RRW: The Marathon Project Delivers Fast Times, Great Racing
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2020 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
(20-Dec) — In this pandemic year marked by so much pain, struggle and loss, The Marathon Project today in Chandler, Ariz., provided a much-needed high note before 2020 passes into infamy, at least for fans of distance running. Today’s elite-only race –bootstrapped by Josh Cox, Ben Rosario and Matt Helbig– ended up being one of the best-ever marathons on U.S. soil for North American athletes, punctuated by exciting victories for Sara Hall (2:20:32) and Martin Hehir (2:08:59). Depth was impressive for a mostly domestic race, with 12 women going sub-2:30 and 13 men going sub-2:12 (seven sub-2:10).