Kenyans dominate tragic Grandma’s Marathon

Philemon Kemboi about to make 3rd-to-1st burst to win Grandma's.

The question “Which Kenyan will win this year?” was far more than just cynical rhetoric at the 34th annual Grandma’s Marathon, but while Duluth’s biggest sports event followed a familiar theme, the 2010 Grandma’s will always be remembered with sadness.

Not because of the marathon itself, where the three top runners — all from Kenya, and all making their first visits to Duluth — turned the race into their own personal duel. By the time the trio reached the cobblestone area of downtown Superior Street, Chris Kipyego and David Rutoh were shoulder to shoulder, sizing each other up while planning their own finishing strategy. But as the course enters its final mile, turning left down Fifth Avenue West toward the harbor, Philemon Kemboi caught his countrymen by surprise, passing them both, and winning his first-ever marathon.

Kemboi simply outran his foes after his third-to-first burst, and broke the Canal Park finish line banner in 2 hours, 15 minutes, 44 seconds for the 26.2 miles, for Kenya’s 10th victory in the last 15 Grandma’s Marathons. Kenya runners swept the top five places and nine of the top 10. Kemboi’s winning time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 44 seconds beat Kipyego by 16 seconds, with Rutoh three seconds back in third. Kenyans Kipyegon Kirui and Kennedy Kemei were fourth and fifth. Sixth was Christopher Raabe, the Minnesota native who was a surprise winner last year, and following Raabe, who now lives in Washington, D.C., were four more Kenyans, as the prolific runners from the East African nation were the class of over 5,620 finishers.

Philemon Kemboi after winning his first marathon.

It was the 10th time in the last 15 years that a Kenyan had won Grandma’s, a race that has become a popular method to improve the standard of living for the families of those East African nation’s elite runners. “It was the biggest race I’ve ever won,” said Kemboi, who earned $10,900 for his first-ever marathon victory. “I will go home…and I will go to the bank. I feel good about being able to help my family’s life to improve.”

Starting at the same Two Harbors location and 7:30 a.m. time, the women’s segment was won easily by Buzunesh Deba from Ethiopia, who simply sped away from the start, disappeared over the horizon from the rest of her female competitors, and recorded a 2:31:36 time to beat fellow-Ethiopian Yeshimebet Bifa by almost four full minutes.

Buzunesh Deba easily won the women's race.

Deba moved from Ethiopia to New York four years ago, and said watching the New York Marathon in 2008 caused her to decide to become a distance runner. After competing in shorter 5K and 10K races, she started in marathons only last fall. “The first marathon I entered I won,” she said. Her winning time in the California International Marathon was 2:32:17, and after running seventh in the New York Marathon, she sped into 2010 by winning the National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer in Florida with a time of 2:33:08. So her 2:31:36 in Grandma’s was her personal best.

“My plan was to start fast and try to get ahead,” she said, laughing herself at such obvious strategy — which she made work. She was alone by the 5-mile mark, and nobody else ever got within view of her. Mary Akor, who had won the last three Grandma’s, finished fourth, behind the top two Ethiopians, and Everlyne Lagat. Akor, 33, has suffered with recent illness that is scheduled for surgery in the near future, had to yield to the youthful Deba, who is 22, and Bifa, 21.

The 20th Annual Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon started at 6:30 a.m., an hour before the full-marathon, and was won by Stephen Muange of Kenya, who won a close men’s segment with a 1:04:24, three seconds ahead of Bado Worku, an Ethiopian, who was closely followed by countrymen Derese Deniboba Rashaw and Worku Beyl. Ethiopians also finished 1-2 among women, as Caroline Rotich ran a 1:12:40, nearly two minutes ahead of Alemtsehay Misganaw.

That half-marathon will always be denoted by tragedy, however, as the first fatality in the long history of Grandma’s was recorded. Norman Ruth, 64, a novice runner from Hermantown, suffered an apparent heart attack while finishing the half-marathon. He was treated at the medical tent near the finish, and hospitalized, but didn’t recover. Dr. Ben Nelson, serving his first race as medical director, said he met with race officials and it was decided to release only an early-evening statement on race day that a half-marathon runner had died. In sympathy for the family, Dr. Nelson said, no other information would be released, so the victim’s identity, place of residence, and even gender were not disclosed until the following day.

It was a shocking irony on a day with temperatures in the mid-60s, about 20 degrees cooler than the year before, when many runners were affected by the heat and high humidity. Dr. Nelson said in this year’s full and half marathons combined, only 230 runners required some medical attention, and only four from the finish-line tent and three others from out on the course were sent to hospitals for treatment.

Whether by design or not, failing to disclose the information on race-day left the full focus solely on the full-marathon and its accompanying festivities. Participants and observers had no idea of the tragedy until they heard about it on the 10 p.m. news.

Kenyans had won nine of 13 Grandma’s full-marathons before Raabe won last year. Raabe, who now lives in Washington, D.C., ran among the leaders this year, too, and his sixth place was the only intrusion amid Kenya’s top nine finishers.

The three front-runners made their move to pull away came after 23 miles, and by the time they glided off London Road and onto Superior Street, they were alone. But there was still room for the final surprise. Kipyego had run against Rutoh before, but didn’t know Kemboi. Kipyego said he had turned to Rutoh and said, “I told this guy, ‘Let’s push, let’s push.’ I told him it was time to break away. I was expecting him, if anyone, to be the one to go for the lead. I didn’t know who this other guy was. When he went by us, I tried hard to close the gap, but he was very strong for me. I started thinking, ‘Is HE going to win the race?’ ”

Chris Kipyego, left, and David Rutoh led eventual winner Philemon Kemboi along Superior Street.

Kemboi, 36, whose best previous marathon time of 2:10:58 was good for only a fifth-place finish in France last year, was loping along behind Kipyego, 36, and Rutoh, 24. Kemboi is taller than most other Kenyans, at 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds, and when he made his move turning down Fifth Avenue West, he stretched out his long legs to outrun Kipyego by 16 seconds, with Rutoh three more seconds back in third.

Despite his comparative inexperience, he said, “I thought I could win it.” His top rivals were less convinced. Kemboi, speaking only his native Swahili via an interpreter, said he went along with Kipyego and Rutoh, his two countrymen, when they moved away from the pack. “It wasn’t a bad pace,” Kemboi said. “But when they decided to push forward, I was in agreement that we needed to pick up the pace.”

Despite the cooler conditions, the full marathon didn’t threaten any records. Kemboi’s winning time was far off the record established by Minnesotan Dick Beardsley in 1981 — a 2:09:37 in the fifth year of the event. In fact, Kemboi’s 2:15:44 was a half-minute off last year’s winning pace, when Raabe won at 2:15:13. But the victory was a breakthrough for Kemboi.

A late starter in competitive running, Kemboi had grown up on a family farm near Kapsabet, about seven hours drive from Nairobi. His family never had a car, he said, and when he realized he could help his family by earning money in distance running, he started seriously training in 2004. Calf injuries hindered him for a couple of years, so he had only entered three previous marathons.

Kipyego said Grandma’s is unlike other major marathons, which he suspects limit the number of Kenya runners invited. There were 27 at Grandma’s. “I saw the list, with so many Kenyans, and I thought, ‘This will be fun,’ ” said Kipyego, He said his sister, Sally, became a top NCAA runner at Texas Tech after growing up running to keep up with her big brother.

In Minnesota, as in the rest of the U.S., many youngsters are driven six blocks to playgrounds or other facilities, a fact Kipyego found amusing. In Kenya, a far different lifestyle makes their running ability natural, because of their far-different lifestyle from childhood. “We had no cars, no buses, and there were no roads,” said Kipyego, who is from Eldoret. “School was five kilometers away, and there was no school bus. We’d run to school in the morning, run home for lunch, then run back to school, and then run home, every day.”

That is a common thread among the Kenyan runners. Kemboi said he, too, ran from the family farm to school, but it was only one kilometer. Hardly proper training for an elite marathon runner. But if 36 makes him a late-bloomer, his victory can be a springboard to more marathon invitations.