On a day with ideal weather and star-studded fields yesterday, the New York City Marathon turned to tactics, not speed.

Brazil's Marilson Gomes dos Santos and Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka made the boldest moves and earned wins in the 37th running of the 26.2-mile race.

Gomes became the first Brazilian to win the event, breaking away at 19 miles and then hanging on to finish in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 58 seconds. Kenya's Stephen Kiogora was second (2:10:06), and countryman Paul Tergat, the world record-holder and defending champion, third (2:10:10).

Prokopcuka made her first break near the midway point with Ukraine's Tatiana Hladyr the only runner going with her. Prokopcuka pulled away for good a while later.

The men were scheduled to hit the halfway mark in 1:04; instead, a pack of 28 reached in 1:05:35.

When Gomes took off on First Avenue, no one went with him.

"I think for some reason everybody didn't want to move," Tergat said. "I had to wait to see who was going to move. I didn't know he was that great a threat."

Midway in the women's race, Prokopcuka and Hladyr were more than 30 seconds ahead of the chase pack.

"Tactically, this was a very strange race," said Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor, the first American woman, who finished sixth (2:27:54). "I can only attribute it to the fact that there were so many respectable women out there that everybody was waiting for someone else to make a move."

Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times before retiring from cycling in 2005, achieved his goal of breaking three hours in his first marathon, finishing 856th in 2:59:37.

The top American male was Peter Gilmore, who finished 10th (2:13:13). Dathan Ritzenhein was 11th (2:14:01) in his marathon debut.