Seven months after a turbo-charged tailwind helped propel him to the fastest marathon time in history, Geoffrey Mutai broke more stunning road-race ground Sunday, and didn’t need the wind to do it.
Mutai, 30, of Kapng’etuny, Kenya, captured the 42nd running of the ING New York City Marathon, obliterating the course record with a time of two hours, five minutes, six seconds, leading a record field of 47, 107 runners.
The previous mark, set 10 years ago, was the 2:07:43 put up by Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Jifar.
The second and third place finishers, Kenya’s Emmanuel Mutai (no relation) and Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede, finished in 2:06:28 and 2:07:13, respectively – all three top men breaking the previous standard.
Geoffrey Mutai, who earned $200,000 for his effort – $130,000 for the victory and $70,000 for the course record – won Boston last April in 2:03:02, the fastest marathon time ever posted. In the five boroughs, he made a blistering late-race charge to break from the lead pack of nine runners that stayed together most of the race.
Leading by four seconds over Emmanuel Mutai at the 24th mile mark, Geoffrey Mutai laid down a 4:41 mile to extend his lead to more than a minute, and followed it with a 4:39 mile.
Overall, he averaged 4:47 per mile for the 26.2 miles of the race.
His record on the famously challenging Gotham course means that all five of the world’s marquee marathons – Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City – had course records in 2011.
Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai Wins the New York Marathon in Course Record Time
