shalane flanagan

Shalane Flanagan was pipped at the post today and seconds away from ending a 33 year losing streak for American women at the New York City marathon. She agonisingly missed top place by the skin of her teeth but second place was still a a proud accomplishment and an historic one.

Flanagan lost to Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat, in a sprint to the finish line today at the New York City Marathon. Still, Flanagan’s second place finish is the best result achieved by an American woman since 1990. According to Babble, if Flanagan would have crossed the line in first, she would have become the first American woman to win since Miki Gorman won in 1977. Shalane Flanagan may not have won, but she is helping to reinvigorate America’s interest in long distance running. Flanagan’s last big race result came in 2008, when she won the bronze in the 10,000 m at the Beijing Olympics. Not too bad for an NYC marathon debut.

So Shalane Flanagan may be deflated at not picking up the top prize but it was still a titanic performance which will be one of her proudest achievements to date.

nyc marathon results 2010

Today sees the New York Marathon take place and also the possible feat of Meb Keflezighi trying to become the first American man to win 2 Marathons in a row since Alberto Salazar who achieved the title in 1982. The race today will be seen as the biggest marathon in the world and it began at 8:30am ET this morning, with the wheelchair division and the professional women and men starting time at 9:10 am ET and 9:40 am ET, respectively.

The route of the marathon race course will begin at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with the first of five bridges runners will cross winds through Brooklyn, briefly passes through Queens, crosses into Manhattan (and down the thunderous First Avenue), dips a toe in the Bronx before coming back to Manhattan and turning into Central Park, where it finishes, 26.2 miles later. Based on the last record, Keflezighi won the last year with the time 2:09:15 while the Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu won the women’s division with finishing time of 2:28:52. Furthermore, the winner from each division will receive $130,000 (it’s bumped up to $200,000 if they are a repeat winner) while the second place earns $65,000 and third gets $40,000 respectively.

So plenty at stake for the runners and competitors in today's record breaking run in the big apple.