Yesterday, Haile Gebrselassie ran the second fastest marathon in history [2.04.53], to win the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, 27 seconds shy of his own record set in Berlin three months ago.
A suicidal early pace, however, shows that even the very best athletes sometimes get it wrong. Gebra made the halfway mark in 61.27, a massive 61 seconds ahead of world record schedule, and a potential finishing time of well under 2.03.
After the last pacemaker Kenyan Abel Kirui dropped out at 30km, the pace continued to slow, and Haile could do nothing to stop the million dollars prize for a new world record slip away.
After the race Gerbrselassie admitted that the start was too fast: “I wanted to do 62 minutes for halfway, and I paid the price in the final stages, but I’m happy to run this time. You know, everything needs to be perfect, and today, I missed one little thing.”
For what it’s worth, the top 10 finishers in both the mens and women’s marathon were all from Kenya or Ethiopia. Sign of the times eh?
Wow, simply amazing!
Yeah, pretty crazy stuff huh? I’m sure the world record will be broken several times before the year’s out.
Should be interesting to track the fast guys progress.
Thanks for the comment,
–Steve