Kenyan runners are poised to make their presence felt yet again in Boston on Monday, where they will seek to extend their country's recent hegemony over the storied Boston Marathon.
Kenyan men have won the last three editions of the Boston race, and 14 of the last 17.
Even the withdrawal of 2004 runner-up Robert Cheboror, whose personal best of 2hr 6min 23sec posted at Amsterdam last year would have made him the fastest man in the field, hardly made a dent in the Kenyan challenge.
Cheboror was forced to pull out on Saturday because of visa problems, but Kenya remained well represented by 2004 champion Timothy Cherigat, 2003 winner Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, Wilson Onsare, Benjamin Kosegi Kimuti, Stephen Kiogora, Benjamin Kipchumba and five others.
Only one Kenyan woman is entered, but chances are that will be all it takes as Catherine Ndereba returns to defend the title she claimed last year to go with Boston victories in 2000 and 2001.
Ndereba is poised to become the first four-time winner since Boston gave its women's division official status in 1972.
Portugal's Rosa Mota won Boston titles in 1987, 1988 and 1990, Germany's Uta Pippig in 1994, 1995 and 1996, and Portugal's Fatuma Roba in 1997, 1998 and 1999, but Nedereba, the silver medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, has a career-best time of 2:18:47 - set at Chicago in 2001 - and no other Boston woman entrant has broken 2:21.
On the men's side the most likely question appears to be which Kenyan will continue his country's extraordinary run of success here.
After Ibrahim Hussein's ground-breaking triumph in 1988, Kenya's men followed with 10 consecutive victories from 1991 through 2000. Hussein's 1991 and 1992 wins started the streak, and Cosmas Ndeti's triumphs in 1993, 1994 and 1995 continued the parade of Kenyan victors.
Lee Bong-Ju's stunning 2:09:43 win in 2001 for South Korea represents the lone non-Kenyan victory since 1991.
Best of the other men may be Ethiopia's Hailu Negussie, who clocked 2:08:16 in 2002, Estonia's Pavel Loskutov, a 2:08:53 runner in 2002, and two Americans, Alan Culpepper and Ryan Shay.
Culpepper, 32, won the 2004 US Olympic Trials and placed 12th in the Athens Olympics. Shay, 25, is a former Notre Dame university track star now making a name for himself on the roads. Culpepper's best is 2:09:41, Shay's 2:14:08.
Boston's first 11 miles are downhill - but the feared Heartbreak Hill awaits seven miles later.
"I don't know what's set up by the Kenyan athletes or their coaches, it just seems like they're running smarter over-all in Boston, where the first-half split is equal to or even slower than the second half," Culpepper told Runner's World magazine last week.