BATC Race Recap: Rotterdam Marathon
Bay Area Track Club member, Madga Lewy-Boulet, ran a huge personal best time to finish second in the Fortis Rotterdam Marathon on Sunday. Her time, 2:26:22, was nearly a four minute improvement from her previous best set at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. It also makes her the fourth fastest American woman of all time in the marathon.
Lewy-Boulet ran a sensible early pace, content to let the leaders go and run her own race. The strategy paid off in the final miles as she closed quickly on the eventual winner, Aberu Kebede of Ethiopia. Kebede hung on to win by a mere :57 seconds, with Lewy-Boulet second, and Xialin Zhu, of China, finishing third in 2:29:42. In what is usually a rare feat in marathons, Lewy-Boulet negative-split the race with an opening half of 1:13:55 and a closing half of 1:12:25.
A happy second-place finisher
Ahead of her on the American all-time list are 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor (2:19:36), 1984 Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit-Samuelson (2:21:21), and 2008 ING New York City Marathon third place finisher Kara Goucher (2:25:53). Lewy-Boulet has, in effect, catapulted herself into the upper echelon among the superstars in American women's marathoning. What's more, as a 36-year-old, Lewy-Boulet is still improving at the distance. Rotterdam represented her eleventh marathon, and with the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials looming in 2012, Lewy-Boulet is arriving just in time to position herself for another shot at a US Olympic Team.
More interesting analysis of Lewy-Boulet's performance can be read on Chanman's Blog and in LetsRun.com's weekly update.
More interesting analysis of Lewy-Boulet's performance can be read on Chanman's Blog and in LetsRun.com's weekly update.
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