There’s a lot of competition these days between San Jose and Oakland, with the fate of the A’s lying in the balance. On Sunday, San Jose proved where the real winners live, when a local man won the 26.2 mile Oakland Marathon.
The winner was Tegenu Beru, 29, who completed the course in 2 hours, 30.08 minutes. Beru, who is originally from Ethiopia, was a professional runner in Japan for five years. He received political asylum in November 2009 for undisclosed reasons, and moved to San Jose that year. He had never run in Oakland before, nor had he ever won a full marathon in the U.S. before.
Beru plans on participating in the upcoming San Jose half-marathon later this year. He also hopes to find a job, now that he has received his work permit.
