A Memorial to Sammy Wanjiru (1986-2011)

It is a wet and foggy morning today on the mountain, which reflects in many ways the feelings of a number of folks in the running community as they wake up to to news of the death of Sammy Wanjiru (1986-2011) at the age of 24.

For those who don't know, Wanjiru was a Kenyan marathoner who became Olympic Champion in the distance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was in fact the first Kenyan ever to win the Olympic Marathon, running an Olympic record 2:06:32, besting the previous  record by almost 3 minutes. He had also broken the Half-Marathon World Record twice in the lead-up to the Olympics, running a personal best 58:33 in March, 2007 at The Hague. Many remembered Wanjiru for his aggressive style and fearless tactics in big races, the Olympic marathon in 2008 and the Chicago marathon in 2010 being perhaps the most poignant examples of his capacity to endure tremendous pain on the way to first-place fnishes. Some, himself included, believed he would one day contest the fabled 2-hour marathon time, which has become something of a challenge on par with the 4-minute mile of the 20th century (The current World Record time is by Haile Gebrselassi of 2:03:59, set in Berlin in 2008. This past year both Geoffrey Mutai and Moses Musap of Kenyan bested that time in Boston with times of 2:03:02 and 2:03:06 respectively, but neither time counts as a world record because of Boston's net-downhill, as well as the presence of a strong tail-wind.)

How shall we remember Wanjiru? Time will tell, as is oft said. He bucked the trend that elite marathoners were all older and veterans of long careers on the track (winning the Olympic marathon at 22). His slowest marathon ever was his first, a 2:06:39 at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan in December 2007. He also ran a 26:41 10,000m, breaking the junior world record by over 20 seconds.

Clearly Wanjiru was a runner incredibly endowed with many natural gifts for long-distance running. His 10k time at the age of 18 would beat the current American record at that distance by almost 20 seconds. It has been said that more and more fast marathons are being run as talented 10k runners take on the distance during the height of their careers rather than the end of them. As it stands, the marathon is a far more lucrative race distance than the 10,000m, and many a professional runner have picked up on this and adjusted accordingly. That is one theory why we see so many more 2:04-2:05 times in major marathons, where once such a time would have been unusual. Wanjiru seems to have been a major part of that movement, and his legacy will likely continue to influence the sport. Younger people will begin challenging the marathon, and those with good training and great natural gifts will likely continue to challenge the world record, perhaps even lowering it below the 2-hour mark.

For the present, however, it seems appropriate that we mark the loss of one of the world's best runners, celebrating his life's work and remembering the great spirit that he brought to each race. We will remember Sammy Wanjiru (1986-2011), and we will honor his memory. Farewell.