Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon by Ed Caesar

Author:Ed Caesar [Caesar, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2015-10-26T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Kids, That Was Real

2010–2012

BY 2010, Mutai knew he possessed rare talent. He also knew that talent was not enough. For the best runners, money swirled around and distractions were manifold. Every one of them had grown up like Sammy Wanjiru, poor and hungry. Mutai was not immune to such temptations. He remembered those foggy mornings in Rongai when he woke up in strangers’ houses, and he understood how easy it would be to return to that life. Running country was full of squandered, drunken talent.

At the same time, he was excited by the ambition he saw around him. Athletes were achieving previously unthinkable times, and winning races in new ways. Haile had remade the art of record breaking in Berlin, and Wanjiru had reshaped the narrative of racing. One could not help but be swept up in the spirit of the age. Haile, in particular, inspired Mutai.

Every event became, in Mutai’s words, “a graduation.” Behind the scenes, his management was working to give him a shot at the Majors. After a lucrative sub-one-hour half-marathon win at Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, he was booked to run the Rotterdam Marathon in the spring of 2010. The race is not a Major, but it is in the highest class of second-tier marathons. Mostly people choose Rotterdam because, on the right day, it’s fast.

On the gray, dank morning of April 11, 2010, the race started off rapidly. Ten contenders in the leading group sped through the first half in under 62 minutes, all of them on world record pace—a situation that could not hold. The lead group soon splintered and eventually included only two men: Mutai and Patrick Makau, a recalcitrant Kamba who wears a pencil mustache like a 1940s screen idol. In the closing straightaway, Makau pulled ahead of Mutai to record what was then the fourth-fastest marathon time ever: 2:04:47. Mutai was eight seconds behind, with a massive new personal best of 2:04:55. Although he hadn’t won the race, he’d led Makau most of the way to the finish line. What’s more, he was now a two-oh-four guy.

On the strength of his Rotterdam performance, Mutai was invited for a rematch against Makau in Berlin in September—his first Major. It was a rainy day, with puddles on the ground. Nobody expected a record. Once again, Mutai tried to push the pace; once again, Makau stuck to his heels. The pair ran as if linked by a tow chain all the way to the Brandenburg Gate, about 400 meters from the finish line, where Makau once again used his superior sprint to best his rival. The two men finished in 2:05:08 and 2:05:10, respectively.

This second consecutive defeat to Makau prompted a period of soul-searching for Mutai. He tried to analyze what had gone wrong. On both occasions, he had felt strong both before and during the race. He knew he was capable of sustained attacks of speed, as he had shown most dramatically at the 2009 Eindhoven Marathon, when he closed the last 7km in two-hour-marathon pace.

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