Beirut International Marathon

Kamau takes Beirut Marathon title

Kenya's Francis Kamau won the third annual Beirut International Marathon on Sunday in a time of two hours 19 minutes, 20 seconds. The 26-year-old, who won $10,000, was followed home by last year's winner, Eshetu Bekele of Ethiopia, in 2.19:38.
More than 17,000 competitors from 77 nations took part in this year's race, up from 11,000 runner from 66 countries in 2004. (www.bbb.co.uk)

Pa

Last year president Lahoud was standing at the start line, waving happily. This year they did not invite him back. The man is shunned; no one wants to be seen in public with him any more. I think they feared for his safety if they’d have invited him, all 11,000 would have gone after him; feelings are running pretty high in Beirut. Anyway, we didn’t do the 42 K in 2 hours and 19 minutes; we did the 10K in somewhere around that same time. Adrian was a bit faster. Weather was fantastic, nothing unusual happened.

We should add another 2 kilometers to our 10 K, because the car was parker way up on the hill, at least 1K from the start line. Start was at 9:05, but it was so crowded we didn't pass the satrt line until 9:17 A.M.

On the way back, we took the (201 steps) stairs of Gemayze (Ashrafiya)