New York City Marathon 2008 - The Women's Race

The 39th Running of the New York City Marathon - The Women's Race
by John Elliott

When we read the starter list for the women's field for the 39th running of the ING New York City Marathon - we were excited. We were really excited. And, truth be told, the way the marathon played out was even more exciting than we imagined. The list of stories that we knew were coming out seemed infinite: How would the women who ran in the Olympics perform just 10 weeks later? How would the talented debutantes - Kara Goucher and Kim Smith - perform against the veterans? Could anyone ever beat Paula Radcliffe? After finishing runner-up to Radcliffe in 2007, could Gete Wami win or finish as runner-up again to guarantee her win of the World Marathon Majors jackpot? And that was just the tip of the iceberg...

The temperature for the day was perfect - 40 degrees at the start. But, there would be a terrible headwind for the runners for the first twenty miles of the course - that wind was the talk of many of the runners after the race and even at the start Goucher was texting her husband the message: "it's so windy."

From the beginning, the women's field became strung out - but not because the runners were falling back, but because all were hiding from the wind. With Paula Radcliffe taking her regular position at the front - and thereby doing the work to break the wind - the other runners continued in single file: Kara Goucher generally in second position followed by Dire Tune, Gete Wami, Rita Jeptoo, Ludmila Petrova, Lyubov Morgunova, Catherine Ndereba and Kim Smith. This group would continue along intact for 11 miles - the wind seeming to force Radcliffe to run at a conservative pace, while the other runners took advantage of her windbreak. Radcliffe would tell us later that she had also planned to run a comfortable first half and a negative split. The only items of note in the first miles of the race was Goucher - in only the second road race of her career - having trouble with the fluid stations, nearly dropping her bottle at the first station and then missing her bottle at the second station....

Marathons are, eventually and often, games of attrition and women started to fall off the lead pack - even before any of the women would put in surges. First to fall back was Kim Smith, who would eventually make it only to mile 19 before dropping out altogether. Lyubov Morgunova was next off the back, then Lidia Simon and then, surprisingly, Catherine Ndereba. Or perhaps not surprisingly as Ndereba had run a hard finish in gaining the Silver medal at the Beijing Olympics ten weeks before. So with these four out, the race was down to six...

Coming over the 59th Street bridge - a hill on the course at mile 16, Rita Jeptoo started to show weakness and the race was between five women. Then around a corner onto First Avenue - and somewhere on this street is ALWAYS where the race begins in earnest. Starting on First Avenue, Radcliffe surges and it looks like the pack will disintegrate. Petrova stays right on Radcliffe, Goucher quickly catches back onto the windbreak train, and within a number of yards, Gete Wami and Dire Tune join back onto the pack.

Radcliffe leads the pack through faster miles at 18 and 19, and the increased speed is too much for Goucher who cracks and fades away from the remaining four women. Minutes later, Dire Tune fades back, and then Wami can't keep the pace - and the race is suddenly down to two women: Paula Radcliffe who looks super strong and Ludmila Petrova who looks surprisingly strong. Petrova stays with Radcliffe through mile 21 and then Radcliffe just continues at her faster pace and Petrova settles back into her own... Later Radcliffe would tell us that she didn't really accelerate at this point - it was more the combination of her plan to run a negative split plus the change from a headwind to a tailwind. With Radcliffe doing all of the work into the wind, the switch from headwind to tailwind affected her the most and from mile 21 through to the end of the race Radcliffe added 15 seconds per mile on her competition.

With Radcliffe away for the win, it was up to Petrova to hold onto her second place spot - and at mile 22 Petrova had a 17 second gap on her next competitor... Kara Goucher! who was now nearly a minute ahead of the fourth runner. We're not quite sure how that happened, but when it seemed that Goucher was most out of it - she gained a second wind passing Wami and Tune who were both beginning to struggle. First place was Radcliffe's, but with five miles to go, second place was anything but certain - and the choice of competitors for the second position could not be more inspired. Petrova, 40 years old and the champion of an earlier century (2000 is, technically, in the last century) would battle Goucher in her debut marathon...

At mile 23, Goucher had shaved three seconds from her deficit and was thirteen seconds back (she also told us later that she commented to herself that she had now run longer than she had ever run before!). At mile 24, Goucher was eight seconds back. At mile 25, Goucher was four seconds back. Wow - after seeming out of it at mile 19, Goucher was staging an epic comeback... By mile 26, Goucher was only... well, that was it for making up ground - at mile 26 Goucher was seven seconds back and she would finish ten seconds behind Petrova. But what a race for both of those women!!!

So the ending to the story - no one can ever beat Radcliffe, except, apparently, at the Olympics... After 2:23:56 of running, Radcliffe won her third New York City Marathon - becoming the second most winningest [sic] woman in the history the race - behind only nine-time winner Gete Waitz. Petrova - by finishing in 2:25:43 - set a new world masters record for a woman. And Goucher - wow - ran the fastest debut marathon for an American, ran the fastest New York City Marathon ever for an American woman, achieved the best finish position since Anne Marie Letko's third place finish in 1984, and... became the third fastest American woman marathoner ever behind only Deena Kastor and Joan Benoit Samuelson.

Could we have written a better ending to this marathon? I think not....

Final Results:
1. Paula Radcliffe - 2:23:56 ($165,000)
2. Ludmila Petrova - 2:25:43 ($93,000)
3. Kara Goucher - 2:25:53 ($65,000)
4. Rita Jeptoo - 2:27:49 ($35,000
5. Catherine Ndereba - 2:29:14 ($15,000)
6. Gete Wami - 2:29:25 ($10,000)
7. Dire Tune - 2:29:28 ($7,500)
8. Lidia Simon - 2:30:04 ($5,000)
9. Lyubov Morgunova - 2:30:38 ($2,500)
10. Katie McGregor - 2:31:14 ($1,000)

But - then the epilogue.... There was still one story to be told - one with a secret meeting involving some of the most important individuals in the running industry and involving a half million dollars (more than the prize money awarded for the women's race!)... Yes, the World Marathon Majors Series jackpot...

The 2007/2008 women's race series for the World Marathon Majors series had resulted in a points tie between Gete Wami and Irina Mikitenko. With a points tie, the rules stated that the winner would be determined by the individuals' standing in head-to-head competition, but Wami had beaten Mikitenko once and Mikitenko had beaten Wami once. So without a clear winner, the rules stated that the winner would be chosen by a vote of the heads of the World Marathon Majors races and so the leaders of the London Marathon, Boston Marathon, Berlin Marathon, Chicago Marathon and New York City Marathon met to determine whether Wami or Mikitenko would take home $500,000. As the group of five announced, by unanimous vote they chose Irina Mikitenko - citing considerations such as a lower average finish time and the achievement of her points in a few number of races.

Well, that was the story of the 2008 ING New York City Marathon - with the confirmation of Radcliffe as one of the greatest marathoners of all time, with Petrova proving that age need not be an obstacle, with Goucher emerging as the next great hope for American running, with.... We loved the race, we love the stories and we can't wait to see what race organizers can cook up next year!