Giving his all for win

By Patrick Everson
Review-Journal

      If there was any question about whether Zoltan Holba had anything left in him after Sunday's Las Vegas international Marathon, that question was answered just a few yards beyond the finish line.
      That's when an exhausted Holba purged what remained in his stomach.
      And although Holba may have lost his breakfast, for the third straight year he did not lose the race. The 29-year-old Hungarian pulled away in the last three miles of the 26.2-mile event up State Road 604 to win, crossing the finish line at Vacation Village in 2 hours, 14 minutes, 15 seconds.
      "I didn't have enough time after breakfast before the race," Holba said through an interpreter. "And at the end, with the quicker pace, it just upset my stomach."
      But not enough to keep him from retaining his title for the second time. Russia's Leonid Shvetsov, who has a personal best of 2:09:16, came in as the favorite and gave Holba a run for his money but settled for second in 2:14:37.
      Holba earned $5,000 for winning, plus a $200 bonus for breaking 2:20. Shvetsov pocketed $3,000 for second, plus $200 for his sub-2:20.
      "I actually heard about (Shvetsov's) best time Saturday night, and my first reaction was I wasn't very happy," Holba said. "But then I realized the crucial moment is at the race. You still have to race. The key element was my desire to win it for the third time."
      Holba and Shvetsov, 28, were never out of the lead pack, which, by the sixth mile, consisted of just four runners. Joining those two were 36-year-old Belgian Eddy Hellebuyck and 30-year-old Jon Hume of Lakewood, Colo.
      As the runners passed the 12-mile mark, when the course begins the bulk of its 700-foot drop, the foursome posted its first sub-5-minute mile, clocking 4:48 to hit the halfway point of the marathon in 1:08:15. But only Holba and Shvetsov were able to maintain that pace, breaking off nine straight sub-5-minute miles as Hume and Hellebuyck dropped back.
      It was a two-man race from miles 15-23, until Holba began pulling away from the taller Shvetsov. Although Shvetsov remained within 100 yards, he couldn't catch up.
      "Beginning at 20 miles, I didn't feel very comfortable," Shvetsov said. "At 22, when (the course) pretty much flattened out, I felt he was slowing down, but I was getting worse and worse. ... I was thinking I would be able to keep up sub-5s all the way to the finish, but I don't know what happened."
      His disappointment equaled his fatigue.
      "Of course I'm not happy. I run second place," he said.
      Hume, running in just his second marathon, wasn't displeased with third place, but rather his time of 2:18:08. He expected to be under 2:15, which would have put him in contention. When Holba and Shvetsov broke away between 13 and 14 miles, Hume had to let them go.
      "Let's just say when it happened, I was a little hesitant," Hume said. "It was a pretty strong move, and it was a little too rich for my blood. When they took off, I just figured one of these guys isn't gonna be able to handle this, and I'd just catch them when it got flat. But unfortunately, my left hamstring wouldn't let me do that."
      Despite the tight hamstring, Hume made it to the end, unlike Hellebuyck, who dropped out at 17 miles.
      "I was just praying I wouldn't have to drop out," said Hume, who took eighth in 2:17:39 in last fall's Twin Cities (Minn.) Marathon. Sunday's effort was good for $1,500, plus the $200 sub-2:20 bonus.
      Many of the top runners complained of the cool conditions at the start of the race, when the temperature was only in the 30s. But Holba made no mention of it and is already anxious for next year.
      "I'm very happy, and I'm going to try next year to win it for a fourth time."
      The women's field didn't have as tight a race, as Poland's Joanna Gront led from start to finish and won in 2:43:22, more than three minutes ahead of second-place finisher Agnes Jakab of Hungary at 2:46:39. Gront, 28, earned $5,000, and Jakab, 24, picked up $3,000.
      "I had basically a dream and was fighting for one of the first three places," Gront said through an interpreter before adding one word she knows in English to describe her winning feeling. "Happy."
      Gront, with just one marathon victory to her credit, expected a much tougher battle in her first international marathon.
      "That was kind of a surprise, because I was planning to fight for it from the middle part on," she said. "So it was an unusual situation for me."
      Jakab, who coincidentally is Holba's girlfriend, couldn't hold Gront's pace.
      "She was right in front of me in the beginning, and I wanted to go after her at the downhill part, but I didn't feel so well," Jakab said through an interpreter. "Lately, I've run great downhill, so I was really confident, but my muscles didn't loosen up. I'm glad I could take second, but just like everybody else, I wanted to win."
      Mary Burns-Prine of San Diego took third in 2:48:19 to collect $1,500.
      The race, in its 32nd year, drew 1,985 runners. Another 2,850 competed in the half- marathon.