Race & the Chicago Marathon

[Auset32]

From: Shaka Barak

Subject: Race and the Chicago Marathon


Race and the Chicago Marathon

Two Africans under the extreme heat on Sunday October 7th 2007, at the Chicago Marathon sponsored by the Laselle Bank pulled off two great upsets. The African Diaspora should be proud to know that the men and women who won the Marathon achieved what could be called the impossible. Berhane Adere from Ethiopia who had been leading the race had lost the lead several miles back entered the last turn to the finish line where she was considered 50-80 meters or almost 20 seconds behind. While the leader, a white woman Adriana Pirtea from Romania was confident that she would win the race in a display of arrogance she began to high-five and wave at spectators within the last 50 meters. Sister Berhane Adere spotted her ahead and moved to her far right side and not directly behind her. Berhane Adere began to give it all she had in an all out sprint. The Romanians Coach who had run with her for the full 26.26 miles for some reason off ahead of her probably believing she would win and wanted to improve on his own personal time.

Had he not went so far ahead of the Romanian Adriana Pirtea , he may have been able to look back and see Berhane Adere turn the corner and pick up speed. Adriana Pirtea only had her ego to protect her after her teammate/coach left her and pass the finish line. Many spectators could not have warned Adriana Pirtea because she was too full of herself and because Berhane Adere had shrewdly positioned herself to Adriana Pirtea rear far right that could have made her appear as disinterested male runner, being so far back and so far to the right. Most runners who want to intimidate the leader get right in their tracks. But those of us watching television could see it was Berhane Adere and could see her catching up. When Adriana Pirtea realized Berhane Adere had caught her and was sprinting past her, her feeble efforts to generate a burst of speed was too little too late as she was left to take second place by several seconds.

My family and associates from all over the city who watched the race said that as the Ethiopian Berhane Adere was gaining and passing the Romanian Adriana Pirtea they were hollering, shouting screaming and jumping up and down. We imagined that the white community was hollering and jumping up and down hoping Adriana Pirtea would stop with her self-conceit and get back into the race before it was too late. So, since that didn’t happen we imagine that there must be a lot of disappointed white people around the world. While the white media has been reporting how hot it was that day and how many people passed out and the man from Michigan died, there is no mention of how the Ethiopian woman Berhane Adere who pulled off the upset. In spite of the fact that around the same time the Ethiopian sister Berhane Adere passed the finish line hundreds of white male and female athletes were passing out from heat exhaustion. I have mentioned the Ethiopian sister Berhane Adere who finished in the time of 2:33:49 first, but let me now back up to the men runners and the upset pulled off by the African Patrick Ivuti who won with a time of two hours 11 minutes and 11 seconds.

Although the reigning last year leader did not win, he symbolically passed the piton when he passed his successor Patrick Ivuti the same cup of water that he had been drinking from. I had never seen this deed performed where a runner passed water to another competitor from a different country. The former leader, although he did not win was a hero none-the-less. Regarding Patrick Ivuti of Kenya, the men’s athlete who did win, his determination was remarkable. All the tricks Jaouad Gharib from Morocco, tried failed as they see-sawed for lead during the race. Jaouad Gharib even skipped water hopping Patrick Ivuti would drink some and slow down. That trick didn’t work because Patrick Ivuti drank it and kept running to catch up. Jaouad Gharib then tried to use a burst of speed to put distance between him and Patrick Ivuti, but once again that didn’t work as Patrick Ivuti again closed the Gap. There was also another attempt and the final attempt to elbow Patrick Ivuti, but he held his ground and as the neared the finish line Jaouad Gharib looked like he would make the African run into the official holding the tape but Patrick Ivuti inched his way ahead of Jaouad Gharib and between him and the official. It took the official 5-10 minutes to determine who the winner was because it was so close. The camera showed men's runner Patrick Ivuti from Kenya foot ahead of the Moroccan champion Jaouad Gharib and it showed the viewing audience at home that his chest hit the tape first, but we had to wait 5 minutes or more to see if the would steal the race from Ivuti.

We cheered as Ivuti crossed the line, which was followed, by even greater cheers when we finally learned that he had “officially” won the race by five one hundreds of a second. Once again this race like the one won by the Ethiopian woman Berhane Adere has seldom been mentioned along with the other reports of the Chicago Marathon’s disasters. I also checked my email for the last two days and not one person from the African Diaspora has found this neglect to report on the African Marathon winners on the part of White media offensive enough to write about it. Race first means that every area of our lives must be monitored because the enemy can come at us from any direction and although to some this is just a sports event, these event often show the super human ability of the African man and woman which should give us even more faith and confidence in ourselves. Not to mention with the growing obesity in America, its strange to find that more Africans from the Motherland participate in Marathon races in America than African Americans.

The Marathon races since ancient Greece have been important to whites and while Africans especially from Kenya often win these races, whites still look forward to a great white hope to defeat the Africans in one of their oldest and longest race. I wouldn’t be surprise that since they “cancelled” the race after the death and passing out of runners, they may refuse to give the awards to the African winners. All this is occurring while the Olympic Commission is trying to take the gold medals from the African American female track and field stars for the taking of steroids by one of the teammates, gold medal winner Marion Jones. Black athletes are under attack in almost every sport. When the white media cant vilify these athletes they ignore them, which is largely what has happened to the Africans who took first place in the Chicago Marathon. For further proof of the prevailing racism, the NFL are trying to prevent paying for help to disabled retired players, that is made of large numbers of African Americans.

I remain your humble servant

Shaka Barak
President
The Marcus Garvey Institute

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[jacqui]

@Auset, check out this thread entitled:

First Soccer Now a Marathon, Congrats to Kenya and Ethiopia

I watched the Chicago Marathon and started this thread about it. The racism to me was so blatant and I too was so proud and jumping up and down and screaming at 7am on that a Sunday. lol

[jamy]

Shaka you know nothing about marathons. First of all, if any of the athletes use a sparing partner (or runner to pace them) they get disqualified. Where did your dumb *** come up with Adriana Pirtea of Romania had her coach helping her run? And in fact African, Adere, is VERY well respected in the marathon community and the white community. You wrote 6 paragraphs of trash. Maybe you should understand what you are talking about before you spit game. Africans dominate distance running because there are so god dam many of them running but some how european whites set all the records and push the sport of marathon running. And all professional runners get drug tested the same way - white or black. Not all people are racist like you are. Oh and did i mention you are an idiot?