Marathoners try comebacks

Kenyan, Latvian aim for Boston titles

BOSTON -- Timothy Cherigat and Jelena Prokopcuka can attest to the fact that the Boston Marathon is rarely a dull race run under placid conditions.

When Kenya's Cherigat won in 2004, surging ahead of the pack on the Newton Hills, he sweated in 80-degree heat, one of the sultriest Patriot's Days in history.

Latvia's Prokopcuka led until the last mile and a half of last year's cold, wet race, buffeted by a nor'easter storm. Still bothered by the remnants of bronchitis, she nonetheless stayed up front, taking the brunt of the stubborn head wind. But near the end, Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva pressed forward and kicked to the line first.

The forecast in Hopkinton for this morning's start of the world's oldest annual marathon: temperatures in the 50s under cloudy skies -- almost ideal conditions for a comeback, which is what Cherigat and Prokopcuka have in mind.

They'll be ahead of about 25,000 other runners. Among them will be seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who is aiming to run a 2:45, and 1983 Boston champ Greg Meyer, the last American to win here. Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot, the two-time defending champion, will try to join three other men who have won four or more Boston titles and earn the $150,000 prize.

Cherigat, 31, said he feels as prepared as he did in 2004, despite tumultuous times back home in the Rift Valley, the cradle of elite distance runners. Tribal strife erupted in December after the controversial presidential election. Mobs went on killing sprees and burned down houses. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Former running star Lucas Sang, a friend of Cherigat, was beaten to death.

Cherigat, who lives in the town of Chepkorio, said he was able to maintain most of his routine.

"There was more trouble in the cities and not so much in the small villages where we train," he said. "Sometime we couldn't travel or my training partners couldn't join me because of the roadblocks."

The heartbreak was worse than the danger, he said.

"It has really affected me because as countrymen we must live at peace, we need each other," said Cherigat, a member of the Kalenjin tribe.

Cherigat, who has a personal best of 2:09:34, hopes he or one of his countrymen continues Kenya's dominance in Boston. Kenyans have won 15 of the past 17 men's races and six of the past eight women's races.

Of his three children, his daughter has taken up running.

"But I would like for her to play tennis," he said. "Not so many people in Africa play tennis. I like the sport. I'm a big fan of Serena Williams."

Running was not much of a pastime in Latvia until Prokopcuka became the country's most popular sports celebrity.

"Five years ago, I didn't see anybody running back home," said Prokopcuka, 32, who lives in the Gulf of Riga town of Jurmala with husband Aleksander Prokopcuk, Latvia's national men's marathon record-holder. "Now the Riga Marathon is growing very fast."

Prokopcuka was nicknamed "Audrey Hepburn" by the New York City Marathon director. She won New York twice and captivated fans with her resemblance to the "Breakfast at Tiffany's" actress.

Today's race has Olympic ramifications for Cherigat, who hopes to be chosen for Kenya's team, but not for Prokopcuka, a three-time Olympian on the track who has decided to skip Beijing.

"I know I cannot run in those hot conditions," she said. "I have no chance."