Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2009 - How the race was won
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Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2009 - How the race was won
October 14, 2009Notebook: Toronto runners, organizers set records Tue Sep 29, 2009 By Jim Hage / Special to Universal Sports When Kenneth Mungara won the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:08:32 on Sunday, he did more than successfully defend his title and run the fastest time ever on Canadian soil - he helped lift Toronto into the top tier of marathons worldwide. \"It would be presumptuous for us to think we\'re like New York or Chicago,\" says race director Alan Brookes. \"But there\'s a lot of opportunity in North America, a tremendous amount of talent worldwide and only a limited number of places to run marathons. We see ourselves with races like Paris, where they\'ve got strong fields, a great course, fast times.... We\'re great friends with Houston [Marathon], and it\'s great to see L.A. come back.\" When Universal Sports reached him one day after the race, Brookes and his team were exhausted but still giddy with their world-class results and overall success. Two men broke 2:09 and Amane Gobena ran 2:28:31 to set a women\'s course record and lead an Ethiopian sweep of the top three places. In all, nearly 3,000 - the most ever - ran the steadily growing marathon and some 17,000 others participated in the accompanying half marathon and 5K. Winning times in the marathon likewise have been incrementally faster, from just one sub-2:20 in 2003 to a course record 2:11:55 in 2005, another course record of 2:09:30 in 2007, and to Sundays race. \"To use a soccer analogy,\" says Brookes, who grew up in the United Kingdom, \"we\'re not Man. U. or Chelsea, but we\'re in the premiership.\" Difficult conditions and temperatures in the low 60s (Fahrenheit) kept times from being even faster. \"The pacemakers were bang-on-the-nail up to 25K, despite the wind and humidity,\" says elite athlete coordinator Ian Ladbrooke. \"The women\'s pacing was a bit more erratic and probably held them back. We\'ll tidy that up a bit more next time.\" Ladbrooke said Mungara\'s win was worth $20,000 (CAD), with another $35,000 in bonuses. Add his shoe company bonus and appearance fee, and Ladbrooke estimated that the winner took home in the range of $70,000 to $75,000 - \"Not shabby at all,\" he says. \"Performance does get rewarded.\" Toronto has been viewed as a staging ground for the next wave of top runners. Although Mungara is 36, the runner-up in 2:08:49 was Chala Lemi, just 22. Daniel Rono was 27 when he won the 2006 Toronto Marathon; he ran 2:09:36 and finished second in 2007. The next year Rono broke through with a 2:06:58 in Rotterdam, took third that fall in New York and then finished second at Boston in April. This year\'s 20th anniversary celebration of the half marathon (the marathon started in 2000) was marked by a return of the \"legends\" who helped get the event started. Joan Benoit Samuelson, who won the first two half marathons in 1990 and \'91 and is now preparing for New York, spoke at the race expo on Friday and Saturday, then ran 1:22:05 and finished second in the half marathon on Sunday. Ed Whitlock, who at age 72 ran 2:59:10 in Toronto, this year at 78 years old ran 1:37:38 for the half marathon. And 98-year-old Sikh runner Fauja Singh, who in 2003 set a 90 and older world record of 5:40:04 in Toronto, this year ran 35:18 in the 5K - said he wants to return next year for the half marathon, and then come back again at 100 and compete in the marathon. So while Singh\'s future is set, what\'s next for Toronto? \"We\'re not afraid to tweak the course to make it faster,\" Ladbrooke says. \"We had a bit of a breeze this year, but the changes minimized those effects. Our approach is to always invest in a faster race.\"
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