by Dave Ross  Race day dawned cool and clear. Race time temperature was about 38° with bright sunshine and light winds. There was early separation in the men's race. Ryan Hall strung out the field with a steady diet of early miles around 4:50.

The early pack included Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Meb Keflezighi, Abdi Abdirahman, Brian Olinger, Mo Trafeh and Joseph Chirlee. This was Olinger's longest ever race. A former steeplechaser, he had qualified by using the 10K standard and had never raced more than 7 miles.

After a 4:44 8th mile Chirlee fell off of the pace. A 9th mile in 4:49 started to drop Olinger and he faded off of the lead pack. In the 10th mile, after Hall doing almost all of the leading up to this point Abdi went to the front. The pack remained tight with Hall, Ritz, Meb and Mo Trafeh all close. The race continued this way and the pack of 5 hit the halfway split in 1:03:25, a 2:06:50 marathon pace.

Photo: Meb takes control at about 25 miles photo by Dustin Whitlow for UjENA FIT Club

In the 15th mile there was some minor drama with Ritz stumbling going around a corner and nearly tripping over a traffic cone. He recovered quickly and it seemed not to affect him. The 15th mile was covered in 4:56 and Mo Trafeh started to fade. A 4:52 16th mile had reduced the pack to 4: Hall, Ritz, Meb and Abdi. a 17th mile in 4:59 gave the pack of 4 a 1:10 lead over Mo Trafeh in 5th.

Photo: Hall, Ritz, Abdi and Meb battling it out... photo by Dustin Whitlow UjENA FIT Club

In the 18th mile as they started the last loop Abdi went to the lead and was raising his arms, encouraging cheers from the crowd and getting a great response. A 19th mile, covered in 4:56 developed a slight gap of 40 meters over Ritz and narrowed the pack to Hall, Meb and Abdirahman. In the 21st mile (5:01) the leaders held a 2 minute gap over the chase pack, which was now led by Brett Gotcher and Andrew Carlson as Trafeh had dropped out of the race. The 22nd mile was 5:07, the slowest mile of the race thus far, and it appeared that the leaders were content to be on the team and to stop forcing the pace. The question at this point was who wanted to WIN ?

After miles of 5:05 and 5:01 Abdirahman had fallen off of the pace. He started to look back and appeared to be fading badly. One started to wonder how badly he was fading and how far Ritzenhein was back at this point and if Ritz might be able to catch Abdi before running out of real estate. The 25th mile was decisive, with Keflezighi pulling away from Hall and sealing the win. Hall never rallied and Meb grabbed a small American flag and carried it with him over the last mile. He started the celebrating early by saluting the crowds, waving and enjoying the moment.

Photo: Ryan Hall pushed the pace most of the way but Meb ran a smarter race.  photo by Dustin Whitlow

The final margin of victory was 22 seconds. Meb finished in a new person record of 2:09:08.(I believe that he could have easily broken 2:09 if he had chosen not to start celebrating in that last mile). Ryan Hall finished 2nd in 2:09:30, Abdirahman held on for 3rd in 2:09:47 and a clearly dejected Dathan Ritzenhein finished 4th in 2:09:55. Ritz was on his hands and knees at the finish line, clearly upset that he had come within 8 seconds after staging a fantastic rally. He's had a rough time in 2011 after much illness and at least one surgery, so to see him come back and run a personal best was very inspiring to watch. As the former American record holder at 5,000 meters (12:56), Dathan still has the track credentials to make the Olympic team at either 5,000 or 10,000 meters.

Other notable finishes were Fernando Cabada in 7th in a personal record 2:11:53 and training partner Patrick Rizzo in 13th, also with a personal record of 2:13:42.