The more important the race, the better Peter Gilmore seems to run. It can’t get much better than Monday morning for the former Palisades High cross country and track star, who was the first American finisher at the 111th Boston Marathon. Of course, his ultimate goal is to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, but finishing eighth in a field of 23,870 that included many of the world’s top distance runners is a huge confidence boost as he prepares for the U.S. men’s trials in November. “It was a strange race,” Gilmore told Runner’s World after the race. “I’ve finished 10 marathons and this was so unique. I’ve never had a race where I felt so in control of my breathing and heart rate, but my legs were in so much pain, they just wouldn’t function. My brain was telling them to go, but they just wouldn’t respond.” Gilmore, 29, completed the 26.2-mile course in two hours, 16 minutes and 41 seconds, almost four minutes slower than the personal best of 2:12:45 he ran at Boston last year when he finished seventh. However, strong winds and rain forced this year’s contenders to adopt a more cautious strategy. Gilmore showed guts by deciding to take the lead over the world class Kenyans with 12 miles to go, although he was eventually overtaken. Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya won for the third time in 2:14:13. Running with Jason Lehmkuhle of Minnesota, Gilmore hoped to surprise the Kenyans by surging to the front. “We went hard for a mile, but the pack didn’t let us get away,” Gilmore said. “When I looked behind and saw they were still there, I just took a 20-second breather to let them come back.” The brisk pace took its toll on Lehmkuhle, who dropped out before the finish. Gilmore, however, posted his third top-10 finish at the world’s oldest annually contested marathon. He was 10th in 2005 in 2:17:32 and was the second American finisher. In 2006, he was the fourth fastest American. “I was seventh last year, so I wanted to finish seventh or higher this year,” said Gilmore, who currently lives in San Mateo where he works part-time as a special education teacher. He recently worked with Coach Jack Daniels at Northern Arizona University’s Altitude Training Center in Flagstaff. Gilmore has won the Palisades-Will Rogers 5K eight times and set the course record of 14:10 in 2003. Two other Palisadians also completed Monday’s race. Richard Griffin, 36, finished in 3:59:34 and Dana Holcomb, 47, finished in 4:04:33.
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