Robert Cheruiyot would like to win in style rather than in pain this year.
Hesitantly answering questions at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon news conference Thursday, the slender runner looked as simultaneously excited and uncomfortable as he did last year when he slipped and knocked his head on the finish-line pavement to complete his joyous yet excruciating victory.
The 6-foot-2-inch Kenyan on Sunday will defend his victory in 2 hours 7 minutes 35 seconds against a crowd of elite runners eager to take him down in another way.
While Cheruiyot will finish hours ahead of much of the mostly amateur record field of 45,000, his reasons for competing in the 30th running of the race are something the other competitors can appreciate.
"I picked this course because it's fast and I'd like to run a good time," Cheruiyot said.
Cheruiyot aims to finish around 2:05, which might be difficult with temperatures possibly reaching the mid-80s. That pace would challenge Khalid Khannouchi's 1999 course record of 2:05:42, a world record at the time.
Khannouchi, a four-time Chicago winner, said it might take a course record to overtake Cheruiyot.
"You just have to force a fast pace," said Khannouchi, who will compete for a spot on the Olympic team in New York on Nov. 3 instead of in Chicago. "I think he hasn't proven he can run under 2:06, so if you can get somebody who can run 2:05 and try to break a course record here, I think they can get a win."
Cheruiyot ran his personal best of 2:07:14 at the 2006 Boston Marathon. He also won Boston this April for his third consecutive World Marathon Majors victory.
He is looking for less drama with the same result this year.
Cheruiyot outsprinted fellow countryman Daniel Njenga down Columbus Drive for a five-second victory in 2006. After falling like a cartoon character on a banana peel just before breaking the tape, a review revealed Cheruiyot's torso crossed the plane to secure the championship.
At the Hilton Chicago on Thursday, Cheruiyot sat quietly in the front row of the news conference.
Cheruiyot firmly brushed off concerns competitors may gain an edge from being familiar with his strategies—tumbling excluded.
"Nobody knows my tactics," Cheruiyot said. "I know my tactics."
Njenga must know a little about them.
Njenga, who ran a personal best 2:06:16 in the 2002 Chicago Marathon, is the Buffalo Bills of Chicago, finishing second three times and third twice.
"We've talked in the past and he feels really bad," his close friend Khannouchi said. "His dream is to come here and get it. I think he has the motivation."
Kenyans Felix Limo and Jimmy Muindi are capable of keeping up as well.
"It's going to be quite an open race," Khannouchi said.
Like Cheruiyot, Berhane Adere won her 2006 women's title by five seconds to set an Ethiopian record in 2:20:42.
Australian Benita Johnson owns the second-fastest time in the field, finishing third last year in 2:22:36.
The cheering sections will be behind 46-year-old Linda Somers Smith, a 1992 Chicago Marathon champion who is attempting to qualify for her sixth Olympic Trials.
"Last year doing radio coverage, I was so excited watching I decided I had to do it one more time," Somers Smith said. "That was my motivation."
Hesitantly answering questions at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon news conference Thursday, the slender runner looked as simultaneously excited and uncomfortable as he did last year when he slipped and knocked his head on the finish-line pavement to complete his joyous yet excruciating victory.
The 6-foot-2-inch Kenyan on Sunday will defend his victory in 2 hours 7 minutes 35 seconds against a crowd of elite runners eager to take him down in another way.
While Cheruiyot will finish hours ahead of much of the mostly amateur record field of 45,000, his reasons for competing in the 30th running of the race are something the other competitors can appreciate.
"I picked this course because it's fast and I'd like to run a good time," Cheruiyot said.
Cheruiyot aims to finish around 2:05, which might be difficult with temperatures possibly reaching the mid-80s. That pace would challenge Khalid Khannouchi's 1999 course record of 2:05:42, a world record at the time.
Khannouchi, a four-time Chicago winner, said it might take a course record to overtake Cheruiyot.
"You just have to force a fast pace," said Khannouchi, who will compete for a spot on the Olympic team in New York on Nov. 3 instead of in Chicago. "I think he hasn't proven he can run under 2:06, so if you can get somebody who can run 2:05 and try to break a course record here, I think they can get a win."
Cheruiyot ran his personal best of 2:07:14 at the 2006 Boston Marathon. He also won Boston this April for his third consecutive World Marathon Majors victory.
He is looking for less drama with the same result this year.
Cheruiyot outsprinted fellow countryman Daniel Njenga down Columbus Drive for a five-second victory in 2006. After falling like a cartoon character on a banana peel just before breaking the tape, a review revealed Cheruiyot's torso crossed the plane to secure the championship.
At the Hilton Chicago on Thursday, Cheruiyot sat quietly in the front row of the news conference.
Cheruiyot firmly brushed off concerns competitors may gain an edge from being familiar with his strategies—tumbling excluded.
"Nobody knows my tactics," Cheruiyot said. "I know my tactics."
Njenga must know a little about them.
Njenga, who ran a personal best 2:06:16 in the 2002 Chicago Marathon, is the Buffalo Bills of Chicago, finishing second three times and third twice.
"We've talked in the past and he feels really bad," his close friend Khannouchi said. "His dream is to come here and get it. I think he has the motivation."
Kenyans Felix Limo and Jimmy Muindi are capable of keeping up as well.
"It's going to be quite an open race," Khannouchi said.
Like Cheruiyot, Berhane Adere won her 2006 women's title by five seconds to set an Ethiopian record in 2:20:42.
Australian Benita Johnson owns the second-fastest time in the field, finishing third last year in 2:22:36.
The cheering sections will be behind 46-year-old Linda Somers Smith, a 1992 Chicago Marathon champion who is attempting to qualify for her sixth Olympic Trials.
"Last year doing radio coverage, I was so excited watching I decided I had to do it one more time," Somers Smith said. "That was my motivation."
