Former New York marathon champion Tegla Loroupe (centre) takes part in an 840-kilometre (522-mile) "Walk for Peace" against ethnic violence in Baringo on August 6, 2015.
Kenya’s long distance running legend, Tegla Loroupe, has revealed how a pep talk between her and one of the pacemakers at the 1999 Berlin Marathon catapulted her to breaking the world record in the Abbot World Marathon Majors race.
Loroupe had handed in a last-minute request to race organisers to allow her to compete in the race, which forms part of the Abbot World Majors Marathon, a series consisting of six of the largest and most renowned marathon races in the world - Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, London Marathon, Berlin Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and New York City Marathon.
So on September 26, 1999, Loroupe lined up at the start of the race in a stellar cast. She went to the race as the reigning world marathon record holder, all eyes were on her. She had initially set a world record in the marathon of 2:20:47 in the 1998 Rotterdam marathon. Furthermore, racing in the German capital was not in her initial plans for the 1999 season.
Tegla Lorupe during a previous race.
The second half of the 1999 season had already started, and entries for key marathon races around the world had closed.
She had won bronze medal for Kenya in women’s 10,000 metres final at the 1999 World Athletics Championships in Seville, Spain, but Loroupe badly wanted to lower the world marathon world record she had set the previous year in Rotterdam Marathon.
Her initial plan was to race in Amsterdam Marathon on October 17, but a sudden cancellation of her invitation to the race threw her on a desperate search for a race.
President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) meets with heroes and heroines during the celebrations of Kenya @50 at at State House, Nairobi on December 12, 2013. Pictured from left: David Okeyo, Kipchoge Keino, Tegla Loroupe and John Ngugi. President Uhuru later gave the group a flag to take to Mt. Kenya where Ngugi later took the flag to the then Nyeri Governor Nderitu Gachagua and both joined others to plant trees in Mt. Kenya.
“I was really devastated, since I really wanted to lower my world record that year, and Amsterdam Marathon was my target,” the three- time World Half Marathon champion told Nation Sport on the sidelines of this year’s race.
Loroupe, who was at the time living and training in Detmold, Germany under the management Volker Wagner, reached out to Berlin Marathon founder Horst Milde, who is father to the current race director Mark Milde.
“My manager had asked me whether I wanted to wait for the London Marathon in April the following year, and I said it was too far. That’s when I decided to reach out to Horst, who was a great friend and he gladly accepted my request to compete,” Loroupe, who is among former winners and record holders who were invited to this year’s race on Sunday when it marked 50th anniversary, said.
Although glad that she had finally found a race, there was another challenge. Berlin Marathon came too soon after the 1999 World Athletics Championships.
Kenya's Tecla Lorupe arrives back in the country after setting a new world record in the Rotterdam marathon.
The 1999 Rotterdam Marathon which had been preparing for was scheduled for October 17. But Berlin Marathon was due on September 26, just three weeks away. She quickly reorganised her training schedule to be ready for the race.
“It was a challenge but I promised my self and my manager that I would break the world record in Germany, and Berlin was the place. I had to double my effort in training,” Loroupe, 51, said.
On the race day, she gave it her all.
“I remember I was running in the company of some male athletes from Kenya, and they kept telling me ‘remember where we come from back home. You are a warrior and you have to win like a warrior. You can do it.’
That made me push myself to the limit. Luckily, my body could take. In the end, it was a world record!” she said, adding that in those days it has rare for women to break the world marathon record in Berlin.
She won in two hours, 20 minutes and 43 seconds, lowering her own world record by five seconds. She had initially set a world record in the marathon of 2:20:47 in the 1998 Rotterdam marathon.
She beat her nearest challenger, Marleen Randers of Belgium, by more than three minutes. Randers timed 2:23:58 to finish second.
That victory in Berlin has remained Loroupe’s best time ever in more that 40 marathon races she ran in a career spanning more than two decades.
That win also made Loroupe the first Kenyan to break a world record in Berlin. Since she broke that glass ceiling, seven other world records have fallen in the front of the majestic Brandenburg gate, courtesy of Kenyan athletes.
“I love Berlin because they understand the value of people who have brought glory to the race. They did well to invite us here (for the 50th anniversary of the race). This will encourage the young athletes to do more,” Said Lorupe on her invitation to grace the 50th anniversary of the race.
Before competing in the 199 Berlin Marathon, Loroupe had smashed the world record at the 1998 Rotterdam Marathon, becoming the first African woman to hold the world record in women’s half marathon.
In 1994, she became the first African woman to win a major marathon, breaking the tape at the New York City Marathon. Loroupe won the race again the following year.
