Sonia says slow pace was not the right tactic
It was well outside her expectations but her compatriot Mark Carroll was all smiles after the run of his life in sixth place after actually leading the race at half way.
Joyce Chepchumba who finished fourth last year and third five years earlier was a surprise women’s winner in 2:25:56 as her fellow Kenyans, pre-race favourite Lornah Kiplagat faded to finish eighth and defending champion, Margaret Okaya, lost touch with proceedings in the first five miles.
For Sonia, however, it was a chastening experience but she put her disappointing performance down to the fact that she took it easy during the early stages of the race when she took the waiting game to a dangerous extreme.
Mark Carroll did his own share of suffering but he was bouncing on air across the line as he came from 10th position - eighth with two miles to go - to finish sixth on a spectacular debut time of 2:10:54 behind Kenyan winner, Rodgers Rop, who became only the fourth runner ever to win Boston and New York marathons.
It was a performance to savour for Carroll and the Corkman was prepared to hang around at the finish line to share the moment with the fans who wanted to be part of the Irish celebrations.
And he declared himself ready for another marathon, although he insisted that this race would help him in his track campaign next year which will take him to the world championships in Paris but one has to admit that if someone can run 2:10 in those conditions and over this course he can certainly run two minutes faster on a flat course.
“It was good,” he said. “In fact I felt very good until First Avenue and then the move was made. There was a bit of a headwind there. I felt it right in the middle of my ribcage. I just felt caught for breath and I just tried to relax and maintain my rhythm. That is basically all I did for the last 10 miles.”
Up to that point he was always around the front of the race - - and he led the field through 13 miles in 63:13. At that point British hope, Jon Brown, was hobbling off the course with cramp.
“I was concentrating on maintaining my rhythm. Guys just kept falling apart and coming back to me,” he said. “The fact that I led at one point was merely a coincidence. I wanted to make sure I could get my water bottle at a stop and I found myself in front. Then the big break came and I found myself back in 10th or 11th position. Then Meb Keflezighi came back to me and I caught Hendrik Ramaala. A couple more came back.
“Then I hit the last five miles and that is definitely the hardest part. Those hills just kept coming thick and fast and you were wondering if it would ever end. I think that, without those to contend with, I will run 2:07 on a flat course in Europe.”
He admitted that training for the marathon and then seeing it through had worked wonders for his career.
“Just look at it,” he said. “Twelve months ago I thought I was done. I thought I was all washed up. My knee was screwed. I needed surgery to get it right again. I am really happy to be back in one piece and running 2:10 here.
“And this is just my basework for next year’s track season,” he said.” But I’ll tell you now - I am going to run 2:07 in Europe in the spring. Just where I don’t know yet.”
For Sonia O’Sullivan a well earned rest is in the offing. “I am looking forward to that,” she said. “But I will be back for the world cross-country championships next year.”
She felt in control of the race throughout the first half but the pace, for much of the time, was pedestrian. At five miles (28:32) she was already three minutes off her five mile time in the Great North Run and at half way (74:12) she was almost seven minutes slower than her winning time in that race.
Then when they hit the climb to the 59th Street Bridge she began to show signs of fatigue and drifted from the front line to the last three in the pack. From then on she was suffering.
“It was hard work,” she admitted. “I think the first half, maybe first 16-17 miles was OK. I felt all right but not fantastic.
“I don’t know exactly what happened then but, looking back on it now, I think maybe I should have gone a bit faster early on and just got into a really fast rhythm. I was going to get tired at the end anyway so I now think it would have been the right thing to do.”
Her pre-race plan had been to relax but she now felt she had taken that to the extreme. There was a sensation at five miles when the defending champion, Okaya, lost touch with the field, passing the marker in 28:32 with O’Sullivan totally in control of affairs and that was three minutes slower than her opening five miles in the Great North Run.
“Everybody was saying to relax and hang back as much as possible - and the slower the better - and I was sticking with that.
“Maybe that was not the thing to do. I don’t know if it was the hardness of the ground or something, but going up 59th Street Bridge I began to hurt.
“There was one point where a gap opened up and I tried to close it and get back into the race again. All of a sudden my legs were not responding.
She was reluctant to say when or if she would attempt another marathon.
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