RAK Half Marathon Preview - Regassa, Merga, Tune, Abeylegesse The Names To Watch

By Emory Mort, LetsRun.com
February 17, 2010

February 18 update: Tilahun Regassa will not run in the men's race, but arguably equally strong Ethiopian Tadesse Tola will replace him in the field.
*Tilahun Regassa Out, Tadesse Tola In - RAK Half )

Seeing as the press releases from the RAK Half Marathon are totally corny, and virtually no media cover these basically all-African road race showdowns in the Middle East, we figured we'd write a preview of this Friday's RAK Half Marathon while we have your attention all to ourself.

First of all we should mention that the RAK HM is typically very fast and deep, but it doesn't pay a huge purse like January's Zayed Half Marathon in Abu Dhabi. Zayed had a prize purse of $2 million US while RAK's purse is just over 1/20th at $100k+. 1st-prize in Zayed is $300,000 and at RAK it's $20k + 5k for a course record. We're guessing Sheikh Zayed in Abu Dhabi loves putting on his race (which - according to reports we've heard - is inches short of an organizational debacle) just to make the neighbors in RAK envious.

The winners this year in Abu Dhabi's Zayed half marathon were Ethiopian Tilahun Regassa and Kenyan Mary Keitany. Regassa is a young star on the rise and his $300,000 pay day at Zayed is the richest 1st-place purse in all of distance running across the globe. Keitany is the current dominant woman half marathon road racer in the world, without question. She has run 5 out of the top-10 half marathon times in running history (on IAAF-legal courses). She isn't racing at RAK and we can't blame her. Why go for $20k when you just pocketed $300k? Regassa, however, will race for another high profile win against top competition.

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 Geography and History Lesson: Where and What Is RAK?

As explained on this page (we didn't know this off the top of our heads), RAK stands for Ras Al Kaimah, one of seven Emirates that make up the country United Arab Emirates. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are two of the other Emirates. Islam is the official religion of RAK and the population is just over a quarter million.

Traveling to the UAE from Ethiopia takes about the same time as it takes to fly from Orlando to JFK in New York, which is one reason many of the top East African runners choose to travel there. Other reasons include the opportunity to race in  mild weather on flat, fast courses with big prize purses (not to mention an entourage of pace-makers to help make world records and world record bonus prizes possible).
 

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World Record Talk - Is It Legitimate?

Of course nowadays no big race is complete until they have press releases stating the world record will be under attack. RAK is no different as they are making claims that 2009 RAK champion Dire Tune is in fantastic shape and is asking for pace-makers to run at world record pace. To be honest, we're not buying this. Her coach and manager can ask for the rabbits to go that fast but Tune is not going to break Lornah Kiplagat's world record of 66:25.

Last year Tune (who is supposedly 24 but in "Ethiopian birth certificate terms" that means she is likely around 27 or 28)  ran 67:18 at this race, setting the course record and a national record in what probably is the best performance of her career. Looking at her profile (2:24 pr marathon, 31:46 pr 10km), Tune is not world record material. At Zayed earlier this year she ran 69+ for the half marathon and lost to Mary Keitany by the length of the new tower in Dubai (see right, it's something like a half a mile high).

So that is settled, Tune might run 67-something but Keitany has done that or better about 10 times. Is there anyone else who can approach the record? Yes, there is, and her name is Elvan Abeylegesse, an Ethiopian-born Turk who emerges from the woodwork once in a while to terrorize the familiar names on the running circuit. RAK will be Abeylegesse's half-marathon debut and her credentials are impressive enough to make us think she actually may break the world record if super fit.

Abeylegesse won two Olympic silvers in Beijing in the 5000/10000, cracking 30 mins in the latter race and almost upsetting Tirunesh Dibaba. She was a world junior phenom and ran under 4:00 in the 1500m. She also ran 14:24 five-and-a-half years ago for the 5000m. She's by far the most talented runner in the field and one of the most talented in the world when fit.

Her DNF last year in Berlin makes us wonder. Records say she's 27 (again, this could mean 31, 33, who knows), so maybe she is over the hill and not training well anymore. We'll contact our secret Turkish spies and get back to you when we get more information.
 

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Men's Race - 2010, Round II For Ethiopians Merga, Regassa

No Ethiopian male has ever won this race, but 2010 will probably be the year the Kenyans lose their perennial grip on the title. As of last week, eight men with sub-1 hour personal bests will race, including 2009 Houston and Boston Marathon champion Deribe Merga and previously mentioned Zayed champion Tilahun Regassa.

Merga dropped out of the race in Zayed which followed his DNF in the Berlin World Championship Marathon. We got word that Merga was injured, but were then contacted by his management saying he was fine but that he had dropped out of the race (they wouldn't tell us why). For most runners we would just ignore a DNF or two but Merga was setting the world on fire last year on the roads including here at the RAK. He pushed the pace so hard in 2009 at the RAK that he tied the world 15km record (3 men now share it at 41:29) en route to the half marathon before blowing up slightly in the final kilometers. He finished 3rd behind Patrick Makau in 59:18.

We want to see if Merga, slated to defend his Boston Marathon title in April, is A) healthy B) half marathon fit C) fit enough to beat Robert Cheruiyot, Meb K and/or Ryan Hall in Boston on Patriot's Day.

20-year-old Tilahun Regassa will be the other big name in the race. He turned heads last year with transcendent wins at the Bolder Boulder where he ran 28:17 for 10km at altitude and Falmouth where he smiled and waved to the crowd while smoking the field (see the great photo below). His win earlier this year in Zayed in 59:19 prompted one Italian manager to predict the world record (58:33 Sam Wanjiru) would have been eclipsed if the weather was cooler and it wasn't blustery outside. Regassa is our hands-down favorite in this one.

The Kenyans in the race, despite their 59-minute pb's, aren't high profile but we'll tell you a little about them. Geoffrey Mutai is 28 but didn't race before 2008 according to our results database. Well, he got right down to business once he did start racing. He ran 59:30 last year and 2:07:01 as well, both in wins in second-tier marathons and half-marathons. John Kiprotich has a 59:23 pb but only finished 6th in that race (Rotterdam '09). If he won RAK it would be his first significant professional win. Jairus Chanchima is a 59:44 guy without any other particularly stellar results. Clearly the best Kenyans did not deem RAK worth their efforts in 2010.

Finally, Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia supposedly just turned 18 (his birthday birth year only says: 1992). He ran his debut half marathon last month in Zayed and although you probably have never heard of him he broke an hour in his first try. If this guy were American people would be calling him by far the most talented American distance runner of all time but of course he's not so he's a complete unknown.

Where To Watch The Race

Last year the race website had interesting (and inaccurate) live streaming splits and runner tracking. Most races are being streamed somewhere live on the internet but we're not sure where or if RAK will be streamed. According to their race countdown clock, the race will go off at 7am eastern US on Friday so check back on our homepage or message boards if you want to follow the race live.

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We're predicting some more smiling and waving for Tilahun Regassa on Friday. This photo is from Falmouth '09 during the race.

LetsRun.com's RAK Top-3 Predictions

Men's Race
1. Tilahun Regassa 59:10
2. Geoffrey Mutai 59:35
3. Lelisa Desisa 59:40
Merga runs about 60:45

Women's Race
1. Elvan Abeylegesse 67:30 (or she DNF's)
2. Dire Tune 67:42
3. Aselefech Mergia 68:35 (WC Bronze, '09 marathon; '09 RAK runner-up)

 

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