The Front Row with BILL BULEY April 22, 2011

Want to win a new Chevrolet Cruze Eco?

You don't have to buy a raffle ticket, test drive a car, answer trivia questions or sit through a sales pitch. But, and you knew this was coming, there is a catch.

You have to run fast. Very fast. Faster than the world record for the marathon. And you have to do it during the Coeur d'Alene Marathon on May 29.

So naturally, you ask, what is the world record? Depends.

For the women, it's 2 hours, 15 minutes, 25 seconds, set by Paula Radcliffe in 2003 in the London Marathon.

FOR THE men's mark, there's a bit of controversy.

Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon on Monday in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds, breaking the old record of 2:03:59 set by my hero Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin in 2008. Not so fast. Mutai had a strong tailwind at his back the entire way of the point-to-point course and temperatures in the 50s, perfect race conditions. He also had another advantage. Boston's course is, overall, downhill. It has a net elevation loss of 459 feet, which is against IAAF standards.

Boston Marathon officials plan to ask track's international governing body to certify Mutai's time as a world record. This is Boston, after all, the most famous of all marathons. If a world record doesn't count there, where will it count?

Well, it will count in Coeur d'Alene.

First, let's be honest. No one, not Haile or Mutai or me, will be running times close to the two-hour mark. It is not going to happen in North Idaho. To put this in perspective, you would have to run all 26.2 miles at an average pace per mile of 4 minutes, 44 seconds. Try running just one and that should give you an idea how crazy difficult it is to set a new world mark.

Here are the top men's times for the Cd'A Marathon: Kjell Schioeberg, Hamburg, Germany, 2:44:47 in 2010; Jackson Johnson, Lincoln, Ill., 2:45:54 in 2010, and Brian Hadley, Coeur d'Alene, 2:47:24 in 2009.

The top women’s times, all set last year, are: Jody Aslett, Sandpoint, 3:06:32; Debbie Gibson, Helena, Mont., 3:16:46; Meredith Leva, Glendale, Ariz., 3:17:26 and Jennifer Rea of Coeur d’Alene, 3:20:01.

NO WORLD beaters, but Charlie Miller is still hoping someone tries — at least for the sake of a little publicity.

The manager for the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation, along with Eve Knudtsen, president and co-owner of Knudtsen Chevrolet, came up with the promotion.

“We were talking about things we could do to add an extra something to the race,” Miller said. “Jokingly, I said, ‘What if we give away a car if someone sets a world record?’”

Knudtsen, a longtime supporter of the foundation, the Cd’A Marathon and an avid runner, said “I think we probably can.”

“Let me make a couple of calls,” she told Miller.

Soon, done deal.

She is offering a Chevy Cruze Eco, worth about $18,000, to a man or woman “non-elite racer” who sets the world record next month.

It’s the car that gets around 40 mpg on the highway, and can be started with an app from miles away.

“I love the Cruze Eco,” said Knudtsen, who will be running the Coeur d’Alene half marathon. “This is a car that’s so much fun.”

Miller hopes the publicity stunt catches the ears of folks of major running publications like Runner’s World and Running Times.

“It could put the Coeur d’Alene Marathon on their radar,” he said.

And that would be a good thing.

THE MARATHON is a fundraiser for the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation, which organizes the race. Last year, it brought in about $75,000. That money goes toward maintaining and improving the Idaho section of the trail that stretches 24 miles from Higgens Point to the Idaho/Washington border, then continues another 37 miles as the Spokane River Centennial Trail.

“We’ve had the event for five years and we continue to add to it and really try to evaluate the past year and see what we can do to make the race better each year,” Miller said.

It’s working.

Miller is expecting a record 3,000 runners for the marathon, half marathon and 5K, all of which start and finish at Riverstone. The marathon could see more than 600, and the half, more than 2,000.

“We’re looking like we’re on pace for another record,” he said.

The half marathon, 13.1 miles, is “insanely popular.”

“I think there’s real trend out there, it’s a real reasonable distance to run. You see a lot of friends and family out there doing it together. It’s still really competitive as well,” he said.

Fun, too.

Runners receive shirts and medals for participating. And when they’re done, a beer garden, music, prizes and awards await.

“We want to be sure everyone gets their money’s worth and has a rewarding experience,” Miller said.

What could be more rewarding than a world record?

A Chevy Cruze, of course.

Bill Buley is the city editor of the Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, ext. 2016, or [email protected]