@mwanahisa - I am with you on this one.

@mwenza - How about you also leave your job for a couple of weeks and go serve your country - in Delhi maybe. Then after that look your kids in the eye and tell them they are having a gold medal for dinner!!! Wanjiru has done more for Kenya than you'll ever do!!! He won a gold medal for Kenya in the Olympics - the biggest ever stage for an athlete - and the first ever Gold in a marathon - and you are yapping about him giving the Delhi games a miss. Get real my brother!

@ Mwenza You have to realise that Wanjiru running and winning the marathon is a patriotic duty. Kenya has a reputation of having great long distance runners and wanjiru went to prove that.
Kenya has an abundance of talent and the common wealth games is a good chance to develop our new and emerging talents. The athletes representing us at the common wealth want to have their face on the world map. Running in the common wealth games gives them an opportunity to represent Kenya and have their names and faces out there and soon they to will be getting invitations to race in grand Prix.
For the accomplished athletes they probably get more invitations than they can attend and running at the games does not earn them any value since their rivals are not participating since they are not in the common wealth e.g Ethiopia and the prize money and glory associated with common wealth races does not deserve their attention.
This is a win win situation for Kenya and Wanjiru.
@ Kusaidika humidity in dubai in January is crazy and its hot. I do not see the record being broken in dubai. The place to break records is chicago and berlin cause they are flat and the weather can play along and become cools.
I hope dubai invite wanjiru and Haile Gebrselassie decides race and doesnt balk out. How he convinced the berlin marathon organizers not to invite wanjiru is amazing.
This is the race we have all been waiting for. Wanjiru will be carrying the wrath of Kenya as we enter Kenyas golden marathon era. Haile Gebrselassie is a great athlete who wanjiru should race before he bows out as the world "greatest marathoner". Gebrselassie is probably the greatest marathon runner but he should not retire before he races our wanjiru. Haile is not only a great runner he is also very smart hence his longevity and domination of the road races in his later career.
Dubai will be a race to watch. I relish seeing Haile Gebrselassie lose. A great athlete he is but he has caused Kenya grief with his domination of the marathon.

At Mwenza
Note that the Commonwealth Marathon competition is not as competitive as the Chicago Marathon.

It not likely that Kebede would do New York so soon after Chicago. Technically possible but suicidal and he would not win. I think Wanjiru has the $500K won.

I agree that Dubai is unlikely to see a Marathon world record, despite the money, the weather for one is terrible. Most likely the record will come from Berlin or Rotterdam, if conditions are right and Gibreselasie agrees to race Wanjiru, Kibet and/or Makau.

My respects though goes to Robert Cheruiyot, the guy who did Boston in 2 hour 5 minutes. That takes some doing, when you consider the course is so hilly that it would not make the IAAF accreditation if it was starting today.

Talking about Delhi, did anyone see Kipsiro doing a 'Kenyan' on Kenya? We may have talent in depth but the rest of the world is waking up.

Is Haille Gab... a clock runner??

I think that's a little harsh, because for a decade he was the greatest runner in the world. And part of me accepts that he's earned the right to earn big money racing the clock in races of his choice. However, I can't help but notice that he has never raced head to head against a top-ranked marathon runner and won, with the possible exception of Duncan Kibet last year, who was just poor. Geb's marathon wins have all been clock efforts, his failures coming in London, with the strongest field by a long way.

Also, I must confess I'm tired of excuses from Geb after every failed attempt. In London a few years ago, he missed a water station. Then a year later, it was because the rain had made the cobbles slippery. Then it was too cold, or too hot. And it's always windy. Beijing was too polluted, and the bed was uncomfortable in Dubai earlier this year, causing him to sleep badly. Now, in New York, the lead vehicle kicked up too much dust, making the air difficult to breathe. Geb may well have asthma, granted, but sometimes you're just not good that day. One excuse after the other for Gebrselassie in the last few years and it's all becoming a little tired.
- Ross