What It’s Like To Be Beating The East Africans
- By Duncan Larkin
- Published Oct. 18, 2011
One relatively unknown runner found out last weekend in Baltimore.
David Berdan had established a significant early lead in last weekend's Baltimore Marathon. Photo: BALTV.com
The famous artist, Andy Warhol, once quipped that, “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
This quote proved true at last weekend’s Baltimore Marathon when David Berdan, a relatively unknown local runner, found himself well ahead of the leaders.
“The first mile we were going a lot slower than the pace I wanted to go,” Berdan, a cross-country coach at the Garrison Forest School, recalled afterwards. “I took the lead and thought they would go with me and they just let me go, and by the five-mile marker I was a minute ahead.”
Berdan held on to the lead for much longer than Warhol’s 15 minutes–all the way to the 11-mile mark. At that point, however, the real race began and the Kenyans and Ethiopians in the chase pack decided to pick up the pace significantly.
“I didn’t slow down; they picked it up,” he said. “I knew it was going to happen eventually,”
Berdan ended up finishing 10th overall.
For More: WBALTV.com
FILED UNDER: News TAGS: Baltimore / Baltimore Marathon / cross-country coach / David Berdan / drafting / East Africans / Ethiopians / front running / headwind / Kenyans / race strategy
Duncan Larkin
Duncan Larkin is the news editor at Competitor.com and a freelance journalist who’s been covering the sport of running for over five years. He’s run 2:32 in the marathon and won the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race in 2007. His first running book, RUN SIMPLE, was released last July.