Geoffrey Mutai Runs Fastest Boston Marathon Ever

Mutai

The fastest Boston marathon ever has now been run by Geoffrey Mutai, who crossed the finish line while you were lazily sitting in front of a computer in your pajamas, or perhaps passively taking part in a PowerPoint presentation, or possibly commuting. Mutai finished his 26 miles and 385 yards in 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 2 seconds, beating Kenyan colleague Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot's previous fastest Boston time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, and 52 seconds, and the previous fastest marathon time ever of 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 59 seconds, run by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie at Berlin in 2008.

A bunch of people who are better runners than we are will now debate whether Mutai's time counts as an actual world record, because "Boston is a downhill course," and there was apparently a strong tailwind.

Anyway you look at it, though, the guy was pretty fucking fast.

Caroline Kilel, also a Kenyan, won the women's race in 2:22:36, beating American Desiree Davila by two seconds. According to the New York Times,

Kilel and Mutai each earn $150,00 for the win, and Mutai gets $50,000 for the world best and another $25,000 for the course record.

Congrats!

Boston Marathon 2011 Results: Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai Wins In Record Time [SBNation]
Kenya's Mutai Wins Boston in 2:03:02 [NYT]