I was rooting for Tomescu-Dita for two reasons. One, I like the no mess around break away approach. Two, she chicked me in the Provo Run The Front 10 K in 2005 (by 48 seconds) so I felt some kind of an odd connection. I did get to talk to her and Luminita Talpos who finished 18th in Beijing before the race for a little bit. Luminita chicked me as well, but only by 10 seconds. Her coach was quite a character showing up every half mile on his bike and giving long agitated pep talks in Romanian.
You can see everybody's splits at
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/AT/C73L/ATW099101.shtml#ATW099101For those who ran the SLC marathon this year, the following might be of interest. Maria Portia who won SLC in 2:40 ran 2:35:19 in Beijing finishing 39th with a Peru record. So that gives you an idea of what you might have done in that race. This would have given me 2:29, 2:34 for Adam, 2:22 for Shin, 2:20 for Ndambuki, 2:18 for Gena Tuffa. Assuming no exceptional misery from 88% humidity, and other forms of distress.
Zuzana Tomas had some trouble, but made it to the finish in 2:49. You can read the report here:
http://runzuzanarun.blogspot.com/Yes, and now I can post on the bragging board that I have provided valuable advice to an Olympian :-)
