He acted as the pacemaker for the 2003 Amsterdam Marathon and he continued running past the usual 35 km drop-out mark, eventually finishing in ninth place to record his first marathon finish in a time of 2:11:06.[3] He finished in third place at the inaugural Rotterdam Half Marathon event, crossing the line in 1:02:31.[4]
In April 2004, he finished second at the 108th Boston Marathon, finishing a minute behind the race winner Timothy Cherigat.[5] With a course record of 2:06:23 hours at the 2004 Amsterdam Marathon,[6] he was the third best runner in the world that season, only behind Felix Limo and Evans Rutto.[7]
He returned to his peak marathon form in 2006, starting with a runner-up placing at the Hamburg Marathon in April where he finished the race in 2:07:37 (the second fastest of his career) to beat all except the Spanish record-breaking Julio Rey.[10] He ran at the Chicago Marathon in October, completing the race in a time of 2:09:25 to take fifth place behind Abdi Abdirahman.[11]
In a low-key 2007, he competed at the Boston Marathon and finished in tenth place.[12] He returned to the Amsterdam race in 2008 and took third place behind Paul Kirui and Chala Dechase.[13] In the following seasons he continued to run in marathon but was some distance off his career best times: he was fourth at the 2009 Shanghai Marathon with a time of 2:13:48, and fifth at the Milan Marathon in 2010 (2:13:46).[14] He was part of the field of the 2010 Chuncheon Marathon but dropped out mid-race.[15]