Win or lose in Sunday’s New York City Marathon, either Jelena Prokopcuka or Gete Wami will come out of the race as the champion of the inaugural World Marathon Majors Series. And both women will be taking aim at making some very different history.
Prokopcuka is bidding to three-peat here, something only legendary Greta Waitz ever managed. Wami is hoping to win just 35 days after her Berlin victory, a feat Prokopcuka said she’d never even try.
“If the race before was not difficult, then I think it [could be done],” said Prokopcuka, adding later “For me five weeks is not enough.”
After 10 races, Wami sits in first place with 65 points and a 10-point lead over her rival for the $500,000 purse that she candidly admits convinced her to race Sunday.
“I wasn’t planning on running here because my points were so low. But once I won in Berlin and my points were high, I decided to run. The marathon majors played a big part in it,” said Wami, who already had been tentatively entered here, contingent upon how she ran in Berlin. By 30K, she knew that race would be easy.
Still, conventional wisdom is to run just a couple of marathons a year and take off five months, not five weeks. Meb Keflezighi never was quite the same after running the 2004 Olympics and then running here just 11 weeks later.
“The next significant race will be the [2008] Olympics, and I have enough time to recover for that,” Wami said. “I don’t think that these two races would wear me down that much.”
Perhaps that’s because she knows what her body can take. After running a 2:22.20 back in 2002 that was the fastest debut ever for a woman, she began suffering injuries. Then after a tough childbirth with daughter Eva – now 4 years old – it took the diminutive, 5-foot Ethiopian a few years to regain her form.
“After I gave birth, I did experience back pain. It did take time to recover from that,” said Wami. “In Japan I ran 2:32; when I ran here I ran a 2:27. Then in Berlin I ran [2:21.34 last year], so I’ve built up from there. But it has been difficult.”
She’s built up to being one of five women in the field who have run under 2:22. Prokupcuka’s best is 2:22.56 two years ago, but as the two-time reigning champ – with runner-up finishes the last two years in Boston – she commands respect. And the Latvian whom NYRR president Mary Wittenberg dubbed the Audrey Hepburn of the roads will be racing in memory of father-in-law Sergei, who recently passed away.