Many Runners Wait For 1996 Today’s Boston Marathon ‘Only’ The 99th

Today’s 99th running of the Boston Marathon, already with a tough act to follow, has been somewhat diminished, thanks to its placement in the long history of America’s oldest, best-known road race.

For millions of spectators who invariably line the 26.2-mile course from suburban Hopkinton to the Boylston Street finish line, and for every competitor who tries to conquer the distance, the Boston Marathon usually generates a wellspring of prerace fervor and happy anticipation.

But on this occasion, the race ultimately may be remembered only as the one that preceded the 100th Boston Marathon - a historic blockbuster of an event that is expected to draw 25,000 runners when it is held on April 15 of next year.

The 1996 race already has produced plenty of enthusiasm.

“People in the running world care more about the 100th Boston Marathon than they’ve ever cared about anything else in running,” said Amby Burfoot, the 1968 Boston winner, who is executive editor of Runner’s World magazine. “Marathoners care more about the 100th Boston than the Atlanta Olympics. Everyone wants to run Boston next year.”

That may be so, but before everyone treats today’s competition as if it were a warm-up act for Wayne Newton, here are some factors that could infuse the 1995 Boston Marathon with high drama, low comedy and maybe a few smiles:

Given the current cool weather, Uta Pippig of Germany could lower the course record of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 45 seconds that she set last year. Pippig rewrote the former standard despite a cold and very nearly broke Ingrid Kristiansen’s world record of 2:21:06.

With a quality women’s field that also will include Valentina Yegorova of Russia, the 1992 Olympic champion, who was the runner-up last year; South Africa’s Elana Meyer, who debuted with a third-place finish in the same race; and Tegla Loroupe, 21, the brilliant Kenyan, the 2:20 barrier might even be approached, as nearly everyone is sure it will be someday.

“I hope I do it first,” says Pippig.

Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya, 23, who set the men’s course record of 2:07:15 last year, is shooting for a third straight Boston triumph, something that hasn’t been achieved in the men’s race since Bill Rodgers turned the trick in 1980.

Ndeti is a marvel who twice has covered the second, more demanding, hillier half of the race faster than he did the first half. Last year, he went out in 1:05 and came home in 1:02.15, running the final 10 kilometers in 29 minutes.

A few weeks later, when he jogged alongside President Clinton, the nation’s chief executive told Ndeti: “It’s OK with me if you don’t sweat, but I’d like it if you’d breathe once in a while.”

The 99th Boston Marathon will coincide with the second birthday of Ndeti’s son Gideon, who was prevented from coming to Boston from Nairobi with his father because of visa problems. How’s that for double inducement?

With $75,000 going to the winner in both the men’s and women’s races and with prize money increased in every other category as well, the competition should be more intense than ever.

No American runner of world-class potential has entered Boston this year. Bob Kempainen, 30, who set the American record of 2:08:47 in last year’s race, ran in the Los Angeles Marathon on March 5 and won’t compete again until next February’s U.S. Olympic trials. What does this mean for Boston? A lot fewer false hopes that an American can win it - something that hasn’t happened since Greg Meyer of Michigan managed as much in 1983.

No. 99 will mark the Boston debut of the 5-foot, 85-pound Loroupe, who won the New York City Marathon last year, posting a time of 2:27:37 in her first try at the distance. She also has won half-marathons in Lisbon, Paris and Luxembourg and may be the most precocious entrant in the women’s competition. A member of the Bokot tribe, she grew up in a family of seven children that was none too impressed when she won $20,000 and a Mercedes for her New York success. But when her village made her a present of nine cows and 16 merino sheep, her family became the richest in town.

“I have that motivation now that I can go with the best,” Loroupe told the Boston Globe. “Not to fear, ‘Am I going to make it?”’

This race will be the first in which John A. Kelly, the 87-year-old whiz kid who has competed in 61 Boston Marathons, winning two and finished 56 others, will get to the finish line via an official vehicle rather than his own legs.

“I feel I’ve earned the right not to have to run every year,” said Kelley, who has run a sevenmile segment since he last completed the full distance in 1992.

The official field will include 9,410 runners (7,233 men, 2,177 women) and 103 wheelchair competitors. Their support group will include 440 members of the National Guard and 102 podiatrists.