PUBLISHED 11/07/2006
After finishing second in the 2004 NYC Marathon (in 2:09:53, a PR) and third last year - just 26 seconds behind Paul Tergat and Hendrick Ramaala - the American was a pre-race favorite to win today. But he fell off pace around mile 16 and never recovered, finishing 21st in
2:22:02.
The Olympic Silver medalist was the 7th American finisher in the men's race, behind six others including Dathan Ritzenhein, a 23-year-old making his marathon debut. Ritzenhein finished 11th, 2:14:01.
Explaining his poor performance, Keflezighi cited a string of bad luck in the days before the event. For starters, the airline lost his bags. ("I thought, 'It can't get lost - it's a direct flight, from San Diego to JFK,'" Keflezighi said. "The only time I did it, it happened. And
still no sign of my bags.")
Then there was the food poisoning. Keflezighi got it Thursday night and was still hurting race day. Fellow runners said Meb was drinking Pepto-Bismol at the starting line.
The culprit? "Chicken fettuccine," he said, bought at a restaurant. (He declined to say which one.) "Maybe next time," said Keflezighi, "I'll bring a rice cooker or something."
Mirroring the sub-par performance of fellow American Deena Kastor in the women's race, Keflezighi looked strong and comfortable in the first 15 miles or so, then simply faded.
"I could have stopped," said Keflezighi. "I wanted to. But I did it for the people today. They came to see me, a lot of them. I just ran for the crowd."
The 31-year-old Californian, in a white singlet reading "MEB," showed no signs of pain or fatigue as he ran with the leaders. After a 5:30 uphill opening mile, they settled into a relatively comfortable pace just under 5:00 per mile. Things began to heat up around mile 15, when Rodgers Rop led a charge across the Queensboro Bridge. Another surge by Youssef Galmin, and a speedy 4:35 mile, whittled the lead pack down to 10 men. But Meb was not among them. At mile 19, he was 1:28 behind the leaders; by the finish, he was more than 12 minutes off the winning time.
Keflezighi's roots in New York run deep - he made his marathon debut here in 2002, placing ninth in 2:12:35. And this past August, he finished second in the inaugural NYC Half-Marathon, his first race at that distance, in 1:01:28.
And, lost luggage and food poisoning aside, Meb says he'll be back.
He smiled: "I still believe I can win this race."
