Runner’s and Triathlete’s Web News

 April 19, 2016:

 

From David Monti, @d9monti

BOSTON (18-Apr) — Athletes from Ethiopia dominated the 120th Boston Marathon here today, sweeping both the men’s and women’s divisions for the first time in the same year, and capturing five of the six podium positions. Lemi Berhanu Hayle and Atsede Baysa took the top spots in 2:12:45 and 2:29:19, respectively, and hoped that their victories would earn them berths on the Ethiopian team for the Rio Olympics this summer, despite recording modest times. Both athletes earned $150,000 in prize money.

Berhanu Takes Down Desisa

PHOTO: Lemi Berhanu Hayle winning the 2016 Boston Marathon in 2:12:45 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

Lelisa Desisa, the defending champion who also won here in 2013, knew better than any man in the field that winning Boston is about tactics, not speed. He ignored an impetuous opening move by Japan’s Shingo Igarashi, who spurted to a 21 second lead through the third mile, and remained comfortably in the middle of the pack, content to run a steady 3:10 per kilometer. There was no hurry.

“As we saw, the Boston marathon is different from any other races,” Desisa said after the race. “You don’t know how it will go. Maybe slow, maybe fast.”

Lemi Berhanu Hayle, who finished second at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon three months ago in 2:04:33, wasn’t watching the clock, either. He was watching Desisa. He figured that his best strategy was to follow the two-time champion and just make sure he covered any moves.

“When I came to this race, I came only to win, not to run fast, like in Dubai,” Berhanu told reporters through a translator. He continued: “I controlled only what Lelisa do.”

So, through the first 20 kilometers, the pack dawdled, running the first four 5-kilometer sections in 15:28, 15:50, 15:45 and 16:09, respectively. There were some small surges by Kenya’s Paul Lonyangata, Brazil’s Solonei Rocha Da Silva, and Zimbabwe’s Cutbert Nyasango, but no lasting damage was done. At halfway (1:06:44), there were still 17 men in contention.

It wasn’t until the 26th kilometer, that Desisa finally go serious.

“For 23 (kilometers) the pace was very slow,” Desisa later explained. “After that I tried to push.”

The 16th mile –approximately 24 to 26 kilometers– is sharply downhill, and Desisa decided to use that section to break up the race. He scorched that mile in 4:34 (2:50 per kilometer pace), and only Berhanu was able to cover the move. Compatriots Yemane Tsegay and Tsegaye Mekonnen did their best to maintain contact, but any chance for victory for them was already lost.

“When Lelisa pushed,” Berhanu said, “I listened. I followed what he did.”

While a dozen men were still in contention at 25-K, by 30-K Desisa and Berhanu had a 28-second lead, and it was already a two-man race. They passed 35-K and 40-K together, before Berhanu made his bid for victory. Desisa went for his drink at 40-K, and Berhanu took off. In a few seconds, the race was decided. Berhanu had a comfortable lead heading down Boylston Street to the finish in Back Bay. Nonetheless, he was still worried that he could be caught.

“I didn’t believe up to the finish line that Lilesa might come,” Berhanu said. “I was thinking somebody was over me.”

Berhanu’s winning time of 2:12:45 was the slowest here since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot ran 2:14:13 in 2007 when the race was held in driving rain and cold temperatures. Desisa was timed in 2:13:32, easily his slowest Boston, and Tsegay was able to hang on for third (2:14:02). Berhanu was so excited when he finished, that he did a few dance moves after breaking the tape.

“In that time I didn’t know what, I was going,” he later said, looking slightly embarrassed.

Because of February’s USA Olympic Trials Marathon, most home country athletes stayed away from Boston this year. The top American was 28 year-old Zach Hine of Dallas. Finishing tenth in 2:21:37, he was elated with his race, especially since he grew up on South Hadley, Mass., about 145 kilometers west of Boston.

“There’s nothing like a hometown race for me,” Hine said. He continued: “It’s really special. I’ve just had (so many) texts and calls; my phone’s been blowing up since I finished.”

Baysa Comes From Behind

PHOTO: Atsede Baysa winning the 2016 Boston Marathon in 2:29:19 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

The women’s race also went out slow, and luck –both bad and good– played a big role in the outcome.

After an easy first 5 kilometers in 18:22, defending champion Caroline Rotich of Kenya, suddenly slowed down, went to the back of the pack, and stopped. Just 7 kilometers into the race she was done.

“Sudden severe foot pain,” her manager Isaya Okwyia told Race Results Weekly via text message. “Not certain whether it’s bone or soft tissue.”

The big lead pack of 18 lumbered on, slimming only to 16 by 10-K (36:20), 13 by 15-K (53:59) and 12 by 20-K (1:11:45). The leaders were only on pace for a 2:31:16 finish time.

After the halfway point (1:15:32), the leaders began to trade surges, and the race resembled a fartlek workout. Baysa decided she didn’t want to get caught up in that kind of racing, and decided to hold a steady pace, instead.

“She kept her pace,” said her coach Gemedu Degefa. “If she moved in the same way, she would lose the race.”

 

By 30-K (1:46:32) a pack of four had broken away leaving Baysa running alone 24 seconds behind. Ethiopian Tirfi Tsegaye and Kenyans Joyce Chepkirui, Valentine Kipketer and Flomena Cheyech Daniel ran in tight formation, racing each other in earnest. Baysa tried to remain both patient and confident, watching the women racing ahead of her.

“In the middle of the race they did like fartleks,” Baysa said through her coach. “I was feeling my own strength. I decided a little bit with my level to maintain the pace.”

The sparring at the front began to take a toll. Daniel was first to fall off of the pace, then Kipketer was dropped going up Heartbreak Hill in the 21st mile, although she briefly caught up later. Baysa was a whopping 37 seconds behind at 35-K, but was beginning to make up time. She knew she was still in contention.

“After, everybody was near to me,” she said. “I moved and pushed the race in the last part.”

Covering the 5 kilometers between 35 and 40-K in 16:43 –the fastest 5-K segment by any woman in today’s race– she captured the lead in the 40th kilometer and, remarkably, ran away from the field.

“Winning the Boston Marathon is for me is big,” Baysa said, later explaining that she endured hamstring pain beginning in the 12th kilometer. Saying she was confident in her training, she added: “I thought I could win the race very easily.”

With their victories here today, Baysa and Berhanu lead the Abbott World Marathon Majors Series X with 25 points. The series will conclude here in Boston next year and the series champions will earn $500,000.

Ethiopia’s Atsede Baysa surges to women’s Marathon title

Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia hits the tape to win the 120th Boston Marathon.

By Shira Springer Globe Staff  April 18, 2016

None of the women’s race leaders saw the bright yellow singlet of Atsede Baysa coming. At least, not until it was too late.

In one of the greatest come-from-behind wins in Boston Marathon history, Baysa surged into the lead shortly before Mile 25 and did not relinquish it. The 29-year-old Ethiopian surprised everyone except herself with a late move and a first-place finish in 2 hours, 29 minutes, 19 seconds.

“I had very good training and I was confident I was going to get [the leaders],” said Baysa. “Once I got caught up, I was confident I was going to finish strong. I knew I had saved energy and I had power.”

After she crested Heartbreak Hill and approached Mile 22, Baysa trailed the two leaders — Kenya’s Joyce Chepkirui and Ethiopia’s Tirfi Tsegaye — by 37 seconds. But she rapidly made up ground.

Running past Cleveland Circle and down Beacon Street, Baysa covered the distance between the 35-kilometer mark and the 40-kilometer mark in 16:44. That was 43 seconds faster than Tsegaye and 1:06 faster than Chepkirui over the same stretch. She caught Chepkirui with roughly 2.5 miles left and passed Tsegaye heading toward Kenmore Square. By Mile 25, Baysa enjoyed a five-second lead on the rest of the field.

As Baysa chased down her competitors, the two-time winner of the Chicago Marathon signaled that she had more than enough left to power down Boylston Street. And her training partner Tsegaye saw her chance at victory slipping away.

“With 4 kilometers left, I knew that she was coming,” said Tsegaye. “I was very surprised [by Baysa]. When I saw her, I knew that she was going to win. Because at that time, my legs were tired. I tried, but I knew that she was stronger and I went for second place.”

Tsegaye finished as runner-up in 2:30:03 and Chepkirui followed in third (2:30:50).

With Ethiopians sweeping the top three spots in the men’s race, Chepkirui was the lone Kenyan representative on the podium, a strange sight in a race dominated by Kenyans, especially on the women’s side. The last time an Ethiopian woman won was Teyba Erkesso in 2010. It had been a string of Kenyans since then.

Defending champion Caroline Rotich provided the other big surprise of the race when she slowed to a walk around 4.5 miles in, then dropped out. It was unclear why she made such an early exit.

Meanwhile, in an elite field with few Americans because of February’s US Olympic marathon trials, Neely Spence Gracey made a solid debut at 26.2 miles, taking ninth place in 2:35:00

Gracey and fellow American Sara Crouch, who finished 11th in 2:37:36, briefly fronted a lead pack of 12 women about 5 miles into the race. It was a heady time for the Americans, and the two shared their amazement at the situation.

“We were commenting back and forth saying, ‘Wow, we are leading the Boston Marathon, we need to really take this in and relish the moment,’ ” said Gracey. “We knew the race would get going at some point.”

At that point, uneven pacing set the stage for Baysa’s comeback. Bothered by a tight left hamstring, she elected not to follow the leaders as they sped up, then slowed down, then sped up again.

Baysa and Tsegaye suspected this was part of Chepkirui’s strategy to shake competitors from the lead pack. So, Baysa hung back while other contenders found themselves drawn into an interval workout within the race. Baysa knew the surges would aggravate her hamstring. Instead, she strived for as consistent a pace as possible and saved her legs.

The women hit the half-marathon mark at 1:15:25. By then, the tightly bunched lead pack consisted of 10 runners with Tsegaye at the front. A couple of Kenyans — Valentine Kipketer and Chepkirui — followed close on her heels. The rest of the lead featured six other Ethiopians and another Kenyan.

Runners fight heat to cross finish line at 2016 Boston Marathon

The women picked up the pace through Wellesley and the lead pack dwindled to four runners by Mile 16 — Kenyans Kipketer, Flomena Daniel, and Chepkirui, and Ethiopian Tsegaye. A big reason for the smaller number was the five-minute mile logged as the field ran down the steep descent that precedes the rise over I-95 in Wellesley.

Shortly before the 19-mile mark, Daniel dropped back and the race appeared down to three women. All three — Tsegaye, Chepkirui, and Kipketer — looked strong and comfortable as they approached Heartbreak Hill shoulder to shoulder.

By the time they approached Cleveland Circle and took a left onto Beacon Street, only Chepkirui and Tsegaye remained in contention for the title. Or so it seemed. But it was only a matter of time before Baysa caught them.

“Winning Boston is very big,” said Baysa. “To win the Boston Marathon means that I am the best athlete in a very competitive field.”

Springer can be reached at springer@globe.com.