Yes, Sammy Wanjiru was making noise about breaking the world record in London recently. But thanks to some erratic pacers who were unable to maintain the 4:44 pace that would have been required to break Haile G.’s world mark of 2:03:59, Wanjiru had to settle for the London course record.
In the meantime, the CPTC contingent of Steve “Three Card” Monte, Jim Mcquade, and Brad Weiss were chasing their own personal bests. Jim and Brad were together well past the halfway mark, which they reached in about 1 hour 20 minutes. Jim unfortunately ran into some cramping problems at mile 17, but battled through to finish in 2:48:15. Brad continued his metronomic precision to run an even-split 2:41:15, setting a two-minute PR in the process.
And what to say about Steve Monte? This guy’s a cheeky one: he completely ignores Tony’s 10-10-10 philosophy, along with common sense, and runs a first half of 1:18:30, adhering to what he calls the “Corey Henry go out hard and hang on strategy, also known as ‘money in the bank.'” Steve finished in 2:39:35, realizing a long-held goal of breaking 2:40, and is currently basking in sub-2:40 glory in London. Perhaps he’s discussing aggressive racing tactics with Wanjiru.