Boston – Deena Kastor’s hopes of winning her first run in the Boston Marathon ended when she had to duck off the course for an emergency pit stop.
Instead, Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia, also in her first Boston try, took advantage of a slow pace and familiarity with the cold, rainy conditions to win the women’s race in 2 hours, 29 minutes and 18 seconds.
Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot, who spent two nights in a hospital in October after slipping on the finish line as he raised his arms to celebrate his Chicago Marathon victory, earned his third Boston men’s title. He outkicked countryman James Kwambai on the way into Kenmore Square to win in 2:14:13 – slower than the course record of 2:07:14 he set last year but enough to win by 20 seconds. Cheruiyot also won in 2003.
“When the lion is chasing the antelope, he doesn’t look back. He has to eat,” Cheruiyot said. “So when I run, I don’t stare at my time.”
Despite Kastor’s fifth-place finish, the former resident of Alamosa and three- time Bolder Boulder winner won $25,000 for being the top American woman because this year’s race was chosen to serve simultaneously as the U.S. marathon championship. Zoila Gomez of Alamosa was the top Colorado finisher – 144th in 2:41:36.
Kastor, 34, was among a knot of seven runners who ran far ahead of the women’s field of 8,063 during the first half of the race.
“The pace was very pedestrian. At the beginning of the race, there was a lot of toying around with slow and fast paces,” Kastor said.
Part of that was because of strong wind and driving rain.
The runners splashed through puddles in low-lying sections of the course and snaked from side to side on the roadway in search of sure footing.
It was in Wellesley that Kastor felt the unavoidable call of nature.
“It’s a little humbling to say in front of a crowd of media,” she said after the race. “I was a little bit worried because a camera was following me.”
Kastor, who won last year’s London Marathon and finished third in the Olympics in Athens, said her break lasted about a minute.
She was well out of sight of the leaders when she ran past Newton-Wellesley Hospital, where she was born.
Now a resident of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., Kastor said she was disappointed by the results, but loved the atmosphere even though crowd turnout was low. She said she wants to run the Boston race again but has said she does not want to run the marathon at the worlds in Osaka, Japan.
“This was a spectacular, spectacular experience out there. The crowds, despite the weather, were just awesome. I had so many people yelling my name out there,” she said.
Kenya took the top four spots in the men’s race and its 15th victory in 17 years. The top American man was Peter Gilmore, in eighth place. The top Coloradan was Matt Levassiur of Alamosa, finishing 22nd in 2:22:50.
The weather was milder than forecasters had feared – 52 degrees with a moderate rain at the start – and the sun even came out halfway through. But winds picked up as the runners turned onto Beacon Street in Cleveland Circle for the last, long homestretch to Copley Square.
“From the waist down it was horrible,” Gilmore said. “My legs froze. It was the cold, my hamstrings and everything just started cramping up. Once the moves started, especially at Heartbreak, that was it.”
