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Marathon on Wellington St.
Fourth-time winner of the Ottawa Marathon,
David Cheruiyot of Kenya
Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco, pictured here
in a file photo, won her second straight marathon, and set
a personal best time of 2:27:41.
Steve McNabb half winner
Marie Danais half winner
Deriba Merga crosses the finish line to
win the MDS Nordion 10K race during Ottawa Race weekend
in Ottawa, Ont., May. 23, 2009.
Teyba Erkesso
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Fourth
marathon win for Cheruiyot
The wind prohibited David Cheruiyot of Kenya from setting
a new course record at the Ottawa Marathon Sunday, but it
didn’t stop him from becoming the first man to win
the race four times.
The only other person to win four titles is Lioudmila
Kortchaguina, originally from Russia but now a Canadian
citizen living in Toronto, who finished second on the women’s
side Sunday.
It was the third straight title for Cheruiyot, who holds
the course record of two hours 10 minutes 33 seconds, set
in 2007. He was third in 2006 and won the event in his first
attempt in 2005.
Yesterday, and for the third straight year, he took over
the lead in a sprint of the final kilometre to capture the
title. He overtook Wegayehu Girma of Ethiopia and Ahmed
Baday of Morocco right at the end to finish in a time of
2:13:23.
“I thought I was going to be No. 3. But when I reached
the first one I saw that they were going slow so I increased
my pace and I caught them,” Cheruiyot said, adding
that he had a cramp in the second half of the race that
was slowing him down as well.
“The two guys were very far from me, but when I reached
about 40K I saw them getting closer to me and they were
going slow. I tried to push as hard as I could because around
there I thought I could catch them. I caught them at 41
(kilometres). “I thought we would run under 2:10,
but the course was too windy so I knew there would be no
record. My time was not good, though.”
full
story at the Ottawa Citizen here..
Moroccan wins second straight
women’s marathon
OTTAWA — On Friday, Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco said
she was nervous about the Ottawa Marathon because she was
the defending champion, having won the 2008 event in her
full marathon debut.
Adding to her nervousness was the fact the Toronto’s
Lioudmila Kortchaguina was back this year after dropping
out of last year’s race at the last minute because
of an injury. Kortchaguina had won the race in 2002, 2004,
2006 and 2007, and she was second in 2005.
Leghzaoui also said that, even though she set a course
record last year, completing the 42.195-kilometre course
in 2:28:44, she felt had a better race inside her, so she
was looking towards another course record.
It wasn’t really close.
Leghzaoui, 32, got her second consecutive course record
and set a personal-best time by crossing the finish line
in 2:27:41. Kortchaguina, the top Canadian, was again second,
but she was more than four minutes back with her time of
2:32:10.
full story at the Ottawa Citizen here..
‘I’ve got an A+,’
says half marathon champ
If Master Warrant Officer Steve McNabb had run the half
marathon Sunday with all the hardware around his neck that
he sported after the run, he would have been too weighed
down to finish the race at the Ottawa Race Weekend. McNabb
won four medals with his half marathon time of one hour
13 minutes and 13 seconds. He collected the open and masters
men’s titles as well as the Canadian Forces open and
masters titles.Steve McNabb finished the 1/2 Marathon with
the chip time of 1:13:11 on Sunday morning.
Marie Danais spent seven years in Ottawa before her job
had her relocate to Quebec City last year. She was in town
Sunday to defend her half marathon title and says now she’ll
have to come back next year as a two-time defending champion.
“The race was really good. It was windy so it was
a couple minutes slower than I was hoping for, like a couple
of minutes,” Danais said following her run of 1:22:30.
All the half marathon stories.
here...
Records fall in 10K, but winner
misses out on $100,000 prize
Deriba Merga came to Ottawa with the hopes
of a $100,000 payday, but he was about 23 seconds too late
to claim his cheque.
Run Ottawa had offered the largest Canadian purse ever
to anyone who could break the world 10-kilometre record
of 27 minutes and one second at Ottawa Race Weekend on Saturday
night.
Kenya’s Micah Kogo set the current world standard
in March. Merga was trying to better the mark, but the West
Chester, Ethiopia, resident came up short despite running
a world-record pace for more than half the race.
“I’m not happy,” Merga said of his time
of 27:24. The most recent winner of the Boston Marathon
came specifically to Ottawa to break the world record, and
although he said he learned a lot after a disappointing
marathon in Beijing last summer, he still needs to work
on some things. Full
story...
Ethiopia's 'best runner' gives men a run
Teyba Erkesso 'a little upset' she didn't beat the men
If not for the thousands of people lining
the course for the 10-kilometre race of the Ottawa Race
Weekend on Saturday night, Teyba Erkesso of West Chester,
Ethiopia, would have been a very lonely woman.
Erkesso started in a group that included
fellow Ethiopian Emebet Bacha and Canadian Tara Quinn-Smith,
but less than a quarter of the way through, she was running
alone.
Erkesso was met, and passed, during the
last kilometre by men's winner Deriba Merga (the men began
their race four minutes after the women), but she was
the first woman to cross the finish line and did so in
a time of 31 minutes 51 seconds. Full
story...
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- Lingering at the race expo, the annual convention for the
running community that becomes a room drowning in hope and anticipation
and nervous energy.
- Taking the official T-shirt out of the race kit and promising
yourself not to wear it until after you've earned it by crossing
the finish line.
- How the city completely embraces the event and you never
see a driver impatiently trying to cut into the course (like
you do during a race in Toronto).
- The sheer number of people, of all ages, colours, shapes
and sizes who hit the streets of Ottawa in the same 24-hour
period.
- Crowding onto Laurier in front of city hall for the start
of the 10K race and seeing nothing but runners in front of you
and behind.
- Watching the wheelchair athletes push their way up the first
hill toward the National War Memorial five minutes before the
start of the marathon.
- The first kilometre of the marathon and half-marathon route,
where you can see Parliament Hill on your right and Terry Fox
on your left.
- The half-dozen rock groups, the belly dancers and the other
entertainers who get up way too early in the morning to line
the route and create energy for the runners.
- The fact that it's the only time of the year where you can
get away with peeing along the fence outside the grounds of
Rideau Hall.
- The residents along the course in Rockcliffe and New Edinburgh
who put a CD player at the end of their driveways and crank
out rock tunes, or set up their own aid stations, some of them
still nursing their morning coffee.
- The thousands of visitors who come to run Ottawa, bringing
their dreams, their families and their money.
- Reaching the halfway point in the marathon and then turning
onto Elgin and swinging over to Colonel By in front of some
of the noisiest crowds on the route.
- The 2,000 kids sprinting effortlessly and exuberantly toward
the finish line in the Kids Marathon, purely for the love of
moving.
- The stretch through Quebec that takes you past churches and
apartment balconies and corner stores and makes it clear you
are running through two different provinces and cultures.
- The volunteers who stay in one place as thousands run past
them, holding out one cup after another for hours, saying "Water.
Water. Water." Or "Gatorade. Gatorade. Gatorade."
- Seeing the elite runners glide past at speeds you couldn't
match for even 100 metres.
- The view of Ottawa you get coming back across the Alexandra
Bridge.
- The thousands of runners who turn their race into something
more than just a personal journey, by raising money for so many
important causes.
- The race weekend participants who are also enthusiastic spectators,
showing up the night before the marathon to cheer on the 5K
and 10K runners or getting up the day after their 10K race to
watch the long-distance events.
- Hitting the top of the Heron Road bridge in the marathon
and knowing the toughest part of the course is behind you.
- Getting passed by someone older than you and realizing you
can still get better with age.
- The kids with hockey sticks steering aside the paper cups
and sponges.
- Watching a group of walkers patiently put down step after
step in the half-marathon or marathon.
- Running past someone you haven't seen in a few years and
hearing them call out your name.
- Those rare spectators who stand along the less populated
southern stretches of Colonel By and Queen Elizabeth Drives
or on Prince of Wales near the Experimental Farm, where they
really make a difference with a round of applause or an encouraging
word rising above the sound of shoes hitting pavement.
- Crossing Pretoria Bridge and knowing no matter how much it
hurts, it will be over soon.
- Hitting the final 500 metres to the finish line on Queen
Elizabeth Drive, the stretch you've been imagining for an entire
winter of training, when you know you've got it and the noise
of thousands of spectators screaming carries you to your final
destination.
- Looking at a total stranger running next to you at the finish
and saying, or thinking, "We made it!"
- The medical personnel who appear out of nowhere to help a
runner who stumbles at the finish line.
- That first bite of food in the recovery area.
- Two words: massage tent.
- Logging on to Sportstats at the end of each day and looking
up every runner you can think of.
- Seeing family and friends reunited with finishers in Confederation
Park, like an airport waiting area, only full of medals and
foil blankets.
- Standing at the finish line and watch one runner after another
come in, raising their arms in triumph or bending over in pain,
and how that never gets old.
- The anticipation for next year's race weekend that starts
about a minute after you cross the finish line.
Citizen running columnist Mark Sutcliffe has participated in
the last six Race Weekends. He is notracing this weekend.
© Copyright (c) The
Ottawa Citizen
