Patrick Makau winning 2009 Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park (© Victah Sailer)
Patrick Makau of Kenya led wire to wire to win the 2008 Healthy Kidney 10K today, missing U.S. Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein’s Central Park record of 28:08, set in this race last year, by 11 seconds. This was the fourth running of the New York Road Runners event, which benefits the National Kidney Foundation.
In ideal cool weather, Makau ran the slightly uphill first mile in 4:22 to open a large gap over an invited professional men’s field. He passed 5K in 13:54, well under record pace, but slowed after the tough Harlem Hills section between 2.5 and 4 miles. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil, the South American record-holder at 10,000m and winner of the ING New York City Marathon in 2006, gained ground on Makau in the race’s late stages and finished a strong second in 28:31. Richard Kiplagat of Kenya followed in 29:08.
Makau, who was making his first visit to the United States, has won four major Half-Marathons in 2008 and was confident of a record before the race; although he competes infrequently at the 10K distance, he had passed the 10K mark of the 2007 Vattenfall Berlin Half-Marathon in 27:27. He was aiming for the $20,000 course-record bonus here, which is offered by the primary race sponsor, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates.
Afterward, Makau was pleased with his win and admitted that he had underestimated the hills. “I was told that there were hills around 5K,” he said at the award ceremony, “but it was all hills!” His time of 28:19 is the fourth-fastest ever in Central Park, behind Ritzenhein’s record, Kenyan Paul Koech’s 28:10 from 1997, and Australian Craig Mottram’s 28:13 winning time in the 2006 Healthy Kidney 10K.
At a post-race news conference, Makau said that he would use much of the $7,500 first-place prize to help complete a school that he is funding in his Kenyan hometown. “The school is a big, long plan,” he said. “It is my goal for the future.” Gomes and Kiplagat received $5,000 and $3,000, respectively; the prize purse extended through the first eight places.
After the race, Makau received a challenge of a sort when Ritzenhein, who had been kept from defending his 2007 title here by a lingering foot injury, left him a phone message: “Congratulations on your victory. The course is harder than it looks.”
Stuart Calderwood for the IAAF
