Women's marathon world best lowered again as Crim champion Ndereba runs 2:18:47 at Chicago Marathon

Over 1800 Michigan residents take place in this year's race.

Chicago, Illinois (10/07/01) -

For the second straight week, a new women's marathon world record was set. 

This time it was Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, bettering the week old mark by 
almost one minute as she used a blistering second half 1:08:33 (her first half 
was 1:10:14) to win the Chicago Marathon in 2:18:47.

For Ndereba, her goal of running around 2:20 became a bit more attainable, at 
least in her mind, after witnessing what Naoko Takahashi was able to accomplish
just one week earlier. Takahashi became the first woman ever to run sub-2:20, 
doing at the Berlin Marathon.

"It was like kind of breaking a barrier." Ndereba commented after the race. "Nobody
could think the women's record could go under 2:20, but on Sunday it made that barrier
just disappear in our mind and set up somewhere that women could do the race in 2:18 
and even under."

That peace of mind helped carry Ndereba through to her toughest performance both physically
and mentally.