ING NYC Marathon 2006 - As It Happens

Pre-Race Articles: New York Elite Athlete List | Pre-Race Interviews

The Current Race: The Men's Race | The Women's Race (both below)

The 2006 ING New York City Marathon
The largest field in marathoning history - 37,000 runners - and one of the deepest professional fields ever assembled. The races are set to begin at 9:35AM for the women and 10:10AM for the men. The temperature at the start was 43 degrees and expected to rise to 53 degrees by the finish with relatively low humidity and a negligible headwind to cool the runners. Overall the stage is set for a competitive race. We will refresh this page with continual updates throughout the day.

The Men's Race | The Women's Race

Current Status of the races:

Report from the press room: We're participating in the athlete interviews now and will continue to update our stories throughout the day.

The men's and open race has begun. We expect the lead field to remain huge for a number of miles. We will repeat on split times as they are available and will report on any moves as we see them.

Splits: 1 Mile (5:30). 5K (15:38). 4 mile (20:03). 6 miles (29:57). 10K (30:59).
The pack consists of more than 30 runners - too little to report now.

15K (46:29). The field still consists of over 30 runners. The pace is conservative - this will be a strategic race - later.

20K (1:02:09). Twenty-eight men still in the main pack, including all of the favorites. Seven Americans are still here: Meb Keflezighi, Dathan Ritzenhein, Bolota Asmerom, Brett Schoolmeester, Alan Culpepper, Peter Gilmore and Andrew Letherby - as well as 13 Kenyans, a Morroccan, Brazilian, Italian and South African...

15 miles: 1:14:59 25K (1:17:51). 16 miles (1:20:02)... The pack is starting to split apart. Rodgers Rop was leading the group before the Queensborough Bridge, but Youssef Galmin is the first to make a break and he pushes ahead of Julius Kibet, a pacemaker. Running up First Avenue, Ramaala brings the rest of the field up and pushes the pace even further. It looks now like Ramaala is making the move. The pace is increasing now and the pack is down to about nine - and it is spreading out further. The lead pack consists of Rodgers Rop, Stephen Kiogora, Marilson Gomes Dos Santos, Hailu Negussie, Youssef Galmin, Paul Tergat, Daniel Yego, Nephat Kinyanui and William Kipsang. Keflezighi has fallen back. Ritzenhein seems to be staying within contact with the front group and is the first American - in tenth place.

18 miles (1:29:26). 19 miles (1:34:21). 20 miles (1:39:09) Gomes dos Santos of Brazil has opened a strong lead. The others have not followed this man who holds the Brazilian records at the 5000 and 1000m and has a best marathon time of 2:08:48. Keflezighi is now more than a minute back and will not factor in the rest of this race. Ritzenhein, running his inaugural marathon is thirty seconds behind and barring a meltdown is the USA's best chance in this race.

35K (1:47:38). Gomes dos Santos continues to open the lead. William Kipsang and Nephat Kinayjui are falling off the following pack.

22 miles (1:48:54). 23 miles (1:53:48). Gomes dos Santos' lead is narrowing, but is still strong at 32 seconds. The following group is Paul Tergat, Daniel Yego, Rodgers Rop and Stephen Kiogora.

24 miles (1:58:56). Gomes dos Santos' lead is down to 23 seconds. Paul Tergat and Stephen Kiogora are the only men chasing.

25 miles (2:03:54). Gomes dos Santos leads by 13 seconds. Kiogora and Tergat are together chasing.

The Finish: Marilon Gomes dos Santos holds on to win the 2006 ING NYC Marathon in 2:09:58, the first Brazilian ever to do so. Stephen Kiogora takes second place in 2:10:06, while Paul Tergat takes third in 2:10:10. Americans sneak into the top ten as Peter Gilmore arrives in tenth place overall as the first American in 2:13:13. Dathan Ritzenheim - hitting the wall hard - finishes his debut marathon in eleventh place in 2:13:13.

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The women elite, approximately twenty-six women, started early at 9:35AM ET as scheduled. Nine women in the field had previously run sub-2:28, but that won't be fast enough to win this race. From the beginning, Luminita Talpos, a pacer takes out the lead. Jelena Prokopcuka is right behind her - and within a minute, the two are almost ten seconds ahead of the rest of the field. This is an interesting start, and we're not sure what this will mean and what Prokopcuka is really planning.

5K (17:21 Talpos; 17:34 Prokopcuka; 18:19 the rest): Luminita Talpos, the rabbit, has continued to lead and is now running alone at the front at a course record pace. Prokopcuka has fallen back a bit (17:34), but still remains ahead of the remaining field. The remaining field is forty five seconds behind and all keying off of Deena Kastor.

5 Mile (27:33 Talpos; 28:28 Prokopcuka; 28:50 rest): Talpos continues to lead and run by herself. The rest of the field does not seem concerned. Prokopcuka is falling back, soon she will be caught by the rest of the pack. The main pack remains large - more than a dozen. All of the favorites are there and they are now more than one minute twenty seconds behind Talpos.

10K (34:11 Talpos; 35:28 rest): Talpos continues to extend her lead - she has run a 2:27 marathon in the past and perhaps she will choose to go beyond her job of leading the field through 25K, but this is really too fast for her. Prokopcuka is back with the pack. The rest of the pack is at 35:28 - a 2:29 marathon pace, very slow. This will not be a fast marathon, but a strategic one. Kastor has said she is going for the win - the rest of the field seems to be letting her call the shots. All are afraid to make a move this early in the race. The pack at this point: Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia), Tatiana Hladyr (Ukraine), Deena Kastor (USA), Lornah Kiplagat (Netherlands), Lidiya Grigoryeva (Russia), Rita Jeptoo (Kenya), Catherine Ndereba (Kenya), Susan Chepkemei (Kenya), Silvia Skvortsova (Russia). This is a dangerous group and any could be competing for the win.

15K (51:14 Talpos, 52:47 Rest): Talpos continues on her pace. She is paid to be the rabbit at a certain pace and she is doing her job. The rest of the field has decided to save themselves for the later stages of the race. When will they move? The pack remains the same. Hladyr has moved to the front to push the pace a bit. Kastor is sitting in fourth position as the women are running in a straight line.

20K (Talpos 1:08:31; rest 1:10:07). Half-Marathon (Talpos 1:12:19; Hladyr/Prokupcuka 1:13:52; Rest 1:14:00). Tatiana Hladyr has opened up a lead and Jelena Prokopcuka has gone with her. They are opening a convincing lead while the rest of the field has decided that the race has not yet really begun.

14 miles (Hladyr/Prokopcuka 1:18:38). 25K (Talpos 1:26:38; Prokopcuka/Hladry 1:27:29; rest 1:28:12) Hladyr and Prokopcuka have opened up a commanding lead moving onto the Queensborough Bridge at 15 miles. The lead appears to be nearly one minute. Considering that Prokopcuka is the defending champion and Hladyr has a 2:25:44 PR and was eleventh in New York in 2005, we're surprised that the field has let these two go. The two in the front are using the fact that most are watching Deena as an opportunity to escape.

30K (Prokupcuka/Hladyr 1:44:21; Rest 1:45:54). Talpos has dropped out just after 25K, as expected. Running up First Avenue, Hladyr and Prokopcuka are continuing to build their lead, which is now more than ninety seconds. In the following pack, Catherine Ndereba is the one who has decided it is time to try to close the gap - is it too late? As the pack begins to chase, Silvia Skvortsova and Susan Chepkemei are the first two to drop off.

35K (2:01:20). Prokopcuka and Hladyr now have a commanding lead. Ndereba is leading a chase with just Grigoryeva and Jeptoo holding on. Deena Kastor has dropped back and is alone in sixth place fifteen seconds behind the chase group.

Mile 23 (2:08:02), Prokopcuka has made a move and is running away from Hladyr. Hladyr is ten seconds back and Ndereba, Jeptoo and Grigoryeva are a minute and a quarter back. Kastor is continuing to fall back, just a bit - it seems that she is not strong today and it is likely that the others were keying off of her when they should not have been.

Mile 25 (2:18:45). Prokopcuka is increasing her lead - this race will be hers. Hladyr is hanging on to second, but Ndereba is catching her. Jeptoo and Grigoryeva are now further behind.

On the way to the finish, Jeptoo has left Grigoryeva and has caught Ndereba, but Ndereba is strong and will not let Jeptoo step in front of her.

The Finish: Prokopcuka coasts to her second consecutive victory at the ING NYC Marathon in 2:25:05. Hladyr holds on for second in 2:26:05 a massive improvement over her eleventh place finish (2:29:34) of 2005. Catherine Ndereba takes third place in 2:26:58, followed immediately by Rita Jeptoo just behind in fourth place in 2:26:59. Lidiya Grigoryeva is fifth in 2:27:21. Deena Kastor takes sixth place and is first American in 2:27:54. A few places back, as ninth woman, Katie McGregor completes her debut marathon in 2:32:36.

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Continuing coverage of the ING NYC Marathon 2006 races:

Post-Race Writeups
The Overview - What Happened?
NYC Marathon 2006: The Men's Race
NYC Marathon 2006: The Women's Race

As It Happens:
2006 ING NYC Marathon Live Race Coverage/ Mile-By-Mile

Pre-Race Coverage
Marathon Elite Lists and Overview
Pre-Race Interviews with top competitors (additional writeups still in progress)

Also, Complete Results of the 2006 ING NYC Marathon