world record pace through the first 5 kilometers, the lead pack comprised of Kenyans let the pacers do the work. The pace was unrelenting through 10K: a blistering 29:12 minutes. At that point the pack (not including pacers) was comprised of six Kenyans, Sammy Wanjiru, Vincent Kipruto, Isaac Macharia, Tadese Tola, Ben Maiyo, and Charles Munyeki. Of these six, two are members of the KIMbia team: Maiyo and Munyeki!

The pace slackened just a bit by the 10-mile mark with the same group in contention. The clock read 47:14. Just shy of the 20K mark, the only competitors left were the Olympic champion, Wanjiru, along with KIMbia’s Munyeki and Kipruto. According to Running Times’ coverage of the event, it was at this point that Munyeki displayed an incredible gesture of good sportsmanship, picking up a cup of water at the water station and handing it to Wanjiru.

Onward they pushed; covering ground at an amazing speed of 4:45-per mile. By the half only once pacer remained. The time: 62 minutes—exactly what Wanjiru had planned and predicted before the race. He looked relaxed and in control. Still, KIMbia’s Munyeki stuck with him. Kipruto, this year’s Paris Marathon champion, hung in there as well.

The dynamic of the race didn’t change until mile 22. At that point, Wanjiru, a man who has only lost one of the five marathons in his short career, put on a major surge.

Neither Munyeki nor Kipruto could counter.

Wanjiru’s lead grew to 12 seconds. The final miles, he ran at sub-4:50-per-mile average pace, finishing the race in style. He waved to the crowd and, with a big smile, raised his arms in victory as he broke the tape. The Moroccan, Abderrahim Goumri, once well outside of a chance for a top-three placing in the early stages of the race, ran incredibly smart and placed second in 2:06:04, while Kipruto was third in 2:06:08. KIMbia’s, Munyeki took fourth in 2:07:06.

Liliya Shobukhova put on an amazing surge at the end to win the women's race. © www.photorun.net

In the women’s race, many anticipated a close match between the German record-holder in the marathon, Irina Mikitenko and the Olympic bronze medalist in 2004, Deena Kastor. The women went out cautiously in the beginning, running in a large pack with some miles hovering around 6:00-per mile pace. The American, Tera Moody, did the heavy lifting, leading in the first seven miles, with the others drafting behind her.

Then the dynamic changed.

Mikitenko took charge around the 8-mile mark, with Kastor right on her heels, along with Ethiopian pre-race favorite, Teyba Erkesso, her countrywoman, Berhane Adere, and fellow Russians Lidiya Grigoryeva and Liliya Shobukhova. Moody dropped several seconds behind. By the 10-mile mark, little had changed. The leaders had run 57:53. The first real move came from Erkesso. She put down an incredible surge after this point with no one countering. The pack slowly caught back up with her, however, taking the average pace per-mile into the 5:30 minutes range. They reached the half-marathon in 1:15 hours—on target for a relatively pedestrian 2:30 finishing time.

The race was relatively uneventful until after the 21-mile mark, when Erkesso once again surged to the lead. The eventual winner, Liliya Shobukhova, countered Erkesso’s move. The rest of the pack lagged until the 23-mile mark, when Mikitenko put on an incredible acceleration, taking the lead. By this point in time, Deena Kastor had dropped back and was out of the running for a top-three placing.

Irina Mikitenko during her U.S. marathon debut in Chicago. © www.photorun.net

With just a mile to go, in what was to be an exciting conclusion, Shobukhova showed the world that she had one more gear and put on a surge that no one could respond to. She picked up her lead from several seconds to over 20 meters from the rest of the pack—a lead that lasted all the way until she broke the tape with an enormous smile on her face. Her time: 2:25:56 hours. Irina Mikitenko (TV Wattenscheid) came back with a remarkable second place at her first U.S. marathon. Due to her father passing away in July and her training being disrupted, 37-year-old Mikitenko has not been as strong as she was at the Berlin Marathon in 2008 in which she had set a new German record (2:19:19 hours). After such a difficult personal time, however, a second place is still a success story. Third place went to the Russian, Lidiya Grigoryeva, in 2:26:47. Deena Kastor placed sixth in 2:28:50.

With their times at the Chicago Marathon Sammy Wanjiru and Irina Mikitenko have now secured their victories at the World Marathon Majors series 2008-2009. The award ceremony will take place in New York on November 2nd, one day after the New York City Marathon.

Along with the elite runners, another 45,000 runners of all abilities braved the colds in yet another memorable Chicago Marathon!