Running Man: Hall in top shape, Lel withdraws
Quick recap of pre-race news and coverage at the New York City Marathon:
Interesting comment from Ryan Hall today during a press conference today: "Myindicators are like I am a minute faster then when I did mypreparations for Boston. And if I ran a minute faster, I would have wonBoston. So, we'll see."
The NYC Marathon is a race within a race. It's also the U.S. Marathon Championships, and 85 year old institution, but there's not a lot competitive bluster coming from the elite American men about that. "I don't really feel competitive toward these guys," Hall said. "We're going to be working together." Brian Sell, Jorge Torres and the other American's echoed the idea. Regardless of how overshadowed the championships is next to the main NYC race, it's clearly a rare opportunity to see the best U.S. marathoners square off at one time.
NYC marathon race favorite Martin Lel of Kenya withdrew yesterday due to a leg injury. Lel won here in 2003 and 2007, and was among the fastest of the elite men's field going into Sunday's race. Tatyana Petrova of Russia also withdrew from the race.
The Running Times's Jim Gerwick has posted nice profiles of one the race's international front-runners, Jaouad Gharib of Morocco, and Parker Morse wrote a nice pieces on Salina Kosgei, last year's Boston champ one of the top women's contenders, and Marilson Gomes dos Santos, the surprise winner of NYC in 2006 and 2008.
--JUSTIN NYBERG
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