2005 Boston Marathon Summary

Some highlights for today's 109th Boston Marathon: Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia won the men's race with a time of 2:11:45. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya (aka Catherine the Great) won the women's race with a time of 2:25:13. This was her fourth Boston title. At the halfway point, she trailed the three leaders by over a minute. She then came back to win with a margin of almost 2 minutes.

Some interesting facts: Kenyan men have won 13 of the previous 14 Boston marathons. This year they made up 5 of the top 7. Alan Culpepper finished fourth with a time of 2:13:39. He's the highest US male finisher since 1987. The male and female first place prize was $100K.

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Quick Race Stats

You would think the average time for the top 10 males and females would both be better this year since the temperature was much cooler than last year (although it was still a tad warm today). The men's top 10 average was less by about 2 minutes. However the women's top 10 average was about 2 minutes slower. Perhaps the top women wanted to run with Radcliffe this year in London. I'll have to look at the averages of the top 100 once the full results come out.

2005 Top 10 Averages:
female : 2:32:34 
male   : 2:14:39 
Temperature at 11:54am: 63°F

2004 Top 10 Averages:
female : 2:30:20
male   : 2:16:47
Temperature at 11:54am: 78°F

Top States by Number of Starters (with over 500)

State	# Starters	Percent
Texas	723	4.5%
Pennsylvania	633	4.0%
Massachusetts	4093	25.6%
New York	960	6.0%
California	1208	7.5%
Ohio	572	3.6%
Illinois	639	4.0%
Others	7176	44.8%
Total	16004	100.0%

Top Nations by Number of Starters (with over 50)

Nation	# Starters	Percent
Mexico	76	0.4%
Canada	1562	8.5%
Korea, Republic of	135	0.7%
United Kingdom	60	0.3%
Japan	89	0.5%
Germany	100	0.5%
United States of America	16003	87.3%
Others	310	1.7%
Total	18335	100.0%

State and Nation numbers based on data from the Boston Marathon site.

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