{"id":1647,"date":"2012-09-28T11:45:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T17:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2012-09-28T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T17:45:52","slug":"mutai-ready-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/news\/mutai-ready-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutai ready to go"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Geoffrey<\/a>

Geoffrey Mutai pre-Berlin Marathon 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

When the fastest man in the marathon world meets the fastest course in the marathon world, the odds are in favour of something special. In Berlin that usually means a world record, of which there have been no fewer than seven in the past 15 years. The most recent was last year, by Patrick Makau of Kenya, 2.03.38 in a race during which he destroyed former record holder, the legendary Haile Gebrselassie.<\/p>\n

It would be hard for Sunday\u2019s 39th BMW BERLIN MARATHON to reproduce such an incident-packed race as last year, but Makau himself is in little doubt that compatriot Geoffrey Mutai will break his record, saying in an email this morning (Friday), “I know that they are capable of setting the fastest time over the flat Berlin course (which would be a WR). We have been training together in Eldoret and they are geared up for the event”.<\/p>\n

The \u201cthey\u201d includes Mutai\u2019s training partner and marathon debutant, Dennis Kimetto, whose 59.14 half and world record 25k (71.18), both here in Berlin this year, promise much.<\/p>\n

Mutai finished second here to Makau two years ago, in 2.05.10, in a rain-sodden race. But he had an \u201cannus mirabilis\u201d the following year, running an extraordinary 2.03.02 to win Boston (on a course not accepted for WR purposes), then winning New York in another course record, 2.05.06.<\/p>\n

In contrast, 2012 has been disastrous for Mutai. He had to drop out of this year\u2019s Boston, suffering from the hot conditions, a reversal which prompted the Kenyan selectors to ignore him (and Makau) for London 2012. \u201cI was disappointed not to finish Boston, and the selection was Athletics Kenya\u2019s decision,\u201d\u009dsaid Mutai at Friday morning\u2019s press conference in central Berlin, \u201cbut it has given me motivation to run well here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proof of that is that Mutai and company have requested a pace of 61.40 for the first half. Whereby hangs a tale, of Boston. When you\u2019ve run the fastest time in history, world record or not, the suggestion that it wasn\u2019t all your own work evidently rankles. Someone asked what time Mutai thought he might have run, had there not been a gale force breeze behind the pack in Boston 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe race started at a very fast pace,\u201d related Mutai. \u201cI only realised how fast at halfway, and I asked myself if we could even finish running at that pace. I didn\u2019t feel the wind when I was running. But there were 12 of us, running fast, there isn\u2019t a pacemaker in Boston. People afterwards said it was the wind, but they didn\u2019t give credit to the runners.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is of course the little matter of the drop between start and finish, which prevents Boston being accepted for record purposes; but since there is a lot of up and down in between, runners maintain Boston is just as hard as elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The contrast, and advantage of Berlin from Mutai\u2019s perspective is, \u201cbecause of the hills in Boston you can not go with the same speed, but the Berlin course is flat, so you can maintain the same speed\u201d. Mutai had a bad cough and cold two weeks ago, but maintains he is fully fit and raring to go. He hesitated when asked what percentage chance he gave himself of breaking Makau\u2019s record, but retreated behind a circumspect, \u201cI\u2019ll do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only will he have Kimetto for company, but race director Mark Milde is trying to make Mutai feel as comfortable as could be possible by enlisting other members of his training group as pacemakers.<\/p>\n

Should Mutai and Kimetto falter, another colleague Jonathan Maiyo (2.04.56 in Dubai in January) should be thereabouts to pick up the pieces. But despite his marvellous 2011, Mutai emphasised that he still has much to do. \u201cI\u2019ve not reached where I want to be in my career,\u201d he said \u201cfinally, I\u2019m still looking for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Mutai finds it here on the streets of Berlin, and whether or not he breaks Makau\u2019s world record on Sunday, there will be a nice irony in the finishers\u2019 medal he will be handed after crossing the line. It bears the likeness of \u2013 Patrick Makau.<\/p>\n

The women’s race: Aberu Kebede targets sub 2:20 time and may have company on Sunday
\nWhen Aberu Kebede woke up the morning after her arrival on Wednesday, and saw the rain sheeting down on a sombre Berlin, she must have though that she was in for a re-run of the marathon two years ago, remembered locally as \u201cthe rainy race\u201d. But since she won that one by over a minute, in 2.23.58, a shower or two for Sunday morning\u2019s 39th BMW BERLIN MARATHON might have seemed like a good idea.<\/p>\n

Not a bit of it. \u201cOh, no, I\u2019d prefer pleasant conditions, no rain, and not too cold,\u201d\u009dshe said at the press conference yesterday. And it looks like she\u2019s going to get \u201cpleasant conditions\u201d; the forecast is for temperatures between around 8C (46F) at the 9 am start, to around 13C (55F) by midday, with little or no wind.<\/p>\n

Both Kebede and training partner Tirfi Tsegaye reckon the 2:20 barrier is within reach. Kebede would have broken the Ethiopian record with her 2.20.33 in Dubai in January this year, but for the minor inconvenience of three of her compatriots finishing ahead of her, with winner Aselefech Mergia taking both victory and the national honours with 2.19.31.<\/p>\n

But Bezunesh Bekele, who had finished over a minute behind Kebede in Berlin 2010 was a few strides ahead of her in Dubai. That and the presence of training partner Tirfi Tsegaye here in Berlin will give impetus to both of them. Tsegaye won a windy Paris Marathon earlier this year, in 2.21.40, but both feel that their training sessions in the hills of Entoto, just outside the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abeba have set them up to join the sub-2.20 club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to come back here, after winning two years ago,\u201d \u009dsaid Kebede, \u201cI feel confident I can produce another good result. If everything goes well on Sunday, I think I can run under 2.20. That\u2019s my aim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsegaye said, \u201cYes, we train together, but there\u2019s no real rivalry, although obviously we both want to win. I think I can improve on my 2.21. We\u2019ll run together from the start, then see what happens,\u201d\u009d added Kebede.<\/p>\n

Another Ethiopian contender,\u00a0 Ashu Kasim ran a personal best 2.23.09, to win in Xiamen (China) at the beginning of the year; and much is expected of marathon debutante Kenyan Caroline Chepkwony, who finished third in this year\u2019s Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON, but won the Berlin 25k in May.<\/p>\n

The BMW BERLIN MARATHON is televised live in 194 countries worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the fastest man in the marathon world meets the fastest course in the marathon world, the odds are in favour of something special. In Berlin that usually means a world record, of which there have been no fewer than seven in the past 15 years. The most recent was last year, by Patrick Makau […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,18,1,46],"tags":[91,181,397,518],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berlin","category-featured","category-news","category-pre-event","tag-91","tag-berlin","tag-geoffrey-mutai","tag-kenya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}