Fall Marathons - Athens and NYC

My determined ex-pat brother trained through the MidEastern summer heat to run last Sunday's Athens Marathon in Greece (10/31).  The race route literally traveled from Marathon to Athens, finishing in the Olympic stadium.  It's not a very old event (dating back to the 2004 Athens Olympics, a la Keflezighi and Kastor racing to the medal stand), however this running was the 2500^th anniversary of the marathon itself, Pheidipiddes' run to Athens to announce the defeat of the Persians. 

To the consternation of my parents, the family can add one more marathon finish to our growing tally.  Major Brennan came in at 3hrs 54min (3:57 start time) besting his previous and only other finishing time of 4hrs+ from the Rwanda Peace Marathon in Kigali, where he was soundly beaten by a one-legged land-mine survivor on handmade crutches.  He's come a long way since then but the first marathon is always the most difficult so it seems.  Clean pair of heels bro!

Sub four, son

Getting back to Mr. Keflezgihi, he's going to be out in the Five Boroughs this weekend defending his title at New York.  The other U.S. contender, Dathan Ritzenhein, had apparently been training in Albuquerque a few weeks back.  These two go up against the Emperor himself, world record holder Haile Gebrselassie in his first marathon on American soil.  There will be a contingent of fleet and relatively unknown east Africans there looking for these men to falter. 

Caroline Rotich of Santa Fe's AmeriKenyan-New Balance running club will be toeing the line in the elite women's field.  Battling Caroline will be American contender Shalane Flanagan, and several big names from overseas.  Caroline's only other attempt at the distance resulted in a late race victory at the Las Vegas Rock n Roll marathon last December, so with a good race she ought to be mixing it up in the lead pack.  

I know Marc Esposito is heading out there and plans to be in the wave start battling it out with Chilean miner Edison Pena.  Espo had a solid summer of training and I've got to believe he'll run Pena into the ground (take that, Oakley glasses man).  Surely I'm leaving out several other local names that will be in New York this weekend, add them to the comment field if you know of any.  Live athlete tracking can be found here.

Update:  Area results - Caroline Rotich finished the race eighth overall in 2hr 29min, 90sec off the winning time.  Marc crushed the Chilean miner with a 2:56 effort. Anilisa Sandoval ran 3:26, Maryann Kos 3:35, Talee Roberts 4:12.  If we're leaving anyone out please add them in the comments. 


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