May - Space Coast Runners

KEEPING TABSA HUGE ‘THANKS’ to Carol Ball, Ty Bowan, Cyndi Bergs, Steve Chin, Cedric Ching, Robin Hernandez,Ron Hoar, Ken Horton, Running Zone, and Loran Serwin for your help with this newsletter!THE OTHER KENYAN JOHN DOE$175,000 will buy a lot of cows for a Kenyan farm and that’s what RobertKiprono Cheruiyot, left, plans to do with some of his winnings from theApril 18 and 114 th running of the Boston Marathon. The 21-year-oldfarmer, who crossed the Boylston Street finish line in fifth place last year,shattered the course record by 82 seconds with his 2:05:52 victory addinga $25,000 course record bonus to the $150,000 top prize.But don’t get today’s victor confused with the other and now 31-years-old Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot.The elder Cheruiyot is a four-time Boston champ (2003, 2006, 2007, 2008) and it was his 2006record of 2:07:14 that the young upstart trashed.It wasn’t a bad day for Americans either. Mammoth Lakes Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi took thefourth and fifth spots respectively in 2:08:41 and 2:09:26. Hall was two seconds short of the podiumand his time was the fastest U.S. finisher at Boston since 1994 when Bob Kempainen ran a 2:08:47.In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Teyba Erkesso, left with Cheruiyot,outsprint Russia’s Tatyana Pushkareva for the win in 2:26:11.Erkesso earned $150,000 and, together with Erkesso, the distinctionof hammering out the third closest women’s finish in Boston’shistory.For those playing advanced Beantown trivial pursuit, 73 competitorsfrom Greece started today's race to help celebrate the2,500 th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon. The year was 490B.C. when Pheidippides dropped dead after running 26 miles fromMarathon to Athens over the course of two days to deliver thenews of the Greek victory over Prussia.Thankfully, none of Brevard’s locals met their graves after their 26.2-mile journey between Hopkintonand Copley Square - and all were much, much faster than Pheidippides. With weather blessedby perhaps Greek gods, six of the 12 who started the race ran fast enough to get their ticketspunched for next year’s event.At 69-years-young, Sebastian’s John ‘Johnny O’ Ouweleen needed a 4:30 to re-qualify as a 70-yearoldnext year. We guess no one told him as the retired New Jersey Highway patrolman ripped out a3:27:24, finishing eighth in the 65-69 age group. Who said it gets easier to win or place with age?Cocoa’s Danny Barrett had a score to settle with the Newton hills. During his last two battles with thefive beasts, one or more had made him yell ‘uncle’ and walk a bit.Page 18