| ''Now it's confirmed,'' said Dunham. Dunham's time in the 62.13-mile event, 10 loops of 10 kilometers along the Boston side of the Charles River, was 6 hours 46 minutes 39 seconds, more than seven minutes in front of Russia's Farid Gamier (6:53:48), the European champion. Shaun Meiklejohn of South Africa (7:00.01), the 1995 winner of the legendary Comrades Marathon in South Africa, was third, with Igor Tyupin (7:02:47) of Russia fourth and last year's champion, Jim Garcia of Westford, fifth in 7:11:42. |  |
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Jim Garcia |
Jan Vandendriessche of Belgium, who led most of the way last year until he was passed by Garcia with about 20 meters to go, lasted only two kilometers before dropping out with a sore knee. Of the 60 starters, 41 finished, the last crossing the line in 12:32:49.
For his win in the second-annual event, sponsored by the Chancellor Corporation, a Boston truck-leasing firm, Dunham will pocket $3,000 of the $25,000 purse.
Edit Berces, who defended her title to win the women's race in 7:50:50, 12th overall, will also take $3,000 back home to Hungary. Just last month, the 36-year-old Berces won the 100K world championship. Between dealing with the wind and coming off the recent 100K, Berces said, ''This was much harder than last year.'' Finishing second was Valentina Shatyayeva in 7:58:49.
Dunham, one of the top road racers in New England but probably best-known for his mountain-running exploits, has run the Mount Washington Road Race, 7.6 relentless miles straight up the auto road, at least a dozen times, winning three and holding the course record from 1988-1991. Since 1992, he has represented the US at the World Mountain Running Championships seven times, and last month was the first US finisher and 12th overall at the world championship in the Bavarian Alps of Germany. In 1993, he won the silver medal.
On ground a bit more familiar to most, he qualified to run the US Olympic marathon trials in 1992 and 2000, and was a member of the 1995 World Cup marathon team. Yesterday, however, was his first foray into distances beyond the traditional 26.2-mile marathon. ''I just kept putting it off,'' said Dunham, who works full-time as an accountant for the Internal Revenue Service in Andover. ''I finally figured, if I don't do it now, I'm never going to do it.''
From the 7 a.m. start, Dunham followed his plan to run a steady pace, deviating little from 40 minutes per 10K lap. At the halfway point he was in fifth place, with Meiklejohn in the lead, but looked strong. ''I made a choice and I stuck to it,'' said Meiklejohn afterward, of his decision to go out hard on his own after his South African companion couldn't keep up in the early going. ''It's a hard day's work.''
Dunham plugged away as the leaders began to slow and come back to him, and three-quarters of the way into the race he took the lead. Although he insisted he had a tough time from 70 to 90 kilometers, it never showed, and he crossed the line pumping his fist and grinning triumphantly before falling into the arms of his wife, Cathy. ''I hoped to go out at 6:30 [minutes per mile] pace, then slow to 7s if I had to,'' he said, lying in the Esplanade grass, his feet up on the seat of the same white plastic folding chair he had just abandoned in favor of the ground, trying to keep warm in a hooded Central Mass Striders sweatshirt. ''I didn't slow down as much as I thought.'' His pace-per-mile for the 62 was 6:33. Although unready to address his ultramarathoning future, Dunham did allow this: ''I'm thinking,'' he said, ''that 50 miles would be a lot more fun.''
This story ran on page D6 of the Boston Globe on 10/9/2000.
© 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.