Geoffrey Mutai wins NYC Marathon, sets course record

Aesop might have had something to say about Sunday's New York City Marathon. Perhaps a fable about how Kenya's Mary Keitany ran too fast too soon, ultimately turning two hours of dominance over her competitors into a third-place finish with less than a mile to go. And how Keitany's countryman, Geoffrey Mutai, did just the opposite, waiting patiently for attrition to kick in, then racing away from the leading pack through the final six miles.

Mutai's less hare-brained strategy proved much the wiser. Not only did he win the men's title, giving him the first same-year Boston-New York marathon double since 2002, but he also set a New York record by finishing in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 6 seconds -- a combination that earned him the $130,000 winner's purse plus a $70,000 time bonus.

Keitany, whose violent first-half pace made the rest of the women's field immediately disappear and put her on pace to break Paula Radcliffe's existing world record of 2:15:25, ultimately was the victim of her own collateral damage. Not even six minutes from the Central Park finish line in the annual 26-mile, 385-yard test, a worn-down Keitany was caught and passed by a pair of Ethiopian women, Firehiwot Dado and Buzunesh Deba, who would finish first and second in 2:23:15 and 2:23:19.

It was the closest women's finish in seven years and left Keitany, who had led by a whopping 2:23 with nine miles to go, third in 2:23:39.

"Maybe, if I am here next year, I will not change," Keitany said of her risky wire-to-wire tactic. At 29, she has established herself as one of the top female runners in history. Her 2:19:19 victory in the 2011 London Marathon was the first sub-2:20 by a woman in three years.

So when she bolted immediately to the front Sunday, "I didn't imagine we'd catch her," said Dado, a 27-year-old of more modest credentials whose biggest marathon wins have come in Rome. Dado and Deba, her 23-year-old countrywoman who has lived in the Bronx for five years, completely lost sight of Keitany until a mere three miles remained and began to steadily reel her in.

"When we caught her," Dado said through a translator, "I'm very surprised."

In the men's race, meanwhile, Mutai, 30, didn't fire the afterburners until the course showed him a glimpse of the Bronx, near the 20-mile mark. Whereupon he turned an eight-man lead pack into a strung-out pursuit of him alone. Fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai (no relation) eventually finished second, almost a minute and a half behind, with Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede third.

"I was controlling myself and how I was feeling," Geoffrey Mutai said. "But I discovered that, if I continue like this, maybe we can go to the end. I used to run like that at the end of the race, but I was not waiting until that time."

Naturalized American Meb Keflezighi, the 2009 New York champion and silver medalist in the 2004 Olympics, was among the first in that eight-man lead pack to fall off the pace. But his sixth-place 2:09:13 was a personal best, at age 36, by two seconds, and in 68 days he intends to run the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials for the 2012 London Games.

"It's one foot after another," Keflezighi said of his approach. "And the rest will take care of itself."