Even an Upset Stomach Can’t Slow Kempainen

In marathons, weary legs often betray the strongest of hearts. Bob Kempainen’s legs weren’t the problem at Saturday’s U.S. Olympic men’s marathon trials. Neither was his heart.

His stomach was. In one of the most bizarre and courageous scenes played out at a sports event in recent memory, Kempainen won despite throwing up several times in the last four miles. In fact, the sicker he became, the bigger his lead seemed to grow.

Kempainen threw about six times, causing him to stagger once but never stop. The last time came after Kempainen crossed the finish line in a time of 2 hours 12 minutes 45 seconds, 20 seconds ahead of Mark Coogan and 37 seconds in front of Keith Brantly.

His first marathon victory was worth $100,000 to the 29-year-old medical student. Kempainen broke away from Coogan and Brantly by running a sizzling 4:42 mile between the 22- and 23-mile mark. Coogan sprinted away from Brantly to win the $40,000 second prize. They also made the Olympic team.

“Between hurling, I felt pretty good,” said Kempainen, who will resume the last seven weeks of his medical studies at the University of Minnesota a week from Monday.

Kempainen, who plans to practice internal medicine, said that something like that had happened only once before in his six previous marathons, at the end of his first marathon five years ago. Though he figured his legs were strong enough to finish, he wasn’t sure his “upset tummy” would allow him to hold onto his lead.

“I was a little worried,” said Kempainen, who finished 17th in the Olympic marathon in 1992 and whose best previous finish in a marathon was second twice. “But after I threw up the first time, they [Coogan and Brantly] didn’t come back.”

Afterward, Brantly said that upon first seeing Kempainen get sick, “I thought, ‘This guy is the toughest human being on the face of the earth.’ I would have started crying and stopped.”

Kempainen’s problem was certainly the most visible, but it was not the only one suffered on this chilly morning. Though the temperature was not as cold as predicted--27 degrees at the start, 38 at the finish--there were several notable dropouts.

Arturo Barrios, who came in ranked second behind only Brantly, pulled out between the 13th and 14th miles because of a torn muscle in his right calf. Mark Plaatjes, who won the marathon in the 1993 world championships shortly after becoming a U.S. citizen, dropped out at a similar point because of an inflammation in the groin area.