John Kagwe came untied. He didn't come unglued.
Maintaining his composure despite his right shoelace coming untied three times during Sunday's New York City Marathon, Kagwe became the first Kenyan winner since 1990 and only the third in the race's 28-year history.Wearing a pair of shoes given to him only a day before, the 28-year-old romped to victory in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 12 seconds, only 11 seconds off the course record of 2:08:01 by Tanzania's Juma Iknagaa in 1989.
Running in untested shoes generally is frowned upon by elite athletes.
Kagwe went against tradition.
The shoelace slipped open twice during the first 10 miles, and each time Kagwe stopped to tie it. The third time occurred four miles from the finish and the exasperated Kagwe decided to ignore it.
"I tried to forget the shoe - forget it, forget it," he said. "Even if I lost my shoe, I wouldn't worry."
It was not a new experience for Kagwe.
He also ran with a loose shoelace during the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in September and finished second in a career-best 1:01:18.
Coincidentally, his time Sunday also was his marathon best, bettering the 2:09:07 he recorded in winning the Prague Marathon in May.
Kagwe finished fifth in the New York City Marathon in 1995 and fourth last year, but despite that steady improvement, he was somewhat overlooked in the prerace hullabaloo because there were several other faster marathoners.
Like Kagwe, Franziska Rochat-Moser was given little chance of winning the women's race even though she is the Swiss record-holder.
But Rochat-Moser ran a consistent race, took advantage of favorite Tegla Loroupe's breakdown over the closing miles and became the first runner from Switzerland to win a major marathon.
Her time of 2:28:43 was more than four minutes slower the course record of 2:24:40 by Australia's Lisa Ondieki in 1992, but was good enough for her first victory since 1994 at Frankfurt.
Rochat-Moser, 31, did not have any shoelace problems, but she did have a problem with her left hamstring.
"I just wanted to run New York and now I can take care of this," she said of the hamstring that pained her during the first mile and again during the finishing stages. "To win this race is a dream. It's unbelievable. For me, now it is true, it's a reality."
Rochat-Moser, a non-practicing lawyer, had to defend herself on charges by American Kim Jones that she was illegally handed a water bottle by a male competitor during the race when she was unable to reach it at a water stop.