Evans Rutto and Timothy Cherigat: Ready for London and Boston

The winners of both, the Flora London Marathon 2004 and the BAA Boston Marathon 2004, belong to the same training group: Kenyan’s Evans Rutto and Timothy Cherigat are with KIMbia Athletics and they are coached by Dieter Hogen. Evans Rutto will start in Sunday’s 25^th Flora London Marathon while Timothy Cherigat will run at the 109^th BAA Boston Marathon on Monday.

What is the feeling and going there as the defending champion?

Evans Rutto: I feel good about London. But there is a very strong field at the start.

Timothy Cherigat: I am conscious that I am coming to Boston as the defending champion—and of course it is my aim to win again. I really like Boston and its difficult course.

What is your aim?

Evans: Well, it would be nice if I could defend my title. And I want to run a good time. I don’t know if it will be possible to run a personal best. But it depends on many things: the tactics, the weather, the pace making and how I feel on Sunday morning.

Timothy: I certainly would like to win the race. Everyone tries to beat me, so I am not running for a certain time—I run to win. Sometimes you have got a certain time that is important, maybe even a personal best. But then you may only be second because somebody ran faster than you. So I will not look at the time. I just want to be first at the finish line.

What do you think about the competition?

Evans: I don’t know but it might become a tactical race. There are too many strong guys in the race, who will watch each other. Among them are some of the best runners in the world, like Paul Tergat, John Korir or Stefano Baldini—it is like a World Championship or an Olympic race. Everybody has a lot of experience and so it won’t be easy to win.

Timothy: It is a strong field and I will not think too much about tactical things, but I am fully prepared. The race will be decided on Monday between noon and probably 2:08 p.m. You have to be flexible in the race.

How did your training go and where did you train?

Evans: My training went very well. We were two months in Iten (Kenya), and for the last three weeks we trained in Boulder, Colorado.

Timothy: My training was good. For two months we prepared in Iten (Kenya) and then we were in Boulder, Colorado, for the last three weeks.

Evans, you got your third child and there is something special about the name, please tell us.

Evans: Yes, I have three children. The oldest is Winnie, the one in the middle is Dennis and the youngest one, who is nine month old, is Dieter. He got the name of my coach, Dieter Hogen.

Timothy, you recently started building a petrol station in Eldoret?

Timothy: Yes, that is right. Eldoret is my hometown and when I won the Boston Marathon last year I decided to have my own petrol station. It is not ready yet, we just started to build it. But I also do things to give something back to my community.