Ben Kimondiu wore a runner’s bib on his back that read “PACER,” telling the world he was not racing but pacing the leaders in Sunday’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.
His finish said otherwise.
Kimondiu, hired to take the leaders out near a world-record pace, did not resist his temptation to press forward and won the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours 8 minutes 52 seconds.
He held off fellow Kenyans Paul Tergat, a strong favorite, by 4 seconds and Peter Githuka by 8 seconds in the first Kenyan sweep of the men’s race.
“It’s a big day for me,” Kimondiu said.
Perhaps the biggest of his fledgling career. At 23, he has completed just two marathons and was the youngest elite runner in the field, nine years younger than Tergat.
“I knew I could beat him in the future, but not today,” Kimondiu said.
Kimondiu finished second in the Los Angeles Marathon in March in 2:15:13 and he has won five half-marathons. He ran as a pacesetter twice earlier this year.
With the temperature hovering at about 40 degrees, Kimondiu set out with six other pacesetters, including Henry Tarus, who was hired specifically to aid Tergat.
Kimondiu had to rely on the cars leading the race because he missed his chance to tour the course on Saturday.
Midway through the race, Kimondiu and fellow Kenyan Joseph Kariuki were so far ahead of the pack, nearly 50 seconds, that race director Carey Pinkowski motioned for them to slow down so the others could catch up.
It wasn’t long before Kimondiu regained his pace, but with Tergat at his side and Githuka not far behind them. Instead of dropping out at about the 18-mile mark, Kimondiu made a spontaneous decision to continue.
“I felt I was strong,” he said. “I said to myself, `I’m going to see where I can finish the race.'”
He worried that Tergat would surge ahead in the final mile. “I was thinking I have to go,” Kimondiu recalled. “Tergat has a strong kick.”
Tergat has a storied track career with two Olympic silver medals at 10,000 meters and two runner-up finishes in the 10,000 at the World Championships. He also owns five world cross-country titles.
But he has become all too familiar with second place. In his first marathon run in April, Tergat finished second in London.
“The time is coming,” Tergat said. “I’m still learning the tactics.”
His time might have come Sunday if not for Kimondiu’s unusual move to forge ahead.
“I didn’t think it was possible for someone to lead for 26.2 miles,” said Mark Coogan, a 1996 U.S. Olympic marathoner and an analyst for the marathon broadcast. “Imagine if he were behind someone, being towed along. He could be a 2:06 guy.”
Kimondiu’s time of 2:08:52 ranks 21st all time in the 24-year history of the Chicago Marathon. He shares the mark with 1996 champion Paul Evans of England.
“I honestly think these Kenyans are a law unto themselves,” said Evans, who won the Masters division and finished 23rd overall Sunday in 2:18:34.
Last year Kenyans finished second through sixth behind two-time champion Khalid Khannouchi, who did not run this year because of injury.
Four Kenyan runners were in the top 10 of this year’s men’s race, and 1998 Chicago Marathon champion Ondoro Osoro was among them. He ran seventh in 2:11:44, noteworthy considering he has survived critical injury.
In July 2000 Osoro was shot in the neck when his family was carjacked in his hometown of Nakuru. He began training again last spring as nerve damage in his right leg continued to heal.
“To finish seventh after what I went through, I’m very happy,” Osoro said.
But no one was more pleased than Kimondiu, who had signed a contract for about $5,000 to run as a pacesetter and ended up earning an additional $90,000 in prize money.
“Talk about a rabbit running wild,” Pinkowski said as Kimondiu received his award.
“It isn’t bad for a young man who wasn’t supposed to finish the race.”
