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Lead Stories: Friday, July 18, 2008

Defending Champions to Return to Boston Marathon

Posted January 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Organizers of the Boston Marathon announced today that Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot and Lidiya Grigoryeva, their 2007 champions, planned to return to the race this year to defend their titles.

“We are very excited to have both of our defending champions returning for the 112th Boston Marathon,” said Guy Morse, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association through a media release sent by John Hancock Financial, the principal sponsor of the race. “Robert and Lidiya showed their strength by winning in difficult conditions in 2007. We look forward to seeing how they follow up on those victories in 2008.”

Cheruiyot, the 2006/2007 World Marathon Majors champion and Boston Marathon course record holder, got his third Boston victory in last year’s windy and rainy race, crossing the finish line in 2:14:13, the slowest winning time in 30 years. As in his previous Boston victories, Cheruiyot, 29, timed effort to perfection.
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Lance Armstrong to Run Boston Marathon

Posted January 17th, 2008 at 1:22 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Lance Armstrong plans to extend his marathon career by running the 2008 Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced today. It will be his third marathon; he ran the ING New York City Marathon in both 2006 and 2007.

In a press release the B.A.A. took care to explain that Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France champion, had actually qualified for the race like any other runner by running a 2:46:43 at New York last November (the qualifying standard for men 35 to 39 is 3:15:00). Most of the 22,473 runners who entered Boston last year had to qualify, although some were granted entry through charity groups or other special entry programs.

As in his two previous marathons, Armstrong will be running to raise money for his Lance Armstrong Foundation, which pursues an agenda focused on cancer prevention, access to screening and care, the improvement of the quality of life for cancer survivors, and an investment in research. Armstrong survived testicular cancer which was diagnosed in 1996.
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Elite Fields Announced For Boston Half-Marathon

Posted October 1st, 2007 at 10:15 AM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Marathons

For the seventh consecutive October thousands of runners will be racing through the streets of Boston and Brookline in the B.A.A. Half Marathon presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. The race is scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 7 at Roberto Clemente Field in Boston’s Back Bay Fens neighborhood. The route will take runners out to the Franklin Park Zoo, and back again, along Boston’s Emerald Necklace park system. Leading the pack will be a field of elite men and women, competing for a total prize purse of $30,000.

Defending champion Samuel Ndereba (KEN), 30, headlines a men’s field that will be chasing Luke Metto’s 3-year-old course record of 1:02:57. After placing second here in 2005, Ndereba seized control of the 2006 B.A.A. Half Marathon at the 11-mile mark. He crossed the finish line in 1:03:03, tying the fourth fastest time ever run on the course, and falling just short of a new course record. Ndereba made his marathon debut in Boston this past spring, placing ninth in 2:17:04. With that time, he and his sister, four-time Boston Marathon champion and former world-record holder (2:18:47) Catherine, set a unique record: they now own the fastest combined brother/sister marathon time in history at 4:35:51.

Celedonio Rodriguez (Alamosa, CO), 26, the man who beat Ndereba two years ago, and placed fifth last year, will be looking to regain the top spot. Rodriguez took the entire elite field by surprise in 2005, seizing the lead in the first mile and never looking back en route to a 12-second win.

Challenging the two past champions will be Richard Kiplagat (KEN), 26, runner-up in 2006. In his half marathon debut, Kiplagat was the only man who could keep pace with Ndereba. He ultimately finished just 12 seconds back, in 1:03:15, the seventh fastest time ever run on the course. Joining these B.A.A. Half Marathon veterans will be Tom Nyariki (KEN), 36, who boasts a 5,000m best of 12:55.94, won the 2006 New York City Half Marathon with a time of 1:01:22.

Edna Kiplagat (KEN), 28, one of the year’s hottest road racers, headlines the women’s field. Kiplagat comes to Boston for the first time having already captured three major road racing titles in 2007, winning the Lilac Bloomsday 12K, Bay to Breakers 12K, and Bolder Boulder 10K earlier this year. Though she’s a relative newcomer to the half marathon distance, Kiplagat already owns a personal best of 1:09:32.
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B.A.A. Half Marathon registration …. NOW OPEN!

Posted July 18th, 2007 at 9:09 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund and showcasing Boston and Brookline’s Emerald Necklace park system, the seventh annual B.A.A. Half Marathon will be held on October 7th.

Online registration for the event begins … RIGHT NOW (July 18th at 9:00am EST) … so hurry up and reserve your spot by visiting: bostonmarathon.org/HalfMarathon/Registration.asp

The registration fee is $45, the field is limited to 45,000 runners and the race also offers $30,000 in prize money to be shared among the elite field.
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Top running routes in Boston

Posted June 13th, 2007 at 4:15 PM by Warwick Ford

Section: Running & Training, Columns, Fun on Foot

Warwick Ford is a guest contributor to The Final Sprint and author of “Fun on Foot in America’s Cities” and “Fun on Foot in New England,” the books that describe and map the best on-foot routes in U.S. cities. Check out FunOnFoot.com for more information and to purchase the book or maps.

Boston is a city of the young (the region is host to way more than its fair share of the nation’s top colleges) and the young at heart. This makes it a dream city for running, jogging, or walking. There is a massive foot-mobile population, so if you feel like a jog almost anywhere here you will rarely feel out of place.

However, wise choice of route always makes a run or jog more enjoyable and easier to embark upon and finish. For a training or recreational route to be motivating and enjoyable, the Fun on Foot model says it needs to have four attributes: Comfort from both the safety and underfoot perspective; Attractions to make it interesting; Convenience to city center and public transit; and a worthy Destination to help motivate you to finish the route.

In “Fun on Foot in New England” we applied this model to Greater Boston and came up with 13 excellent routes. Narrowing this down, here are the very best routes that are just too good for any outdoor exerciser to miss:
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Weather Continues to Dominate News at Boston Marathon

Posted April 15th, 2007 at 6:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The Nor’easter which is currently battering Boston continues to be the talk of tomorrow’s 111th Boston Marathon, a sharp contrast to the hot weather which athletes endured in Rotterdam and Paris today.

The winds and rain which are whipping through Back Bay this evening will continue through the race tomorrow, according to the forecast posted at Weather.com. At the 9:35 a.m. start time for the elite women, the temperature is forecast to be 8°C (46°F) accompanied by heavy rains and winds from the east (against the runners) at 48 KPH (30 MPH).
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