You could see Samuel Wanjiru waving his hands in an effort to make the last remaining pacemaker move faster in the final half of the race.
That didn’t work.
Wanjiru soon knew his chances for a world record were gone because of the effort he had to expend running at the lead into a cold wind, so he settled for a figurative goodbye wave to the two rivals still abreast of him with four miles to go.
That worked, as a pair of surges put Wanjiru in command.
And then, with the race well in hand, the young Kenyan nearly kissed a lot of money goodbye by waving to the crowd with each hand during his final strides before the finish line in Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
There was a $100,000 bonus for breaking the course record. Wanjiru did not know what the record was or how much it was worth.
All that work, and the last second would be worth the most.Wanjiru beat Khalid Khannouchi’s 10-year-old record by one second with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 41 seconds.
“I would have appreciated it if you were one second slower, Sammy,” race director Carey Pinkowski joked.
A second slower, and Wanjiru hardly would have gone home empty-handed. He made $75,000 for winning and would still have received $75,000 for a time better than the third fastest in Chicago history (2:05:56) that did not break the course record.
“I was very happy to see I was the winner,” Wanjiru said of his celebratory waves. “It is unbelievable to take $100,000 for one second.”
Wanjiru finished 23 seconds ahead of Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco (2:06:04), who had been 30 seconds behind the top three with four miles to go but moved up inexorably for his fourth runner-up finish in a major invitational marathon. Vincent Kipruto of Kenya (2:06:08) was third.
Sergio Reyes of Palmdale, Calif., was the first U.S. finisher, a distant eighth in 2:15:30.
Women
Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova, who finished third at the London Marathon earlier this year, was a winner in her second marathon and finished all alone in 2:25:56. London winner Irina Mikitenko of Germany (2:26:31) finished second to clinch the 2008-09 World Marathon Majors championship, and defending champion Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia was third (2:26:47).
American Deena Kastor, the Chicago winner in 2005, placed sixth (2:28:50) in her first marathon since breaking her right foot in the Beijing Olympics.
“It’s very exciting,” the 31-year-old Shobukhova said. “It’s a great surprise for me.”
It was an emotional day for Mikitenko.
The two-time London Marathon champion pulled out of the world championship in Germany in August after her father died. With her mother celebrating a birthday Sunday, she turned in a solid performance that came up just short of Shobukhova.
So did Kastor, who is trying to re-establish herself at 36 and set a course toward the 2012 London Olympics — something she might not be doing had things gone better in Beijing.
“I feel really good about where I am right now,” said Kastor, the bronze medalist at the 2004 Athens Games. “My day fell a little short, but I’m still pretty ecstatic by how my body has held up and how strong I’ve gotten over the past few months.”
Wheelchair division
Tatyana McFadden’s entry in Sunday’s Chicago Marathon women’s wheelchair division was originally intended as a training exercise.
But the 20-year-old University of Illinois sophomore might consider more marathons after winning in 1 hour, 50 minutes, 47 seconds on her first try.
“I really wanted to build a good distance foundation for the 800, and I’m thinking of adding the 1,500 for the Pan-Olympic games,” said McFadden, already an accomplished wheelchair sprinter. “So I thought training for a marathon would help me in the long run for that.”
McFadden edged four other racers in a final sprint, including a 2-second victory over runners-up Diane Roy and Amanda McGrory.
Among men’s racers, Australian Kurt Fearnley claimed his third straight Chicago men’s title in 1:29.09.
“I was pretty much on target for what I was expecting,” said Fearnley, a two-time Paralympic Games world champion and the reigning wheelchair marathon champ in London and New York. “The cold made it a bit tougher, but I was happy with the result.”
American Chris Ayres won the hand cycle division in 1:32.43 while Melynda Baker claimed the women’s crown in 2:34.48. AP contributed
