Meb Keflezighi a surprise marathon trials winner, except to coach

The U.S. Olympic marathon trials proved that it’s never wise to write off Meb Keflezighi.

The Athens Olympic silver medalist, running on short rest after competing in the 2011 New York City Marathon and being slowed by a foot infection, won the trials Saturday in Houston and earned a spot on the US. team heading to the London Olympics. His personal-best time of 2 hours 9 minutes 8 seconds was five seconds off the time the 36-year-old Keflezighi ran at New York.

Keflezighi, a UCLA alumnus who trains in Mammoth Lakes, was born in Eritrea and became a U.S. citizen in 1998. He's the oldest man to win the Olympic marathon trials.

“It was quite an attention-getter,” said Keflezighi’s coach, Bob Larsen, the former UCLA coach who left to co-found the elite distance running program in Mammoth Lakes.

Larsen said last week that Keflezighi’s experience and sheer determination would help him compensate for the training time he lost. The foot infection developed after Keflezighi, who likes to wear a nasal strip while he runs, forgot to take the strip out of his shoe and the strip rubbed his foot raw.

Keflezighi ran in New York “because it’s been so good to him and he knows he won’t have that many more chances,” Larsen said. “He came back faster than what we expected.”

That was obvious Saturday.

“He’s so mentally strong,” Larsen said by phone from Houston. “You work with elite athletes and you see that it’s so hard to get over that mental hump when you’ve missed that much time. But when he made the U.S. team for the 10,000 in 2000 and the marathon in 2004 he was coming back from injury, too. We’ve worked together for a long time and you learn how much he can tolerate and not break.”

Ryan Hall is 2nd to Meb Keflezighi at Olympic marathon trials

Ryan Hall claimed one of three spots on the U.S. men's team when he finished second to Meb Keflezighi at the Olympic trials Saturday morning in Houston.

Keflezighi, a 36-year-old who won silver in the 2004 Athens Games, won the event in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 8 seconds. Hall was second in 2:09.30 while Abdi Abdirahman finished third in 2:09.42.

Shalane Flanagan won the women's trials and will be joined on the U.S. team by runner-up Desiree Davila and third-place Kara Goucher.

Keflezighi, who missed three weeks of training with an infection in his left foot, became the oldest winner of the U.S. trials as well as the first runner to win the New York Marathon, which he did in 2009, and the American Olympic trials.

Hall, a 29-year-old originally from Big Bear, won the 2008 marathon trials in a record 2:09.02. It was in Houston in 2007 when he won the 2007 U.S. Half Marathon in an American record time of 59:43. Abdirahman, 33, will compete in his fourth Olympics after three previous appearances in the 10,000 meters.

Flanagan, 30, set a trials record for women by finishing in 2:25.38. Her only other marathon was a runner-up finish in the 2010 New York Marathon. Davila, a 28-year-old who was second in the Boston Marathon last year, will make her Olympic debut after finishing in 2:25.55.

Goucher, a 33-year-old who trains with Flanagan in Oregon, finished in 2:26.06. She'll compete in her second Olympics after racing in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in 2008.

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Photo: Ryan Hall, right, embraces fellow Olympic qualifiers Zeb Keflezighi and Abdi Abdirahman after finishing the U.S. trials on Saturday in Houston. Credit: David J. Phillip / Associated Press

New York City Marathon finishers include stars from other sports

Six-time Stanley Cup champion Mark Messier and Olympic gold medalists Apolo Anton Ohno and Jennie Finch were among the finishers at the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Messier trained on his own on the roads of Greenwich, Conn., for seven months. He ran for two charities, Tomorrow's Children's Fund and Answer the Call, which supports the surviving family members of 9/11 first responders.

“I just got filled up with inspiration,” said Messier, who turned 50 earlier this year. “I feel great.”

Messier followed in the footsteps of his former teammates Mike Richter and Adam Graves from the 1994 Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers. He finished in a time of 4 hours, 14 minutes, 21 seconds, besting Graves' 2006 time by 13 minutes but falling short of Richter's 2007 mark by nearly 20 minutes.

Ohno, who normally trains for speedskating races that last from 90 seconds to just over two minutes, logged 600 miles in getting ready for the 26.2-mile trek that took him 3:25:14 to complete.

Third-place marathon runner disqualified for riding bus in race

Rob Sloan finished the Kielder Marathon near Newcastle, England, in third place with a personal-best time. He called the race "unbelievably tough" -- so tough, it turns out, that he had to take a bus part of the way.

About 20 miles into the race, Sloan got on a shuttle bus used by spectators, then got off in the woods near the finish line, which he crossed with a time of 2 hours, 51 minutes — 21 minutes faster than his previous best in the race.

Sloan initially labeled claims that he had cheated as "laughable" but later admitted riding the bus after an investigation by race organizers. He has been stripped of his third-place medal.

Chicago Marathon: One runner dies, another gives birth [Updated]

A Greensboro, N.C., firefighter collapsed about 500 yards from the finish line of the Chicago Marathon on Sunday and was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after.

Capt. William Caviness was running to raise money for a charity that helps burn victims. According to the Chicago Tribune, Caviness, 35 and the father of two children, was a veteran marathon runner and lifelong athlete.

"Will was a great man, father, husband, son, brother, uncle, cousin," his father, Lee, said in an email. "He was a real HERO doing something to help others until the very end. ... I am just heartbroken. Devastated, and it feels so unreal."

The cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

[Updated at 12:52 p.m.: The Cook County medical examiner's office reported Monday that further tests are needed to help determine why Caviness died.]

It was the first death at the marathon since 2007 but the sixth since 1998.

In much happier news, another marathon participant -- Chicago's Amber Miller -- gave birth hours after crossing the finish line. She was 39 weeks pregnant but was given a doctor's approval to run half the race and walk the other half.

"Everybody just kind of stared as I'm running by," said Miller, who was accompanied by her husband during the race. 

Although contractions started toward the end of the race, Miller had time to grab a bite to eat before baby girl June was born at 10:29 p.m., weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces.

Moses Mosop of Kenya set a course record (2:05:37), and Russia's Liliya Shobukhova claimed the women's title (2:18:20), becoming the first person to win the race three straight times.

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Photo: Runners compete in the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Credit: Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune / MCT

Boston Marathon officials say Geoffrey Mutai's winning time should be world record

Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever at Monday's Boston Marathon, but his time is not recognized as a world record.

Race officials hope to do something about that. They say they will apply to the International Track and Field Assn. to have Geoffrey Mutai's winning time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds certified as a world record.

International Assn. of Athletics Federations rules say the Boston course is ineligible for world-record status because it is technically downhill. The race's route also is not a loop course and allows for a tailwind, which is frowned upon by the governing body.

But Boston officials say the event's 115-year history shows the course is not artificially fast.

The sanctioned world record is 2:03:59, which is held by Haile Gebrselassie. It was bested Monday by Mutai and runner-up Moses Mosop (2:03:06), both Kenyans.

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-- Chuck Schilken

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya crosses the finish line to win the men's division of the 2011 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:03:02. Credit: Adam Hunger / Reuters

Marathon great Grete Waitz dies of cancer at age 57

Grete Waitz had never run 26.2 miles before she set a world record at the New York City Marathon in 1978. Her husband, Jack, had to talk her into even attempting the race, something the Norwegian runner said she regretted around the 18-mile mark.

“I was hurting. I was mad. I was angry," Waitz said in 2008. "I told Jack: ‘Never again.' "

Waitz would go on to win the New York City event nine more times and set world records three more times. She died Tuesday at age 57 after battling cancer for six years.

A former Oslo schoolteacher, Waitz had competed in the 1972 and '76 Olympics in the 1,500 meters. She took part in the first women's Olympic marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles games and took the silver medal behind Joan Benoit.

“She will be remembered as one of the best marathon runners of her time,” International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said of Waitz, who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1983 world championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Waitz also won the London Marathon twice and the Stockholm Marathon once, in addition to five titles at at the world cross-country championships. The International Track and Field Assn. called her “one of the brightest flames” of modern athletics.

“The dedication, perseverance and fortitude with which Grete carved out her athletics career on the track, across the country and on the road is an example to us all, as is the positive way she tackled the illness that beset her life in recent years,” International Assn. of Athletics Federations President Lamine Diack said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Grete Waitz acknowledging the crowd after winning her fourth L'eggs Mini Marathon in New York's Central Park May 31, 1982. Waitz, the Norwegian runner who won nine New York City Marathons and the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, died in Oslo, Norway Tuesday after a six-year battle with cancer. She was 57. Credit: Suzanne Vlamis / Associated Press

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya wins Boston Marathon in record time

Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon on Monday in 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds, the fastest time ever recorded for a 26.2-mile race.

Mutai shattered the previous record of 2:03:59 set by Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin in 2008 but, because there was a strong tail wind and the Boston course is downhill, Mutai's time doesn't qualify as an official world record.

He smashed the course record set last year by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot by almost three minutes.

On the women's side, Kenyan Caroline Kilel won in an unofficial time of 2:22.36.

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

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Photo: Geoffrey Mutai crosses the finish line. Credit: Jim Rogash / Getty Images