Boston Marathon Elite

At a great moment in the race Jan and I found a live feed from a Boston news station that showed the women's finish. Evidently the feed was available for free for the entire race, but it took awhile to locate this and it wasn't advertised well. The feed was from CBS Boston, WBZ, and was supposed to be free for New England area only, but we got it with no problem here in upstate NY. The station continued to carry live feeds from Heartbreak Hill and the finish line throughout the day.

After New Zealand runner Kim Smith led the race for 14 miles, she was overcome by cramps and the lead pack gobbled her up. Unfortunately Kim couldn't complete the race. American Desiree Davila came on strong with 10 miles to go and battled two Kenyans over the last 2-3 miles for the lead. Desiree faded back a few times by 10-15 yards and looked broken, but wouldn't give up and put in a great surge up an incline just before turning right onto Boylston street, taking the lead from Caroline Kilel and Sharon Cherop. Turning left onto Boylston Kilel came back and surged ahead, but Davila stayed strong and picked up the pace again. At this point Cherop was dropped. Kilel put in one final surge and won by 2 seconds over the feisty American. Desiree set a personal best by 4 minutes. 1- 2:22:36, 2-2:22:38, 3-2:22:42, (5:25/mile pace) 5 (Kara Goucher, USA) 2:24:52 a personal best and just 6 months from having her first child!



The men's race was just as exciting as Geoffrey Mutai edged out Moses Mosop (both from Kenya) for first place in a world record 2:03:01, an average of 4:41 per mile. Ridiculously fast. This is a Boston course record by 3 minutes. Ryan Hall of the USA ran great, set an American record in 2:04:58 and finished 4th. How soon will it be before the 2 hour mark is broken for a marathon? Mutai earned over $200,000 for the victory, course and world record.