Sacramento Running News

Lloyd Levine

By Lloyd Levine

Derek Yorek ran and finished the 2015 Boston Marathon. He is not an elite athlete. Outside of his family and friends it is unlikely anyone had ever heard of him.  But on Monday, April 20th, 2015, shortly after 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time), he did something amazing, something incredibly improbable, something that makes road running the most democratic of sports.

On Monday, April 20th, 2015, shortly after 10:00 a.m. Derek Yorek LED the Boston Marathon for several minutes. Yorek ran with and in front of Wesley Korir, Lelisa Desisa, and Meb Keflezighi, the winners of the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Boston Marathons.

In what other sport could a “non-elite” line up and compete against the best the sport has to offer?

Is basketball your sport? Try putting on a jersey and walking out onto the floor at an NBA game and see what happens.

Try calling up Augusta National Golf Club, tell them you are a 7 handicap and ask to be paired with Tiger Woods in next year’s masters and see how fast they hang up after they stop laughing.

Think you are pretty good at beer league softball?  Call up the San Francisco Giant’s and see if they will let you pinch hit against Clayton Kershaw next time the Giant’s play the Dodgers.

Let’s say you are a cyclist. You can ride the same route the pro’s ride, you can even do it on the same day if you start early enough, but you can’t ride with the pros.

But in distance running (specifically road racing), everyone runs the same race, on the same course, on the same day, at the same time. Your Boston Marathon is Robert Cheriot’s Boston Marathon. Your CIM is Buzunesh Deba’s CIM.  And so every once in a while something special happens.

No, Derek Yorek didn’t win, in fact he faded badly and finished in 3:04:57 (which is still an accomplishment). But for a few minutes, perhaps half a mile, three-quarters at the most, Derek LED THE BOSTON MARATHON!  To do that all he had to do was run his qualifying time (which is a much more open process than, say, the Olympics, or even the Olympic Marathon Trials), pay his entry fee, get himself to Boston, and run five minute per mile pace for a mile or two to get in position (he did, after all have to close down the 25 meter head start given to the elites).

And he wasn’t the first one to do that. One had to look no further than Wesley Korir, one of the elite entrants in Boston, to find  proof that on any given day, anyone with enough talent can seize the opportunity. While Wesley Korir, the 2012 Boston Marathon champion is now widely known and very much elite, in 2008 he was unknown and fresh out of college when he paid his entry fee and started the Chicago Marathon just like 40,000 other “non-elite” runners.

Starting five minutes behind the elites Korir won the open division and passed every elite runner  except three to finish fourth overall (Despite spotting them a 5 minute head start). He didn’t even get the prize money that would have been due as the rules said only the elite starters were eligible for prize money (in a good will/PR gesture they eventually relented and gave him the same share he would have gotten for finishing fourth).

Korir went on to win two Los Angeles Marathons, a Chicago Marathon, and the 2012 Boston Marathon. But on that day in Chicago he was Derek Yorek.

And that is what makes distance running great. Derek Yorek didn’t win, but it wasn’t for lack of opportunity. He was there and there legitimately, (Even if you aren’t elite, it still takes a lot of talent to run 16:18 for the first 5k of the Boston Marathon.) and because of the unique nature of distance road racing, there is always the possibility that something special can happen. It is unlikely that it will happen, but the rules of road racing allow for miracles.

Derek Yorek took it seriously, stuck with it and finished the race anonymously in a group of runners at just over three hours.  But now, and for the rest of his life he can tell his kids, his grandkids, and anyone else he wants, about the time he led the Boston Marathon at the first mile.

Lloyd Levine represented California’s 40th State Assembly district and is currently the president of Filament Strategies, a pubic and government affairs consulting firm specializing in environmental and technology issues. He owns a marathon PR of 2:48:44.