Courtesy: USATF

2000 U.S. Olympic Men's Marathon Trials champion Rod DeHaven (pictured) entered his second LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on Sunday with the goal of improving on his personal best of 2 hours 12 minutes 41 seconds, set last April in a sixth-place finish at the Boston Marathon.

On a cool day with temperatures ranging from 39 degrees at the start to 45 towards the end, DeHaven improved his personal best on Sunday to 2:11:40, good for sixth place. He later told Runner's World that he wasn't sure how he felt about his performance. "I'll take it, I guess," he said. "It's hard for me to say exactly how I feel, but I finished sixth in Boston this year and here, which is pretty good."

Following his performance in Chicago, DeHaven entered another race. The race to get back home to Madison, Wisconsin before his wife Shelli delivers the couple's third child. The baby is expected to be born on Monday.

2000 Olympic Men's Marathon Trials runner-up Peter de la Cerda also set a new PR in Chicago with a time of 2:15:10 in only the fourth marathon of his career. In his first career marathon, Peter Julian finished 40 seconds behind de la Cerda in 2:15:50.

Ben Kimondiu of Kenya, who entered the race as a pacesetter, won the contest in 2:08:52, four seconds ahead of his countryman and prerace favorite Paul Tergat.

In the women's race, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won her second straight Chicago Marathon in the world record time of 2:18:47, obliterating by 59 seconds the world record set by Japan's Naoko Takahashi a week ago in Berlin.

Kelly Keeler, who placed 17th at last year's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, was the leading American with a tenth place finish. The 40- year-old from Bloomington, Minnesota finished the course in 2:43:06.