Lisa Weidenbach was way back in the pack and thought she didn't have a chance to successfully defend her Chicago Marathon title.
"I thought I was out of it. I was in 22nd place behind the women's leader, running into the wind and was alone," Weindenbach said Sunday. "Then at the 15K mark, the wind was at my back and I started picking off people."On a very warm morning, Weidenbach, of Issaquah, Wash., took the lead about eight miles from the end of the 26.2-mile race and pulled away to win the women's division in a personal-best time of 2 hours, 28 minutes and 15 seconds.
Paul Davies-Hale, a 10-kilometer athlete making his marathon debut, easily outdistanced veteran Soviet runner Ravil Kashapov to become the third Briton to finish first here in the last five races.
Ed Eyestone, Bountiful, finished fourth and was the first American to cross the finish line, but poor weather conditions defeated his goal of breaking 2:10. Eyestone clocked 2:14:57, but he wasn't the only one to run a disappointing time. The winning time was the slowest in the eight-year history of the Chicago Marathon.
"I saw the temperature gauge at racetime and I knew no records were going to be broken," said Eyestone.
Runners had to run into headwinds much of the race and it was a warm 70 degrees.
Eyestone earned $15,000 for his fourth-place finish, and an additional $5,000 for being the first American finisher.
Davies-Hale took over the lead from Mustafa El Nechchadi of Morocco at about the 20-mile mark and stayed in front to win in two hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds.
"It's my first marathon, so I'm quite pleased with my performance," said Davies-Hale, of Rugeley, England, whose career victories include the 1988 Red Lobster 10k, and 1985 Boulder Bolder 10k and 1985 Lilac Bloomsday 12k in East Spokane.
"I took a lot of water early on, and it paid dividends later on," he said. "I might have run 2 or 2 1/2 minutes quicker if the weather wasn't so bad."
The marathon was run on a flat course through the city's ethnic neighborhoods and lakefront parks under bright sunny skies, with the temperature at 68 degrees and the relative humidity at 47 percent at race's end. It was about 20 degrees warmer than last year's race here.
Kashapov, 32, was second Sunday at 2:13:19, almost two minutes behind the 27-year-old Davies-Hale.
The Soviet said much of his time during the race was spent sightseeing.
"Being the first time in the U.S., I spent much of my energy looking not at how the race was going, but looking to the right and left," he said through a translator.
Briton Dave Long was third at 2:13:37. Nechchadi fell back to finish 13th.
Weidenbach wound up more than two minutes in front of runner-up Carla Beurskens of Holland, whose time was 2:30:24. Cathy O'Brien of Boston was third at 2:31:19.
"People say that when you're fit, you're fit and it doesn't matter how hot is it. One day the heat kills you and the next it is your friend," said the 27-year-old Weidenbach, whose previous best was 2:29:17 in winning the 1988 Chicago event.