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Through the half-marathon in 1:06:58 (much slower than the 1:05:30 organizers had requested from the pacemaker), all pre-race favorites were in contention: defending champion Wilson Chebet sat a meter off pacer Samuel Ndungu’s shoulder, while masters world record holder Kenneth Mungara and fellow Kenyan Kiprotich ran comfortably alongside. In all, a group of six were tightly bunched.
Ndungu stepped off the road at 30-K (18.6 miles) as his pacing duties were complete, and the rest of the field grabbed their fluid bottles. Holding his bottle firmly, Kiprotich stepped on the gas pedal and spread the field thin, taking all by surprise with a quick surge. In the blink of an eye he held a ten second lead.
Though Mungara came up on his shoulder a mile later, he simply could not keep pace with Kiprotich. Climbing up Diamond Head’s long hill from 37 to 40 kilometers, Kiprotich glanced back twice and saw no competitors. He continued to press unaware how close he was to James Muindi’s event record of 2:11:12.
“When I was at 30-K I planned to break the course record so I decided to go,” said Kiprotich, smiling. “I kept going.”
In the end, Kiprotich would come up nearly a half minute shy of the record breaking the finish tape in 2:11:43. Kiprotich’s margin of victory was a minute and three seconds over Chebet (2:12:46), while Daniel Limo finished third in 2:13:24.
“The weather was not bad but the course is too hard! When I was at 35 (kilometers), the course was difficult. There were a lot of hills,” he said.
Though disappointed not to retain his crown, Chebet gave credit to Kiprotich for maintaining the hard pace.
“When the eventual winner tried to push the pace, I was expecting that maybe he would not finish that pace. He was lucky because he tried to maintain his pace and I tried my best to follow,” said Chebet, who added that with nine kilometers left he believed he could catch Kiprotich. “I congratulate him for the win.”
In addition to the $40,000 winner’s check (same as Chepkirui in the women’s race), Kiprotich will take home $10,000 in time bonus incentives.
A total of 30,783 athletes entered the 43rd Honolulu Marathon. With no time limit to complete the course, competitors will be coming through the Kapiolani Park finish line throughout the late morning and afternoon.
