A new marathon world record was set after a gap of 4 years, and who better deserves the honours than king Haile himself. The record was achieved in the 2007 Berlin marathon with a timing of 2:04:26 beating the 2003 time of Paul Tergat (2:04:55), also set in the Berlin marathon.
Courtesy: iaaf.org
58:53 … thats the time Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya took to complete the half marathon distance of 21.097 kms, and break the existing record of the great Haile Gebrselassie, who ran 58:55 in Phoenix, Arizona on 15 January 2006 (source iaaf.org). The record was set in the Ras Al Khaimah International Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates on February 9th. This race also saw the third best time ever in a half marathon, recorded by another Kenyon, Patrick Makau. who finished second in 59:13.
The 20 year old Wanjiru in fact held this record at 59:16 before Gebraselassie broke it in 2006.
The year is going to start with a bang with the Mumbai marathon (Jan 21) just a couple of weeks away. I would be doing the half there, looking forward to a sub-2 time, though I am a bit worried with my ankle sprain continuing for a few weeks now. I have cut down on my pace, but sticking to the volume.
I noticed an interesting post on the Mumbai marathon map, which details the map in terms of Google maps, do take a look at Vin’s blog.
Also coming up pretty soon is the Delhi marathon (Feb 11). I will make a decision on that after running the Mumbai half if I am in decent shape. I guess this will be the end of the running season for me, the next run after that would probably be after the hot Delhi summers are over.
I just completed the autobiography of Dean Karnazes, the Ultramarathon Man. The book is titled “Ultramarathon Man – Confessions of an all-night runner”, and provides an insight into the mysterious field of ultramarathons. It is filled with interesting incidents and milestones in Dean’s life and the various ultra events he has run. An excellent and inspirational read.
Dean’s webpage is located at : www.ultramarathonman.com
While browsing through some running websites, I noticed an interesting one. Its called CoolRunningNewbie and has lots of useful information for newcomers to this field. The following phrase on one of the pages caught my eye:
“Run your own Race”
BTW, I am getting a Sony DSC P200 pretty soon, hopefully that will make this blog a bit colorful as well.