Soaking it all in
Rain and wind could be major factor in Marathon
Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot doesn't need a weatherman to tell him which way the wind will be blowing today and he doesn't care. Marathoning is an outdoor sport and a gusty ocean wind with chilling rain is merely another occupational hazard.
"For me, it's no problem," says the two-time Boston champion, who'll be defending his men's title in this morning's (yes, this morning's) 111th running of the world's oldest annual road race. "When the going gets tough, the tough are going."
What are likely to be the most unpleasant conditions in nearly four decades won't bother Waltham native Deena Kastor, the US record-holder who finally will be making her Boston debut. "I tend to thrive in adverse conditions," says Kastor, who won the Olympic bronze medal in Athens in searing heat.
So she plans to take off at the gun and slosh her way to Copley Square alone if need be. "The weather won't affect my strategy," says the 34-year-old Kastor, who would be the first American women's winner here since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach in 1985. "I'll make a strong push right from the start."
That was how Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka won her second straight New York title last fall, dashing through Brooklyn all by herself to win by a minute. "It was strange," she says.
With Kenyan defending champion Rita Jeptoo and Kastor, who had the fastest time in the world last year (2:19:36 in London), it's unlikely any of the top trio will be allowed to be lonely for long.
Cheruiyot, the World Marathon Majors leader after his victories here and in Chicago last year, will have the company that comes with being the returning champion. "I was targeted," recalls Ethiopia's Hailu Negussie, who dropped out during the race last year after winning in 2005.
No man has defended his title here since Kenya's Cosmas Ndeti -- who was also the last male to win three crowns -- did it in 1995. "The last generation like Cosmas and Moses [Tanui], those days were different than what we have now," says the 28-year-old Cheruiyot, who broke Ndeti's 12-year-old course record last year with a 2:07:14 clocking. "I don't know what those guys did to win. Maybe I will be the last person to win three."
Victory here would all but wrap up the World Marathon Majors title for Cheruiyot, who'd earn a $500,000 bonus. It also would be a huge boost for Prokopcuka, who leads the WMM women's board by 10 points over Ethiopia's Berhane Adere ( who will be competing in London Sunday) and is running with great confidence. "It is more higher," says Prokopcuka, who beat both Jeptoo and Kastor in New York. "Two victories in New York change me."
Though Prokopcuka, who was runner-up to Jeptoo last year in the closest Boston finish (10 seconds) in history, hasn't won here, she has covered the Hopkinton-Boston route more often than Kastor and Jeptoo combined. "I know the course very well," says Prokopcuka, who was fourth here in 2004. "So I know each turn, each hill."
So does Cheruiyot, who has been beaten up by the layout here as often as he has mastered it. After winning in 2003, he dropped out in the heat in 2004, then finished a distant fifth in 2005 before coming back to rip up the course last year. "When I won in 2003," he says, "I was not a professional."
What Cheruiyot has learned, as mentor (and world record-holder) Paul Tergat told him, is that the laurel wreath is more important than the clock. So when leaders Benjamin Maiyo and Meb Keflezighi took off like rabbits last year, Cheruiyot coolly sat back, waited for Keflezighi to fade, then ran down Maiyo on Heartbreak Hill.
"When I saw Robert, I knew he would win because I was tired," says Maiyo, who'll be back to challenge Cheruiyot today along with Negussie, 2004 runner-up Robert Cheboror, New York runner-up Stephen Kiogora, and former Berlin champion Philip Manyim. "I have to wait this time."
With a headwind blowing water in their faces, the contenders may well decide to hang together for an hour or so, if only to avoid being blown about. Not Kastor, though. "I don't think tucking behind a skinny distance runner will help anything," says a woman who knows an ocean wind when she smells one. 