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"After the Sydney Games, Takahashi said she owed her success to drinking the stomach secretions of larval grubs of giant killer hornets, known as Mandarina japonica." [EMAIL PROTECTED] Takahashi Sets Women's Mark for Marathon October 1, 2001 By JERE LONGMAN A year after winning the Sydney Olympics and unveiling her eccentric dietary habits, Naoko Takahashi of Japan became the first woman to run 26.2 miles in under 2 hours 20 minutes yesterday, setting a world record at the Berlin Marathon. Her winning time of 2 hours 19 minutes 46 seconds was nearly a minute faster than the previous record of 2:20:43 set by Kenya's Tegla Loroupe on the same flat Berlin course two years ago. Loroupe, suffering from back problems and apparently near the end of her outstanding career, finished second yesterday, more than eight minutes behind in 2:28:03. Takahashi's previous best was 2:21:47 - then the sixth-fastest women's marathon - in brutally hot and humid conditions at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. Unlike Loroupe, who has been criticized for racing too often and placing too great a strain on her slight body, the 29-year-old Takahashi waited a full year after her Olympic victory before racing in another marathon. In running circles, she is known as much for what she eats as for how fast she runs. After the Sydney Games, Takahashi said she owed her success to drinking the stomach secretions of larval grubs of giant killer hornets, known as Mandarina japonica. In his book, "Racing the Antelope: What Animals Can Teach Us About Running and Life," the biologist Bernd Heinrich said the secretions began as digested prey - mostly bees - that adult hornets fed their grubs in communal nests. The grubs would then regurgitate clear liquid droplets to the adult hornets, who would fly up to 60 miles a day and up to 20 miles an hour while hunting. Scientists in Tokyo tested the secretions on mice and human students, according to the book, and stated that the juice assisted long distance runners by increasing the ability to metabolize fat and by reducing the buildup of lactic acid. Heinrich cast doubt on the effectiveness of hornet secretions, saying that flat cola or beer might be a better and more accessible alternative. "I suspect that the wasp juice contains a very high sugar content and many amino acids (but not more than in honey and meat)," wrote Heinrich, an ultramarathon runner, who is a professor of biology at the University of Vermont. "As to the wasps' speed and endurance, bees do even better and they burn more honey." Takahashi's willingness and ability to train over great distances is another notable factor. Though she lives near Narita Airport outside Tokyo, Takahashi spent four months training for Berlin at altitude in Boulder, Colo. She had followed the same regimen before the Olympic Games, but this time Takahashi said she occasionally completed training runs of 43�1/2 to 49�1/2 miles. Her coach, Yoshio Koide, himself a former marathoner, said after yesterday's race that he had expected Takahashi to run 2:16. He did not appear to be joking, observers said. "It was much harder training for this than the Olympics," Takahashi said in Berlin. "After speaking with my coach, we felt it was necessary to train harder to break the world record." Her unprecedented speed and curious eating habits will undoubtedly raise suspicions in an international running community that has grown quite skeptical over the years because of the perceived widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs. The top finishers in yesterday's Berlin Marathon, which was broadcast live in Japan, were to be subjected to both blood and urine tests for the hormone EPO, the synthetic version of which is banned because it boosts an athlete's oxygen-carrying capacity. In the men's race, the Kenyan Joseph Ngolepus won in 2.08.47. For the past four months, Takahashi has been featured in a Japanese magazine's comic strip, "Daughter of the Wind." That is exactly what she was yesterday, running on a world-record pace from the beginning into a slight headwind in conditions that were otherwise perfect - overcast with temperatures in the upper 50's. It was the first time Takahashi had run a race with male competitors. Her previous events had been women's-only races in the Olympics and in marathons in Japan and Thailand. Yesterday, four male runners insulated her from bumping through the first half of the race. Two years ago, Loroupe was criticized by some for using male runners to pace her in her record-breaking performance. Takahashi reached the halfway point in 1:09:50. En route to her marathon record, she also set a record for 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) by two minutes in 1:22:31 and a record for 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) by nearly three minutes in 1:39:02. When she crossed the finish line, her nearest competitor, Loroupe, was more than a mile behind. "This was even harder than winning the Olympics," Takahashi said. "There, you have rivals you can see." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/01/sports/01MARA.html?ex=1002940201&ei=1&en=22f0667e45a6bcc7 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson Racer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
