Record Gets Mutai-ated

Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai had a Beamon-esque performance on the streets of New York, breaking the ING NYC Marathon record by more than two-and-a-half minutes. He finished in 2:05:06 to earn $200,000 (that includes an extra $70k for the record and the time).

On the women's side, Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia made a late pass on a fading Mary Keitany, who had established a huge lead early, to claim $170,000 and the title of champion. It was her debut marathon in New York City.

This is the fifth straight World Marathon Major to see its men's record broken. And, in fact, today's top three finishers — Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya and Tsegaye Kedebe of Ethiopia — were all beneath the previous standard.

Even defending champion Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, who was fourth this year, ran 15 seconds faster than his winning 2010 time.

Blogged Scott Douglas of Runner's World: "Hard to describe how quickly and massively the top top level of men's marathoning has changed in the past couple years."

Geoffrey Mutai also won and broke the course record in Boston this spring. American Meb Keflezighi, who won the race in 2009, ran faster Sunday than during his title run, despite stopping to throw up along the course. He was the top U.S. finisher in sixth.

Dado's 2:23:15 first-place finish wound up as the second-closest ever among the women at the ING New York City marathon. Fellow Ethiopian and Bronx resident Buzunesh Deba finished only breaths behind in 2:23:19. Both had surged ahead of Keitany, who was leading the race from the very start.

The first American woman in the race was Molly Pritz, who finished 12th overall in 2:31:52.

The chancellor of New York Schools, Dennis Walcott, finished the course in 4:23:51, just 21 seconds behind Hollywood's Mario Lopez. Mark Messier, the 50-year-old former hockey star, was timed in 4:14.21 while Olympic skater Apolo Ohno completed the 26.2 miles in 3:25.14.

"This entire journey was amazing," said Ohno. "Whether you're the winner of a marathon at 2:05 or whatever it which is insane or you're crossing the line at 7 pm tonight, to run a full marathon is very special. I guess I can check this one off on my bucket list. I always thought I was going to run a marathon at some time in my life, I had no idea I was going to run it this soon and it feels amazing. Hopefully I can convince my Dad to do the next one."