PUBLISHED 04/09/2007
The 111th Boston Marathon, the world's oldest and most historic annual marathon, will take place on Patriots Day, Monday, April 16. For the first time, this year's Boston Marathon will break from the traditional noon start hour. The Elite Women will start at 9:35 am, the "first wave" of about 10,000 runners at 10 am, and the second wave with another 10,000 runners at about 10:30. (You can follow our "near live" Internet coverage here, rodale.typepad.com/boston2007.
Last year's champions Robert Cheruiyot and Rita Jeptoo, both from Kenya, are returning to defend their 2006 titles. Cheruiyot established a new Boston course record last April when he ran 2:07:14. He will be challenged by a deep field of Kenyans and Ethiopians. Robert Cheboror has the fastest PR in the field, 2:06:23. The top Americans are expected to be Peter Gilmore and Jason Lehmkuhle.
Jeptoo won the women's division last year in 2:23:38, her best. She'll be challenged this year by Jelena Pokupcuka, who she edged out last year, and by American record holder Deena Kastor. Kastor, running her first Boston, has the fastest overall time in the field, the 2:19:36 she ran last year in winning the Flora London Marathon. The women's course record at Boston is the 2:20:43 that Margaret Okayo ran in 2002.
This year's Boston has a strong field of American women, as it is also the USA Women's Marathon Championships for 2007. The USA Champs has a separate prize purse of $70,000, with $25,000 for first, $15,000 for second, and $10,000 for third. Next year's USA Women's Olympic Marathon Trials will be held at Boston on Marathon Weekend, but the Trials race will not be part of the traditional Monday Boston Marathon. The Trials race will be held Sunday morning on a 4-lap course in downtown Boston.
The Boston Marathon's open prize money purse is $485,000, divided evenly between male and female competitors (15 deep in each division.) First-place is worth $100,000, with second-place dropping off to $40,000. The top 5 Masters runners will divvy up a total of $20,000 for both male and female racers; and the top 5 push rim wheelchair racers will receive $25,000, both male and female.
The Boston Marathon is one of five marathons (Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York) that make up the World Marathon Majors (www.worldmarathonmajors.com), which is awarding $500,000 each to the world's top marathoners (one male, one female) during the 2006/2007 calendar years. At the end of 2006, Cheruiyot and Pokupcuka stood at the top of the leader boards. Cheruiyot won both Boston and Chicago; Pokupcuka was second at Boston and first at New York. Jeptoo and Kastor are 3-4 in the women's competition.
The Boston Athletic Association expects about 22,000 runners to start this year's race. Most will have gotten there by meeting Boston's tough qualifying standards. In recent years, the BAA has also expanded its charity and "invitational" entries to insure that the field reaches 20,000 or so.
BOSTON COURSE RECORDS
Open Male: Robert Cheruiyot, 2:07:14, 2006
Open Female: Margaret Okayo, 2:20:43, 2002
Masters Male: John Campbell, 2:11:04, 1990
Masters Female: Firaya Sultanova-Shdanova, 2:27:58, 2002
Wheelchair Male: Ernst Van Dyk, 1:18:27, 2004
Wheelchair Female: Jean Driscoll, 1:34:22, 1994
