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| Congrats, hope you enjoyed your day of fame, welcome back to obscurity this morning. |
Boston Globe - Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai admitted that he thought he could win the 115th Boston Marathon today even though it was his race debut. But the all-time fastest marathon time in any conditions? Turns out that was just a bonus that came along with his fulfilled goal. Mutai won the Boston Marathon in an official record time of 2 hours 3 minutes and 2 seconds today, breaking the previous Boston record set last year by countryman Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot (2:05::52) by more than two minutes. While Mutai's time bested the world record, it will not be recognized as such internationally because of today's strong tail winds on a course that has frequent downhills. The world record, 2:03:59, was set by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin in 2008. "I was not having ideas about the course record," said Mutai, who credited his marathon success to cross-training in events such as cross country and the 10,000-meter race. "I knew I could run well because I'd trained hard and I was confident, but the record was not on my mind." While his record may not be sanctioned, Mutai received a couple of additional prizes to go with the victory itself -- he was awarded $225,000 in total bonuses for the unofficial world record as well as the course record.
So this whole unrecognized world record thing is kind of bullshit, no?
Is there a scientific way to measure exactly how much the wind helped Mr. Mutai out here? I mean he beat the record by 56 seconds which is just absolutely crushing it by marathon standards. What if he beat it by 5 minutes? Would we still claim the wind here? I'm starting to think the marathon game is as rigged as any sport, nothing pure about it.
