Results tagged “liliyashobukhova”

              

Yesterday's Bank of America Chicago Marathon saw Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru set a course record of 2:05:41 and Russia's Liliya Shobukhova was the top woman finisher. In addition to the standard prize money for winning, Wanjiru also pocketed a $100,000 bonus for setting the course record -- but that almost didn't happen. Not aware of his record-setting pace or the bonus at stake, he waved to the crowd during the final stretch and ended up surpassing the old mark by a single second.

The crisp, clear weather this morning was perfect for the 40,000-plus runners participating in this year's Chicago Marathon. As we write this, several thousand runners are still out on the course so watch out for those road closures which continue until mid-afternoon. But it didn't take long for the elite runners to cross the finish time. One, in fact, did so in record time. Kenya's Samuel Wanjiru blazed the course with a time of 2:05:41, breaking the course record by one second and capturing the men's title. Russia's Liliya Shobukhova had an impressive race of her own to take the women's title with a final time of 2:25:56. Shobukhova had an impressive split, running the second half of the race almost six minutes faster than the first. She was locked in a group of four runners late in the race but around the 25th mile, she surged away from the pack to claim the title. We'll have more on the race, including more photos, tomorrow. If you've got some you'd like to share, be sure to drop them off at the Chicagoist Flickr Pool. And a big congrats to everyone who participated in this morning's race!