Jan 18 2008 - By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved -used with permission

As ING New York City Marathon director Mary Wittenberg once said: "You can't script sport."

Haile Gebrselassie's world record attempt Friday at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon veered
off plan when the great Ethiopian scorched the first half in 1:01:27, at least half a minute faster
than he had intended. He had hoped to run the second half of the race faster than the first, but
fading in the later kilometers he only managed 1:03:26 for the last 21.1 km. Nonetheless, his
final time of 2:04:53 was still the second-fastest marathon of all-time, two seconds faster than
Paul Tergat's 2003 world record set in Berlin.

Although Gebrselassie missed out on the $1 million world record bonus, he still won $250,000 in
prize money, the largest first prize in marathon running.

Two-time LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon champion Berhane Adere won the women's race in 2:22:40
(unofficially). Like Gebrselassie, she earned $250,000.

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