Arvada’s Justin Mock finished as the top American and 52nd overall in Sunday’s London Marathon, running 2 hours, 29 minutes, 29 seconds in a race billed as having one of the world’s deepest elite fields in the marathon this year.
Mock, 28, an accountant at ap, the parent company of The Denver Post, came through the half marathon in 1:14:14 and ran his fastest through miles 13-20, consistently hitting 5:30 before dropping to 5:24 for mile 20. He ran nearly all of the race by himself.
“I hate to admit it, but running is everything to me,” Mock wrote in an e-mail from London. “On days like today, when everything goes well, you simply can’t feel any better. It’s complete and total joy for what you’ve just accomplished.”
Mock was quick to point out that while he’s proud he finished as the top American, he knows the U.S. field wasn’t particularly strong. Abdi Abdirahman, a 2:08 U.S. marathoner, scratched before the race because of an injury, and American women’s record holder and Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor finished in a disappointing 2:36:20.
“I know where I stand in American marathoning and that there are hundreds out there more capable than I am,” Mock said.
A light pre-race rain had cooled the course to near ideal temperatures. Windy course conditions and fatigue, Mock said, slowed his second half to 1:15:15 — still a remarkably consistent split with his first half. Before the race, he wasn’t entirely confident his goal of under 2:30 was realistic.
“I can’t stop crying,” Mock told his friends on his Facebook page.
The marathon was the 12th for Mock, who counts the 2007 and 2008 Colfax marathons among his victories — 2:50 and 2:43, respectively.
He feared missing the race because of the ash cloud spewing from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which had grounded thousands of European flights over several days last weekend.
“I’ve felt like I needed to get the sub-2:30 monkey off my back so I could race trails more,” he said. “It’s fun making up my schedule and my own training plans. I’m fortunate to have a lot of groups to run with each week, which eases the strain of training.”
Ethiopia’s Tsegave Kebede won the race in 2:05:19, ending a six-year reign of Kenyan winners in London. Last year’s champion, Sammy Wanjiru, the gold medalist in Beijing, dropped out near the halfway mark. Russia’s Lilya Shobukhova and Inga Abitova took first and second in the women’s race in 2:22:00 and 2:22:19.