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A Race Like No Other
The 45th Running of the New York City Marathon - The Men's Race
by Tyler McCandless
A Slow Race - Is it a New Trend?
In the 2014 New York City Marathon, the runners ran to a 2:10:59 finish, the slowest finish since 1995 - in that year, all blamed a strong headwind for the slow performances. For the 2015 New York City Marathon again saw slow times, but there was no poor weather to blame. For the second year in a row, none of the runners earned bonuses by beating the times set forward by the NYC Marathon race organizers as worthy of time bonuses. This may be a new trend - runners not chasing bonuses - as the prior Chicago Marathon also saw no one earn time bonuses despite good weather and no other obvious reason for the slow times.
Some races employ pacemakers to encourage the athletes to run fast times and earn the time bonuses. Alternatively, some runners step up to be the aggressor in a race and bring the other runners with them. For the most recent Chicago Marathon, the race dropped pacemakers and no one stepped up as a leader, resulting in a slow race and no time bonuses compared to the $150,000 in time bonuses paid out the year before.
Much of the New York field also ran a marathon just three months earlier at the IAAF World Championships Marathon, and with the concern for the win, the men's marathon started at a slow pace and ended with the slowest marathon finish in New York in twenty years - outside of last year's race.
Elite Field Capable Of More, But Perhaps Not Fresh...
The men's race had six men entered with a 2:06 personal best marathon time or faster and a fast race could be expected. However, the field went out at a pace which would lead to a nearly 2:14 marathon - very slow. Many of the men in the field had run in the IAAF World Championships just 2-1/2 months earlier, which allows a shorter recovery and build up than is typical. It seemed to observers that these men were running cautiously and hanging back in the pack. Without some of these best-in-field taking a leadership role, the race proceeded at its slow pace with various lesser runners taking to the front and a field of 18 men running through the halfway mark in 1:06:50, nearly as slow as the wind-hampered 1:06:56 of the year before.
The race begins at mile 20...
Geoffrey Kamworor made a big move at mile 20 to break apart the lead pack that had whittled down to eight. Stanley Biwott and Lelisa Desisa were able to match Kamworor's injection of pace, while everyone else fell back. The three leaders clocked a staggering 4:24 21st mile and followed that up with a 4:30 22nd mile and a 4:33 23rd mile, putting over a minute on Wilson Kipsang in fourth place.
Desisa, one of the men who had run the World Championships Marathon, was the first to fall back from the pack shortly after the 23 mile mark. With two remaining, Stanley Biwott became the aggressor, pushing the pace. Biwott inched forward of Kamworor and had a little over a second lead at mile 24 and five seconds by mile 25. In the final mile Stanley Biwott looked back several times but continued to put distance between himself and Kamworor.
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
Stanley Biwott Wins 2015 NYC Marathon
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Biwott crossed the finish line as champion in 2:10:34. Biwott, who had not run in the World Championships Marathon, proved to have the freshest legs. He clocked a blistering fast 28:33 final 10K - which was about three minutes faster than each of the previous 10K Splits (31:32, 31:43, 31:43). Kamworor who also did not run the World Championships Marathon (although he did earn the Silver Medal in the 10000m) finished runner-up fourteen seconds later in 2:10:48, his first runner-up finish after twice being third place at the Berlin Marathon. Desisa hung on for third place in 2:12:10 and returning champion Wilson Kipsang, who also had run and dropped out of the World Championships Marathon, finished in fourth place in 2:12:45.
Comparing splits to the women's race...
At most major marathons, the men's field is deeper and the male runners are more aggressive and push for a fast pace than in the women's field. The 2015 New York City Marathon marked one of the starkest contrasts in the opposite direction. In the women's race, the pace was honest and relatively consistent from the beginning in contrast to the men's pace. The 2015 New York City Marathon women's field ran through the halfway mark in 1:12:56, right on target for a typical 2:25 finish (with a small negative split). And Mary Keitany's 2:24:25 with a strong negative split was good enough for a $25,000 time bonus (and four other women also received time bonuses). On the other hand, in the men's race the runners clocked a very slow 1:06:50 first half and even with Stanley Biwott's impressive 1:03:44 second half, the winning time was the second worst since 1995 and not a single man was eligible for a bonus.
Meb Keflezighi breaks USA Masters record
The men's race lacked American depth due to many athletes focusing on the Olympic Marathon Trials coming up in February. However, Meb Keflezighi, who proved in 2012 that he could run the NYC Marathon in November and follow-up by winning the Trials in January, was on hand as the featured American. Keflezeghi, a past champion now running his tenth New York City Marathon, would have liked a podium or top five finish, but he also had another goal on hand to push him through to the finish. Keflezighi had his sight on breaking the USA Masters record of 2:13:52 set by Mbarak Hussein at the Twin Cities Marathon in 2006. Struggling a bit in the race, but with the USA Masters record in the back of his head, Meb stated at the post-race press conference that he "used the Japanese guy [Yuki Kawauchi] to push a little bit and help each other... and [he] barely got [the record]." Meb finished in a new USA Masters record time of 2:13:32. Yuki Kawauchi finished three seconds in front of Meb. Meb, as top American finisher in almost every marathon he has ever run, has to be considered one of the favorites to make the USA Olympic Marathon team. Another Olympic team contender, Nick Arciniaga - the 2013 USA Marathon champion and a 2:11 marathoner - had a poor performance with a final time of 2:22:07 for 16th place casting doubt on the Olympic Team prospects of a runner who generally has shown great consistency.
Top Finishers
1. Stanley Biwott (KEN) 2:10:34 $100,000
2. Geoffery Kamworor (KEN) 2:10:48 $60,000
3. Lelisa Desisa (ETH) 2:12:10 $40,000
4. Wilson Kipsang (KEN) 2:12:45 $25,000
5. Yemane Tsegay (ETH) 2:13:24 $15,000
6. Yuki Kawauchi (JPN) 2:13:29 $12,500
7. Meb Keflezighi (USA) 2:13:32 $10,000
8. Craig Leon (USA) 2:15:16 $6,500
9. Birhanu Dare Kemal (ETH) 2:15:40 $3,500
10. Kevin Chelimo (KEN) 2:15:49 $2,500
Coverage Homepage
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A Race Like No Other
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