Basweti captures second consecutive SunTrust Marathon title

Dueling with Jynocel Basweti over 26.2 miles, said Michael Wardian, is invariably an all-or-nothing proposition.

"Either he's going to crash and burn or he's going to run pretty well," Wardian said. "Today he ran pretty well, I guess."

Basweti, a 22-year-old Kenyan, became the SunTrust Richmond Marathon's first back-to-back winner in five years by delivering an elegant effort yesterday in raw, windy conditions. He finished in 2:18:28 -- the sixth-fastest time in the event's 32-year history -- and defeated Wardian, the runner-up, by nearly seven minutes.

"I just wanted to win," said Basweti. "I wanted to run fast, yes, but with nobody to push me." And, with no one to act as a windbreaker, "all I could do was find a pace I liked and try to stay with it."

Basweti, who won last year in 2:22:22, ran a race that was both relentless and clever. He led by roughly the length of a football field after 15 miles. Thereafter, his strategy became coy.

"Every time he'd go around a corner, every time dip out of sight on an incline, he'd surge," said Thom Suddeth, the event's coordinator of elite athletes. "It's an old but very effective tactic. You add to your lead when they can't see you. It messes with their minds."

Suddeth, who followed the lead pack aboard a bicycle, called Basweti's effort "very impressive, particularly when you consider that he ran the last 11 miles by himself in a wind that was, at times, pretty brutal."

A decisive sequence, Suddeth said, occurred as the leaders crossed the Lee Bridge between mileposts 15 and 16. Here, the wind battered the runners. Suddeth said Basweti's pursuers, running in a cluster, began working together to cut through the gusts.

Said Suddeth: "I thought, 'OK, this might be where they start to reel him in.' But they didn't. He just seemed to get stronger and stronger and stronger."

So strong was Basweti that those giving chase soon turned their attention to second place. There, a zesty duel developed.

Wardian, a 35-year-old ultra marathon devotee from Alexandria, seemed destined to finish fourth with a little over three miles remaining. But then Jon Molz, secure in third place, became ill. At that point, Wardian trailed second-place runner Tim Young by about a minute and a half.

Said Wardian: "I remember thinking, 'Just keep working and keep pushing and we'll see what happens.'"

When he made the left-hand turn from 3rd onto Cary, Wardian said, "He was about 15 seconds ahead of me. Now I'm thinking, 'OK, maybe I do have a chance.'"

He had more than a chance. Wardian, who was running his 13th marathon of the year, caught and quickly passed Young at the top of the last long descent toward the finish plaza. He finished in 2:25:13. Young, spent, finished six seconds later. Molz, a former University of Richmond standout, hauled himself back onto the course and finished fifth in 2:28:33.

Basweti became the first male runner since Elly Rono to win consecutive Richmond titles. Rono won three in a row from 2002-04. Basweti does not seem opposed to trying to match that feat in 2010.

"I like it here," he said. "I like the course. I like the people. They're very friendly. They've been very good to me."

The marathon and the McDonald's Half Marathon attracted record participation (5,188 and 5,572, respectively). The HCA Virginia 8K drew 4,564.

Contact Vic Dorr Jr. at (804) 649-6442 or .