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Marathon Notebook

They'll spell it out

New name tags to aid spectators

By John Powers
Globe Staff / April 19, 2009
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Identifying the top runners in tomorrow's Marathon will be easier this year now that the Boston Athletic Association is listing boldfaced names on the front of the racing bibs, with numbers on the back.

The biggest challenge was in avoiding "Cheruiyot confusion," since three of the elite men from Kenya have the same last name.

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot will wear the defending champion's gold singlet with his name printed on a white background. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot and Evans Cheruiyot will have their names against a gold background, with the latter's preceded by the initial E.

Bill Rodgers, the four-time champion who's returning after a 10-year absence, also will be identified by name. The other four events on the World Marathon Majors circuit (London, Berlin, Chicago, New York) will use the same system.

Elite meet
The elite field, which numbers 29 runners from six countries, includes two former champions, Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva (2007) and Kenya's Timothy Cherigat (2004).

Three of the men - Ethiopia's Deriba Merga (fourth) and Gashaw Asfaw (seventh), and American Ryan Hall (10th) - placed among the top 10 in last summer's Olympic marathon. Also competing in Beijing were Russia's Grigoriy Andreev (14th), Hall's US teammate Brian Sell (22d), and Australia's Lee Troop (60th).

Two of the elite women also raced in the Games, with Kenya's Salina Kosgei finishing 10th and Ethiopia's Dire Tune 15th. Though Kara Goucher, the top US contender, also was at Olympus, she ran in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters on the track.

Cool running
Though warm and sunny weather is an April delight for strollers, the runners are likely to prefer the forecast for tomorrow: partly cloudy with temperatures in the low 40s and rain, if any, not expected until the afternoon. For those pounding 26 miles of pavement, a 70-degree day is bad news . . . While Neil Weygandt from Drexel Hill, Pa., attempts to extend his record streak of 42 consecutive Boston finishes, Andrea Hatch of Castine, Maine, will be bidding to lengthen her string to 32 (not counting her unofficial jaunt in 1977). The 65-year-old Hatch, who's tied for 17th on the list, is the only female member of the Quarter Century Club, the 36 runners who've finished at least 25 straight here . . . If Tom Derderian's "Boston Marathon" is the definitive book about the world's most fabled road race, the newly published "The Boston Marathon" (Arcadia) by Richard A. Johnson and Robert Hamilton Johnson is its pictorial equivalent. Its selection of time-capsule photos includes everyone from Clarence DeMar to Rosie Ruiz to both John Kelleys. Another addition to the Boston shelf is "Native Trailblazer" (BookSurge) by Ed Rice, the story of Andrew Sockalexis, the Penobscot Indian from Maine who was runner-up in 1912 and 1913.

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.

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