Fast Fields and Great Races

By Scott Bush

The Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon may not be as recognized, especially in the United States, as the six World Marathon Majors and even the Paris and Rotterdam marathons, but it’s clearly one of the world’s heavy hitters. On Thursday evening in the United States (Friday morning in Dubai), the event took another huge step forward on the global stage, with deep fields, solid storylines, dramatic finishes and a top-notch production. Here’s what we learned:

Bekele Still Has Work To Do

From all accounts, Kenenisa Bekele was in prime shape heading into the Dubai Marathon Friday, but the living legend bowed out just after 35k. It appeared he had a slight limp just past the 30k mark and when he fell off the pace, he fell hard.

Bekele’s coach, Renato Canova, mentioned afterward that Bekele was in good shape, had room for improvement heading in, but was hitting workouts indicating he was in sub-2:05 shape. We’ll see what his injury is and how serious it may be, but the nice thing for Bekele is he’ll have another chance to rock the marathon in April at the London Marathon. Bekele's struggles in Dubai and fourth placing showing in Chicago shows he still has work to do, whether fitness-wise or tactically, before his next forray into the marathon. For the good of the marathon world, lets hope he recovers quickly.

Great Stories for Winners

Aselefech Mergia won the women’s race by holding off one of the best half marathoners of all-time over the final mile in Gladys Cherono. Commentators (and fans) often talk about a runner’s speed when they come from the track or dominance over the half marathon, but one needs to remember 26.2 is a completely different ballgame compared to 13.1 or 10k and it showed as Cherono tried to push and pass Mergia, but ultimately lost by a second.

Mergia’s story is inspiring. She became a mother a couple years ago and has worked her way back the past two years, concluding the comeback by winning one of the world’s best marathons. Impressive!

Then, look at men’s winner Lemi Berhanu Hayle. He was a 2:10 marathoner going against a half dozen sub-2:06 runners and barely made the published start list of elite competitors. No one, outside of maybe his coach, a couple training partners and his agent, thought he could win. But, Hayle hung tough, made Lelisa Desisa look like he was standing still when he made his final move and ultimately won by setting a nearly five minute PR. Wow!

Professional road racing continues to look for stories which inspire and ignite passion amongst the sport’s faithful fans. These two provided such stories on Friday in Dubai.

Dubai Puts on an A+ Showing - Entertainment

If you watched the live stream of the Dubai Marathon Thursday evening in the United States, you know just how good the marathon’s show was. The shots throughout the course were crisp, beautiful and inspiring. It seemed at times to be on-par with the production level of the Tour de France, which says something. The lead announcer was solid and bringing in the great Haile Gebrselassie was a genius move on the production team’s part. Geb offered flavor and insight for the later stages of the race and ultimately made the production even more enjoyable. All marathons can learn from Dubai in this instance.

Desisa is Close

Lelisa Desisa has raced five marathons and finished top two all five times. He’s put himself in contention for big wins time and time again, but his past two races, in NYC this past fall and again in Dubai, showed he’s right on the cusp of true greatness. Desisa won Dubai in a busy 2013, which also saw him win Boston, then finish second at the World Championships. It’ll be interesting to see what he does the rest of 2015, but another top two finish or two this season and he can easily lay claim to being one of the world’s top three marathoners. 

Dubai Puts on an A+ Showing - The Field

We knew heading into the Dubai Marathon the field was loaded. The start lists reflected as such, putting the event on par with the Tokyo Marathon and ahead of the Paris Marathon, while being slightly behind Boston in terms of overall prestige (London is in its own class at this point). All the pre-race hype didn’t disappoint. Through half way, there were over 20 men still in contention and while the women let one runner go for over 20 miles, they ultimately reeled her in and there were upwards of a half dozen women in the lead pack with 5k to go.

Dubai has shown its strength, growing in talent and depth over the past half dozen years, but this year the event really stepped up, put on a tremendous race and the field didn’t disappoint.