Running News Daily

Defending champions Morgan Beadlescomb and Annie Rodenfels return to the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k

New York City Marathon weekend kicks off with a much-anticipated USATF 5 km Championships at the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k on Saturday, November 2, taking place the day before the 53rd running of the TCS New York City Marathon.

The USATF 5 km Championships at the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k are the 11th stop on the 2024 USATF Running Circuit. Live coverage of this year’s championships will be broadcast on USATF.TV, starting at 8:20 a.m. ET, with the men’s race going off at 8:30 a.m. and the women starting five minutes after at 8:35 a.m. 

Defending champions Morgan Beadlescomb and Annie Rodenfels return to the streets of Midtown Manhattan after winning last year’s USATF 5km Championships in their respective races. 

The former Michigan State Spartan Beadlescomb surged away from Ahmed Muhumed, Tai Dinger and Daniel Schaffer in the final stretch to win last year’s men’s title in 13:44, besting the field by a comfortable three seconds to claim his first USATF crown. 

Looking to become the first men’s repeat champion since Ben True in 2011-12 when the USATF 5 km Championships were held in Providence, R.I., Beadlescomb will take on another tough field that will feature Muhumed (second), Schaffer (fourth) and Brian Barazza (fifth) from last year’s race, as well as a handful of others with impressive credentials.

Beadlescomb could also become the first male athlete to win two USATF 5 km Championships titles at the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k course, along with 2019 USATF 5 km champion Anthony Rotich making his way back into the field for the first time since winning the 2019 title.

Muhumed is the only competitor in the field that has won a USATF title this year on the USATF Running Circuit, winning the USATF 8 km Championships back in July in Kingsport, Tennessee. The USATF 8 km Championships were also the last time Muhumed raced this year. 

Sam Chelanga, Sam Prakel and Josh Thompson join Beadlescomb, Rotich and Muhumed as three more USATF national champions set to race, bringing the total to six national champions in Saturday’s field. 

Chelanga, a two-time USATF champion, will go after his first USATF national title since 2016 when he won the USATF 10 Mile title. He’s raced twice this season on the USATF Running Circuit, finishing third at the USATF 10 km Championships and fourth at the USATF 20 km Championships. 

Prakel, the 2023 USATF Road Mile champion, and Thompson, the 2020 USATF Indoor 1500 champion, are both eyeing a second national title of their own. 

Parlympian and New York native Michael Brannigan is slated to race after competing for the United States at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, where he came away with his second Parlympic medal in the men’s T20 1500, earning bronze to go with his 2016 gold from the Rio Games. 

Derek Johnson, Titus Winder and Kirubel Erassa will be other names to watch out for in the men’s race. 

Rodenfels earned her first USATF national title by defeating Rachel Smith by four seconds in last year’s women’s race, running 15:22. 

Rodenfels has since won another USATF national title earlier this season, winning the 2024 USATF 6 km Championship race by 13 seconds on July 13 in Canton, Ohio. 

With a win on Saturday, Rodenfels could join Weini Kelati as the only competitors to repeat as USATF 5 km champions at the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k course and the sixth woman to complete consecutive national titles in the history of the USATF 5 km Championships. 

Challenging Rodenfels will be Emma Grace Hurley, who will be racing in her seventh USATF Running Circuit race this year, with her latest effort being a third-place finish at the USATF 10 km Championships in Northport, New York, on September 21. 

Hurley, who was ninth at last year’s USATF 5 km Championships, has finished as high as second place in two USATF Running Circuit races this year at the USATF 8 km Championships and the USATF Cross Country Championships. 

Susanna Sullivan and Natosha Rogers are a pair of veterans coming off great races in their recent outings looking to mix it up in the top half of the field. 

Sullivan completed this year’s Chicago Marathon as the top American, running a lifetime best of 2:21:56 to finish seventh overall, making her the 10th-fastest American marathoner in history. 

Rogers won the Medtronic Twin Cities 10 Mile in St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 6, in 52:29 just two weeks after finishing second at the USATF 10 km Championships. 

Logan Jolly, Cailie Logue and Elena Hayday are other competitors entered in this year’s USATF 5 km Championships with past results on this year’s USATF Running Circuit. 

2023 Cross Country champion Katie Wasserman adds some intrigue to the field, running in her first road race since 2022.

About the USATF Running Circuit

The USATF Running Circuit is a USATF road series featuring USATF championships from one mile through marathon and consistently attracts the best American distance runners with more than $500,000 awarded in total prize money. A total of $60,000 in prize money will be awarded at the USATF 5 km Championships. 

The first ten U.S. runners earn points at each USATF Running Circuit race. For the USATF 5 km Championships, scoring is set as 15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, with those earning the most points receiving prize money at the end of the series. 

The mission of the USATF Running Circuit is to showcase, support and promote U.S. runners. Since its inception in 1995, the USATF Running Circuit and its race have provided over $7 million to U.S. Distance runners.

(11/01/2024) Views: 154 ⚡AMP
by Keenan Gray

Joshua Cheptegei will battle Jacob Kiplimo and Galen Rupp at 2023 United Airlines NYC Half

 The 2023 United Airlines NYC Half on Sunday, March 19 will feature professional athletes from 17 different countries, including 19 Olympians, 11 Paralympians, and seven past event champions, making it one of the most diverse fields in the race’s history.

The men’s open division will be headlined by Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei, half-marathon world-record holder Jacob Kiplimo, and Olympic medalist Galen Rupp. Defending champion Senbere Teferi, Olympic and World Championships medalist Hellen Obiri, and three-time event champion Molly Huddle will lead the women’s open division. A trio of past TCS New York City Marathon and United Airlines NYC Half champions – Susannah Scaroni, Manuela Schär, and Daniel Romanchuk – will feature in the strongest wheelchair field in event history, which will also welcome Paralympic medalists Catherine Debrunner and Jetze Plat for the first time.

These athletes will lead more than 25,000 runners at the United Airlines NYC Half, which goes from Brooklyn to Manhattan, passing historic landmarks, diverse neighborhoods and sweeping views of the city along the way before ending in Central Park.

Men’s Open Division

A pair of Ugandans, two-time Olympic and four-time World Championships medalist Cheptegei and Olympic medalist and two-time World Champion Kiplimo, will race head-to-head in the men’s open division as they take on an NYRR race for the first time. At 26 years old, Cheptegei is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 5,000 meters and world champion in the 10,000 meters, as well as the world-record holder in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. In November 2021, Kiplimo set the half marathon world record of 57:31 to win the Lisbon Half three months after taking a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the 10,000 meters. Then last year, the 22-year-old won bronze in the 10,000 meters at the World Championships. He won the gold medal, ahead of Cheptegei’s bronze, at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, on February 18.

“I’m very excited for my first race in New York City, the United Airlines NYC Half,” said Cheptegei. “One of the primary goals for 2023 is to defend my 10,000-meter gold medal from the World Championships, and this half marathon is an important part of those preparations. The race seems like a great tour of New York City and it’s very cool that we get to run through Times Square. There’s so much running history in New York, and the city has seen so many champions battling it out in iconic races. I want to add to that history.”

“It will be my USA road racing debut at the United Airlines NYC Half next month, and I will try hard to become the first champion from Uganda,” Kiplimo said. “My gold medal from the World Cross Country Championships last weekend shows that everybody will need to be at their best to beat me. I have been told that the NYC Half course is difficult, and a record may not be possible, so I will focus on being the first across the finish line in Central Park.”

Challenging the Ugandan pair will be two-time U.S. Olympic medalist and Chicago Marathon champion Rupp, last year’s United Airlines NYC Half runner-up Edward Cheserek of Kenya, and past event champions Ben True of the United States and Belay Tilahun of Ethiopia.

Women’s Open DivisionTwo-time Olympian Huddle will be racing the United Airlines NYC Half for the first time since taking her third consecutive victory in the event in 2017. Huddle won the race in 2015, 2016, and 2017, with her winning time of 1:07:41 from 2016 setting an event record that stood until last year. The former American record-holder in the half marathon was fifth at the Houston Half Marathon in January, nine months after giving birth to her daughter.

“In a lot of ways, my three-straight wins at the United Airlines NYC Half really began my transition to full-time road racing. I’m excited to return to the race for the first time in six years, with a different mindset towards training and racing since the birth of my daughter,” Huddle said. “I’m inspired to teach her the value of hard work and resilience, and where better to do that than the city that has seen some of my career’s greatest successes?”

Huddle will line up against Ethiopia’s two-time Olympian Teferi, who last year broke Huddle’s event record, finishing in a time of 1:07:35 to win the race, and returned to Central Park three months later to win her first Mastercard New York Mini 10K. She is also a two-time World Championships silver medalist and the 5K world-record holder for a women-only race.

Two-time Olympic medalist and seven-time world championships medalist Obiriof Kenya, three-time Olympian and four-time European Championships medalist Eilish McColgan, andtwo-time U.S. Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden will also toe the line.

The event will be covered locally in the tri-state area by ABC New York, Channel 7 with live news cut-ins between 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Additionally, the four professional fields will be covered by a livestream, distributed internationally from NYRR’s digital channels, abc7ny.com, and the ESPN App, beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET.

(02/23/2023) Views: 991 ⚡AMP
by NYRR Press Release

Boston Athletic Association announces 2023 Boston Marathon men´s field

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced today the men’s professional field for the 127th Boston Marathon, featuring 15 men who’ve run under 2:07 for the marathon distance, as well as multiple Abbott World Marathon Major race champions, Olympic and Paralympic stars.

Today’s announcement expands upon four previously announced men’s entrants including world record holder and double Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge, reigning Boston Marathon champion Evans Chebet, 2021 winner Benson Kipruto, and two-time victor Lelisa Desisa. A total of 109 men’s athletes from 21 countries are in this year’s professional field across the men’s Open, Wheelchair, and Para Athletics Divisions.

“The Boston Marathon is known for its competitiveness, with many races decided in the final meters on Boylston Street,” said Mary Kate Shea, B.A.A. Director of Professional Athletes. “This year’s field brings together athletes who’ve excelled at both speed and championship-style racing. Combined with the women’s professional field announced on Monday, this will be the fastest and most decorated Boston Marathon across all of our divisions in race history.”  

Behind Kipchoge and Chebet, the fastest man in the field will be Tanzanian national record holder Gabriel Geay, who finished runner-up at the Valencia Marathon last month in 2:03:00. Geay has had success racing on the roads of Boston, winning the 2018 B.A.A. 10K, placing fourth at last year’s Boston Marathon, and finishing in second and third at the B.A.A. Half Marathon in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

“I am excited to be returning to the Boston Marathon this year,” said Geay. “I fulfilled a dream by racing in Boston last year, but my goal is to one day win the race, and I hope that 2023 will be my year. Thank you, Boston for the opportunity!”

Joining Geay will be past Abbott World Marathon Majors winners including Albert Korir of Kenya (2021 New York City champion), Ghirmay Ghebreslassie of Eritrea (2015 World Championships gold medalist and 2016 New York City champion), and Shura Kitata of Ethiopia (2020 London Marathon champion). Brazilian Olympian and national record holder Daniel Do Nascimento will make his Boston debut, as will Ethiopia’s Herpasa Negasa, a 2:03:40 marathoner.

Last year’s seventh-place finisher and top American, Scott Fauble, returns for his fourth Hopkinton-to-Boston race, and will be joined by 50K world record holder CJ Albertson. After a 2:08:16 marathon debut in Chicago last year, Conner Mantz will take on the Boston course for the first time. He is coached by Olympic marathoner Ed Eyestone.

“I love the Boston Marathon. It’s one of the greatest sporting events in the world,” said Fauble. “It has a way of bringing the best out of people.”

"Boston is such a historic marathon, and I want to be a part of that history,” said Mantz. “I love the aspect of racing with no pacers and hills that break up rhythm, and Boston has both of those. When you add in the competition Boston is bringing this year with Eliud Kipchoge and many others, it makes the race so exciting!"

Ben True, a Maine native and four-time winner of the B.A.A. 5K, also is part of the American field. B.A.A. High Performance Team members Matt McDonald, Paul Hogan, and Jonas Hampton will have the hometown edge; McDonald set a new B.A.A. club record and lifetime best of 2:09:49 in Chicago last fall.

American Daniel Romanchuk will return as defending champion in the wheelchair division, coming off a 1:26:58 victory last April. Romanchuk also won Boston in 2019 (1:21:36), though he looks to be challenged by wheelchair marathon world record holder and reigning Paralympic marathon gold medalist Marcel Hug. Hug returns in search of his sixth Boston Marathon title and holds the Boston course record of 1:18:04. In 2022 the Swiss ‘Silver Bullet’ won the B.A.A. 5K in 10 minutes, 5 seconds, a course record time.

“Nothing can compare with the excitement and anticipation at the Boston Marathon,” said Romanchuk. “I’m incredibly excited and honored to be part of what should be a great race through the hills and all the way to Boylston Street.”

Aaron Pike, last year’s wheelchair division runner-up, and Ernst van Dyk, a ten-time Boston winner, are also racing. A $50,000 course record bonus is available to any open division or wheelchair division athlete who breaks a course record.

Paralympians Matthew Felton and Atsbha Gebre Gebremeskel lead the Para Athletics Division in the T46 classification (upper-limb impairment). American record holder and Massachusetts native Chaz Davis will look to defend his T12 (vision impairment) Para title.

Headlining the T62 and T63 classification are Marko Cheseto Lemtukei and Brian Reynolds. Cheseto Lemtukei earned a victory in 2:37:01 last year, while Reynolds set a pending T62 world record of 1:25:46 at the B.A.A. Half Marathon in November.

“A perfect society is one that sees diversity of its members as her strength,” said Cheseto Lemtukei, who returns as a two-time Boston Marathon Para Athletics Division champion.

The 127th Boston Marathon will be held on Monday, April 17, 2023 – Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—and will feature 30,000 participants. 

(01/11/2023) Views: 1,139 ⚡AMP
by Boston Athletic Association

Abdihamid Nur Dominates, Runs Off Course, & Still Wins, Kelati Gets Record

The day before 50,000 runners cross the finish line in Central Park at the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon, some of America’s fastest pros did the same at the USATF 5K Road Championships — though the fastest of them all, men’s champion Abdihamid Nur, almost missed it. Despite a very late wrong turn, Nur, 24, won his first US title in a course record of 13:24 after kicking away from US steeplechase champion Hillary Bor (13:29) in the final mile.

On the women’s side, Weini Kelati rolled to her second straight title in 15:16, gapping the field thanks to a quick first mile and running unchallenged from there to lower her own course record of 15:18. The B.A.A.’s Erika Kemp (15:30) was second, improving on her 2021 finish by one place, while Emily Infeld (15:30) was third in her first race as a member of Team Boss. Both Kelati and Nur claimed $12,000 for the win.

Four thoughts from a beautiful morning for racing in New York.

Abdihamid Nur wins his first national title…but how the heck did he make a wrong turn 15 meters from the finish line?

It’s always tricky knowing who is in shape for this race as most pro runners aren’t in top shape in November. Based on 5k personal best and 2022 form, however, Abdihamid Nur should probably have been the favorite and he looked great throughout the race, hanging onto Hillary Bor early as Bor pushed the pace before making his move in Central Park and opening up a cushion.

That cushion would prove necessary. It’s not uncommon to see an athlete make a wrong turn when the lead vehicle pulls off the course near the finish line, but I can’t ever remember someone doing it as late in the race as Nur. The finish line was in clear sight and only about 15 meters away when Nur veered to the left and tried to follow the lead car. It was a chaotic sight.

"The finish line was right there, but I just knew it,” Nur said. “They told me to follow the car, so I didn’t know that the car wasn’t going to the finish line. I’m glad Hillary wasn’t too close, because it was a mistake I could afford.”

Chalk it up to a rookie mistake — this was Nur’s first road race as a pro.

Nur’s time of 13:24 was very quick considering the undulating New York course. He smashed Paul Chelimo‘s course record of 13:45 and was just four seconds off Ben True‘s American record of 13:20 from the 2017 B.A.A. 5K. Nur’s wrong turn definitely cost him a second or two, but he didn’t know if it cost him the record.

“Maybe, who knows?” Nur said. “But I’m still happy with the win.”

(Note: David Monti points out that Grant Fisher‘s 13:01 at the Diamond League 5k final in September is considered the American road record because it came on an irregular 563-meter track, though that record has yet to be ratified by USATF. As far as LetsRun is concerned, you shouldn’t be able to set a road record on a track so True still has the record.)

The win capped a banner year for Nur, who won a pair of NCAA titles indoors, set the collegiate 5k record, made the Worlds team outdoors, and signed a pro deal with Nike. He’s still based in Flagstaff and even though the NAU men have struggled more than usual this year, he’s predicting a national title for them and his former teammate Nico Young at the NCAA XC champs in Stillwater in two weeks.“Coach Smith’s gonna have them ready for NCAAs,” Nur said. “I think they’re going to win and my boy Nico’s going to take the individual title.”

Weini Kelati is never that far from fitness

If it seems like Weini Kelati is always in shape, that’s because it’s true. She took a month off after the track season, but returned to training in September and quickly found herself in good shape. Today she ran 15:16 to win by 14 seconds and break the course record by two seconds — one set by Kelati in this event last year.

“What’s interesting about my body is it’s just not hard to build,” Kelati said. “I can get in 10 days, 80% of my fitness.”

Kelati, 25, has already found a lot of success on the roads in her young pro career. With her cross country background (Foot Locker and NCAA champ) and front-running style, she seems a natural fit for the half and, eventually, full marathon, but so far she has yet to race beyond 10k. When will we see her in the half?

“I’m not sure how soon,” Kelati said. “But I’m looking forward [to it]?”

Could we see her in a half in 2023?

“Let’s see, I don’t know,” she said with a smile. “Maybe.”

What we know for sure is that Kelati is not done racing on the track. After just missing out on a spot at Worlds in 2022 (she was 4th in the 5,000, 5th in the 10,000 at USAs), Kelati wants to make the team next year.

“I’m really excited to run road races and half marathon and stuff, but I have unfinished business on the track and I want to clear it up first,” Kelati said.

Kelati also said that during her break from running this summer, she got the opportunity to see her mother for the first time since she defected from her native Eritrea in 2014. The two were able to visit Uganda together, where they spent three weeks together.

“We were both in shock,” Kelati said. “For a week, we couldn’t believe [it]. She just [kept] touching me like, I can’t believe this is real. We both cried happy tears in the airport.”

Though Kelati had been able to talk to her mother over the phone since her arrival in the US, their conversations were never very long. In Uganda, they made up for lost time, often staying up until 4 a.m. catching up on all they had missed in each other’s lives the last eight years.

“The first 14 days, we just talked,” Kelati said.

Kelati said she emerged from the trip feeling renewed.

“That makes me feel like it’s a new beginning, a fresh start for me,” Kelati said.

 

 

(11/06/2022) Views: 1,271 ⚡AMP

Matthew Kimeli (28:38) And Fentyea Belayneh (32:06) Win Beach To Beacon 10k

Beach to Beacon returns after 2-year absence: ‘It’s great to be back!’

A carnival of calves, quads and cowbells came back to this seaside town Saturday, after an absence of 1,099 days.

More than 5,000 runners paraded over the roads of Cape Elizabeth on a warm and cloudless morning in the 24th edition of the venerable TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race. Because of the pandemic, the race was canceled in 2020 and held virtually in 2021.

“It’s great to be back!” said Joan Benoit Samuelson, the race founder who grew up in Cape Elizabeth and went on to win the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon in the Los Angeles Games of 1984.

Along the route, which winds onto Old Ocean House Road before returning to Route 77 and continuing onto Shore Road until entering Fort Williams for the finish along a well-watered strip of green grass in sight of the lighthouse, spectators were abundant if not as thick as in past years.

The folks near the Mile 5 marker who grill bacon were back, enticing runners with mouth-watering scents of breakfast. (Beach to Bacon, reads their sign.) Bands and music added merriment and encouragement.

“It was so fun,” said Amy Davis, a Wisconsin native who placed fourth among all women. “The crowds get into it and the community, and it propels you forward. You feel like you’re never alone. That was really cool.”

Davis, 25, is the daughter of Nan Doak-Davis, a former national marathon champion who competed alongside Samuelson back in the day.

Befitting the 50th anniversary of Title IX legislation that opened doors long closed to female athletes, the women’s field on Saturday featured a dramatic race led for long stretches by Standish native Emily Durgin, a graduate of Cheverus High in Portland and the University of Connecticut.

The 28-year-old Durgin, now living and training in Flagstaff, Arizona, was runner-up by nine seconds to Fentaye Belayneh of Ethiopia. In her American road-racing debut, the 21-year-old Belayneh covered the 6.2 miles from Crescent Beach to the Portland Head Light in 32 minutes, 7 seconds.

No American woman has won Beach to Beacon. The only American man to do so is North Yarmouth native Ben True, six years ago. On Thursday night, True decided for health reasons to remain home in New Hampshire.

True’s absence paved the way for Mathew Kimeli, 24, of Kenya to run away from the men’s field. Hampered only by a brief entanglement with yellow caution tape after he turned onto Shore Road in Mile 4, Kimeli crossed the line with arms upraised in a winning time of 28:39.

Belayneh and Kimeli each received $10,000 for their victories. Durgin took home $5,000 for second place and another $5,000 as the top American finisher.

Because her connecting flight was canceled Thursday night, Durgin rented a car with her boyfriend and drove to Maine from Philadelphia on Friday, stopping at her favorite Connecticut diner (in Vernon) along the way.

“It was less stress because I knew I was coming to a familiar place,” said Durgin, whose parents picked up their luggage from the Portland jetport. “If I was going anyplace else, I probably would have gotten back on the plane and gone back to Phoenix.”

Once on the course, Durgin said she was surprised by the relatively pedestrian early pace – the first mile passed in 5:12 – until she realized her competitors were playing it safe amid hot and humid conditions.

“Then I found myself leading the whole race,” she said. “This is the first time that I’ve seen myself in the lead. It was not a super-familiar feeling.”

Kimeli’s time was the slowest for a men’s champion in race history. Belayneh’s was the slowest winning women’s time since 2011.

“The race was humid, and a lot of slopes,” said Kimeli, who was forced to stop to remove the tape from his leg when he couldn’t shake free from it. “Thank goodness we were not in a group. Maybe I would fall down if we were in a group.”

Twenty seconds passed before the surprise runner-up, Athanas Kioko, passed beneath the final banner. A recent graduate of Campbell University in Georgia, the 27-year-old Kioko registered for the race on Monday, picked up his four-digit bib number Saturday morning after a travel nightmare rivaled only by that of Durgin, and picked off two runners in the final mile to beat every invited elite athlete save Kimeli.

Two flight cancellations Friday morning in Atlanta forced Kioko to accept a diversion to Chicago, endure a four-hour layover, and eventually wind up in Manchester, New Hampshire. After a brief night in a motel, some Kenyan friends from Boston picked him up at 4:30 a.m. on their way to Maine. He got his bib at Cape Elizabeth High School less than an hour before the race, hopped on a bus to the start and enjoyed a 10-minute warm-up before the gun fired.

“Due to traveling, my lower back was a bit painful,” Kioko said. “But right now, I’m not tired.”

The Maine resident category saw a pair of first-time winners. Biddeford native Sam Mills, 21, whooped with joy before crossing the finish line in 31:09. Aly Ursiny of Yarmouth, 34, a mother of two who moved here from Boston last winter, was the fastest Maine woman in 36:17.

(08/08/2022) Views: 1,149 ⚡AMP
by Glenn Jordan

Americans Leonard Korir and Keira D’Amato Sweep Titles at 2022 B.A.A. 10K

It was an American sweep at the 2022 B.A.A. 10K presented by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with Leonard Korir (28:00) and Keira D’Amato (31:17) winning the professional open divisions and Susannah Scaroni and Hermin Garic capturing the wheelchair crowns. The pace was as hot as the weather, with the wily veteran Korir setting a personal best and Scaroni shattering the wheelchair world record for the distance.

“It feels really nice!” said Scaroni, who won a gold medal at 5,000 meters in the 2020 Paralympics but two weeks later was struck by a car while training. “It’s always great to be at a race where they’re trying to make it world-record eligible.” Scaroni broke the tape in 21:56, shattering Tatyana McFadden’s previous mark of 23:34.

As pleased as she was with the record, Scaroni was also excited to win the race outright. Asked if she had ever been the first wheelchair athlete, man or woman, across the line, she beamed. “Oh no, never! I didn’t expect that at all.”

Winning the men’s wheelchair race was Boston Marathon veteran Hermin Garic, in 22:07. “It feels awesome, coming back to Boston.”

In the men’s open division, a pack of 17, led by Bravin Kiptoo, went through the first mile in a scorching 4:21.

“When I saw the first people were so fast, I knew they were going to pay,” said Korir, a 2016 Olympian who has already won national titles this year at the half marathon and 25K. “It was like suicide. I said, ‘let me just hang in there and strike when the time comes.’”

The men ran the second mile in 4:24, but had slowed to 4:37 by the fifth. By that time, it was Kennedy Kimutai and Korir running neck-and-neck. “With a mile to go, I realized I was feeling so strong. I said, ‘let me just go now.’”

He would surge ahead to win in 28:00, nine seconds faster than the personal best he set on this course in 2014. Kimutai would finish second in 28:07, with Philemon Kiplimo third in 28:09. American Ben True was fourth in the same time; Ben Flanagan, fifth in 28:11, set a Canadian 10K record and also set a national mark through 8K in 22:30.

In the women’s race, D’Amato said that her goal was to race aggressively and go after the pace. Mission accomplished: A pack hit mile 1 in 5:05, but by mile 3 (reached in 15:08) she and Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi were gapping the field. As they battled, they ran mile 4 in 4:29, 30 seconds ahead of their chasers.

“We were battling it out,” said D’Amato, who in January broke the American record for the marathon when she ran 2:19:12 in Houston. “That was a fierce duel. With 1200 [meters] to go, she was breathing really hard and I just went by her.” Lokedi succumbed to the heat and humidity on Charles Street roughly 200 meters from the line and would not finish.

American Emily Sisson finished as runner-up in 32:03, with the 42-year-old Edna Kiplagat, the 2017 Boston Marathon champion, third in 32:09.

Claiming the inaugural B.A.A. 10K Para Athletics Divisions were Adrianne Haslet (1:15:19) and Marko Cheseto Lemtukei (35:44) for T61-T64 (lower limb impairment) classification and Erich Manser (50:49) and Jennifer Herring (45:41) in the T11-T15 (vision impairment) classification. Haslet earned the title on her birthday, and was exuberant at the opportunity to win on the road of Boston.

“To not just be invited to run a race, but invited to compete means that we’re being included among some of the world’s best runners with the world-class B.A.A. as hosts. It can’t get much better than that,” said Haslet.

Approximately 5,146 participants crossed the finish line of today’s B.A.A. 10K. Brigham and Women's Hospital, the B.A.A. 10K’s presenting sponsor and exclusive fundraising partner, fielded a team of more than 350 fundraising runners. Since 2016, more than 2,100 runners and 180 teams have raised $1.2 million to fuel life-giving breakthroughs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital through the B.A.A. 10K.

The third and final event of the 2022 B.A.A. Distance Medley will be the B.A.A. Half Marathon presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fun on Sunday, November 13. Registration is currently open within the B.A.A.’s online platform, Athletes’ Village.

(06/27/2022) Views: 1,157 ⚡AMP

Boston Marathon Champions & National Record Holders Headline Professional Field for 2022 B.A.A. 10K

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) has announced a star-studded field for the 2022 B.A.A. 10K, presented by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, to be held on Sunday, June 26. Evans Chebet, the 2022 Boston Marathon men’s open division champion, will return to Boston, while recently crowned American half marathon record holder Emily Sisson will lead the women’s field on the roads of Back Bay. Four-time B.A.A. 5K champion and American 5K record holder Ben True will also make his B.A.A. 10K debut.

The B.A.A. 10K starts and finishes on Charles Street adjacent to Boston Common and Boston Public Garden, and is widely regarded as one of the fastest 10K races in the world. Registration remains open at www.baa.org, while athletes interested in supporting Brigham and Women's Hospital, the B.A.A. 10K’s presenting sponsor and exclusive fundraising partner, are encouraged to visit www.runbwh.org/10k.

“We’re excited to continue to showcase the world’s most accomplished runners at our B.A.A. events,” said Mary Kate Shea, the B.A.A.’s Director of Professional Athletes and Technical Support. “We’re looking forward to cheering on all participants as they race towards the finish.”

The B.A.A. 10K women’s race brings together Boston Marathon champions Des Linden (2018) and Edna Kiplagat (2017), American record holder Sisson, 2017 B.A.A. 10K winner Joan Chelimo Melly, 2022 Boston Marathon top American Nell Rojas, 2016 USA Olympian Marielle Hall, and USA 15K runner-up Emily Durgin.

Sisson, a Providence College graduate and 2021 Olympian, ran 1:07:11 on May 7 to win the USATF Half Marathon Championships in a new national record. She’s also the defending USA 15K champion.

“Breaking the American record in the half marathon was very exciting and I'm now looking forward to switching things up and racing different distances,” said Sisson. “The 10K is a fun and different challenge and I always love racing in Boston.”

Additional international entrants include Biruktayit Degefa of Ethiopia, who has won a quartet of American road races this spring, and Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi, who placed third at the 2022 B.A.A. 5K in April. From the B.A.A. High Performance team are Erika Kemp and Abbey Wheeler; Kemp is a two-time national champion.

In the men’s race, Chebet looks to become only the second Boston Marathon champion to win the B.A.A. 10K, joining the likes of 2011 winner and course record holder Geoffrey Mutai. Chebet stormed to his first Boston Marathon victory in 2:06:51 on April 18.

“After winning the 2022 Boston Marathon, I’m excited to return to the city to run the B.A.A. 10K with a world class field,” said Chebet. “Boston feels like a second home to me now.”

Challenging Chebet from Kenya are David Bett, the reigning 2019 B.A.A. 10K winner; Kennedy Kimutai, the fastest man in the field with a 27:09 lifetime best; Bravin Kiptoo, the 2019 African junior 10,000m champion; and Nicholas Kosimbei, winner of this year’s Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in Washington, D.C. Brothers Jake and Zane Robertson, a dynamic pair from New Zealand who have lived and trained in Kenya, will also race. Recent Iowa State graduate and NCAA champion Wesley Kiptoo will make his Boston road racing debut.

Maine-native Ben True will return to familiar territory, having won the B.A.A. 5K four times, including a national-record setting run of 13:20 in 2017.  Fellow American contenders include Olympians Leonard Korir and Shadrack Kipchirchir, Princeton, Mass.-native Colin Bennie, and a quartet of B.A.A. High Performance Team members in Jerrell Mock, Matt McDonald, Jonas Hampton, and Paul Hogan. Korir enters the B.A.A. 10K hot off a pair of national title wins at the USATF Half Marathon and USATF 25K Championships in May.

In the wheelchair division, Jenna Fesemyer, the 2022 B.A.A. 5K women’s winner, Susannah Scaroni, the 2022 Boston Marathon runner-up, and 2020 Paralympian Yen Hoang are entered. Scaroni earned a gold medal on the track at the 2021 Paralympic Games in the 5000m, and is the fastest women’s wheelchair marathoner in U.S. history. James Senbeta and Hermin Garic are the top men’s wheelchair entrants.

For the first time in race history, Para Athletics Divisions will be offered for athletes with upper-limb, lower-limb, and visual impairments. Among the entrants confirmed include Marko Cheseto Lemtukei, Chaz Davis, and Liz Willis, each of whom won Para Division titles at April’s 126th Boston Marathon. Jacky Hunt-Broersma, who ran 104 marathons in 104 consecutive days for a Guinness World Record, and local Para athlete Adrianne Haslet are also entered.

In addition to racing, top professional athletes will participate in the first-ever B.A.A. 10K Fest & Field Day on Saturday, June 25, one day prior to the race. From 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Boston Common, 10K Fest & Field Day will feature youth fitness activities, games, appearances by professional athletes, running clinics, and more. Participants will also be able to pick-up their participant shirts and bib numbers at 10K Fest. Additional details will be available on baa.org in the coming weeks.

Registration for the 2022 B.A.A. 10K, presented by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is currently open through the B.A.A.’s online platform Athletes’ Village. All participants who enter will receive an adidas participant shirt, unique bib number, and finisher medal. Additional participant information can be found on baa.org. The race will start at 8:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, June 26 on Charles Street adjacent to Boston Common and Boston Public Garden.

Brigham and Women's Hospital, the B.A.A. 10K’s presenting sponsor and exclusive fundraising partner, will again field a team of fundraising runners. Since 2016, more than 2,100 runners and 180 teams have raised $1.2 million to fuel life-giving breakthroughs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Learn more and register at www.runbwh.org/10k.

On June 1, the B.A.A. will celebrate Global Running Day with a special pop-up location at the Boston Marathon Finish Line between 3:00-6:00 p.m. Runners can take a picture with the Boston Marathon trophy, receive giveaways, refreshments, and more! RSVP for the free event on our Facebook page, and log miles throughout the day as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors Global Running Day Challenge. Visit https://bstnmar.org/GRD22 to sign up for free, track your miles, and print a bib to wear as you join a global community of athletes around the world logging miles.

2022 B.A.A. 10K WOMEN’S FIELD (NAME, COUNTRY, ROAD 10K PB)

Joan Chelimo Melly, Romania, 30:14^

Edna Kiplagat, Kenya, 31:06*

Sharon Lokedi, Kenya, 31:06

Mary Munanu, Kenya, 31:20

Biruktayit Degefa, Ethiopia, 31:23

Emily Sisson, USA, 31:47

Emily Durgin, USA, 31:49

Diane Nukuri, USA, 31:49

Lanni Marchant, Canada, 31:49

Vibian Chepkirui, Kenya, 31:49

Nell Rojas, USA, 31:52

Erika Kemp, USA, 32:18

Laura Thweatt, USA, 32:20

Elaina Tabb, USA, 32:40

Rachel Schneider Smith, USA, 32:47

Abbey Wheeler, USA, DB (32:53.50 10,000m)

Grayson Murphy, USA, 32:55

Fiona O’Keeffe, USA, 32:57

Katie Kellner, USA, 33:05

Des Linden, USA, 33:06*

Taylor Werner, USA, 33:35

Marielle Hall, USA, 33:36 (31:05.71 10,000m)

Allie Hackett, USA, 35:17

Jesca Chelangat, Kenya, DB (15:16 5K)

Courtney Hawkins, USA, DB (37:59.99 10,000m)

^ = Previous B.A.A. 10K Champion

* = Previous Boston Marathon Champion

 

2022 B.A.A. 10K MEN’S FIELD (NAME, COUNTRY, ROAD 10K PB)

Kennedy Kimutai, Kenya, 27:09

Bravin Kiptoo, Kenya, 27:12

Philemon Kiplimo, Kenya, 27:23

Zane Robertson, New Zealand, 27:28

Jake Robertson, New Zealand, 27:28

Wesley Kiptoo, Kenya, N/A (27:37.29 10,000m)

Ben True, USA, 27:51

Nicholas Kosimbei, Kenya, 27:52

John Dressel, USA, N/A (27:57.51 10,000m)

David Bett, Kenya, 28:08^

Dominic Korir, Kenya, 28:08

Leonard Korir, USA, 28:09

Shadrack Kipchirchir, USA, 28:12

David Nilsson, Sweden, 28:13

Tsegay Tuemay, Eritrea, 28:13

Bethwell Yegon, Kenya, 28:24

Reuben Mosip, Kenya, 28:28

Paul Hogan, USA, N/A (28:49.55 10,000m)

Johannes Motschmann, Germany, 28:51

Alex Masai, Kenya, 28:53

Colin Bennie, USA, 28:55

Futsum Zienasellassie, USA, 29:03

Matt McClintock, USA, 29:02

Jacob Thomson, USA, 29:07

John Raneri, USA, 29:19

Evans Chebet, Kenya, 29:30*

Jerrell Mock, USA, 29:36

Aaron Dinzeo, USA, 29:37

Matt McDonald, USA, 29:38

Diego Estrada, USA, 29:41

Fabiano Sulle, Tanzania, 29:53

Jonas Hampton, USA, 30:15

Tim McGowan, USA, 30:17

Connor McMillan, USA, 30:20

Josh Kalapos, USA, N/A (14:33.88 5,000m)

^ = Previous B.A.A. 10K Champion

* = Previous Boston Marathon Champion

 

(06/01/2022) Views: 1,258 ⚡AMP

World Record Holders, Olympians, National Champions set to Race B.A.A. 5K

The B.A.A. 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile will make a triumphant return to Patriots’ Day weekend, with professional fields featuring world record holders, Olympians, Paralympians, national champions, and local standouts. Held on Saturday, April 16, the B.A.A. 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile will kick-off festivities leading up to the 126th Boston Marathon on April 18.

“The B.A.A. 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile are two events entrenched in the fabric of Boston Marathon weekend, and each features a field which will lead to fast competition,” said Tom Grilk, President and Chief Executive Officer of the B.A.A. “With three years having passed since our last in-person edition of these races, we’re eager to return to the roads to crown champions.”

In the B.A.A. 5K, Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi will make her Boston road racing debut. A two-time Olympian and two-time World Athletics Championships silver medalist, Teferi holds the women’s-only 5K world record of 14:29. She’ll be up against recently crowned American marathon record holder Keira D’Amato, 2021 U.S. Olympians Emily Sisson and Rachel Schneider, reigning U.S. 5K national champion Weini Kelati, and B.A.A. High Performance Team member Erika Kemp. The B.A.A. 5K course and American record of 14:50 –set by Molly Huddle in 2015—could very well be in jeopardy.

On the men’s side, 2019 B.A.A. 10K champion David Bett and 17-time NCAA champion Edward Cheserek, both of Kenya, will square off against New Zealand 5,000m indoor national record holder Geordie Beamish and 2021 U.S. Olympians Mason Ferlic and Joe Klecker. Stanley Kebenei, a World Athletics Championships finalist in the 3000m steeplechase, will also be part of the strong American charge. The B.A.A. 5K course and American record is 13:20, established by Ben True in 2017.

Boston Marathon wheelchair division champions Marcel Hug, Daniel Romanchuk, and Joshua Cassidy will all compete in the B.A.A. 5K less than 48 hours in advance of racing the 126th Boston Marathon. Vanessa de Souza, Shelly Oxley-Woods, and Jenna Fesemyer are top women’s wheelchair entrants.

Following the B.A.A. 5K, the B.A.A. Invitational Mile will take center stage on Boylston Street. U.S. Olympian, Bostonian, and reigning indoor 1,500m national champion Heather MacLean will race for the first time on the three-lap course that finishes at the Boston Marathon finish line. Among her competitors are B.A.A. High Performance Team member Annie Rodenfels, 2019 runner-up Emily Lipari, and Great Britain Olympian Katie Snowden. MacLean and Rodenfels won’t be the only Massachusetts residents toeing the line, as Belmont High School standout Ellie Shea will race among the professionals. Shea ran 9:08.54 for 3,000m during the indoor season, a time that stands as No. 5 on the all-time high school list and is a Massachusetts state record.

Shane Streich, fresh off an indoor American record at 1,000m, will lead the American men in the B.A.A. Invitational Mile along with 3:54 miler Colby Alexander. Neil Gourley of Great Britain is entered, as are Canadian William Paulson, the 2019 Pan-Am 1500m bronze medalist, B.A.A. racing team member Kevin Kelly of Ireland, and local standout James Randon of Rhode Island.

A complete professional field list for the B.A.A. 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile can be found below. Preceding the professional divisions of the B.A.A. Invitational Mile will be a scholastic mile and middle school 1K featuring student-athletes from the eight cities and towns along the Boston Marathon route. Entries for the high school and middle school events will be available on race weekend.

 

2022 B.A.A. 5K WOMEN’S FIELD (NAME, COUNTRY, ROAD 5K PB, TRACK 5000M PB)

Carmela Cardama-Baez, Spain, N/A, 15:25.41 (NR)

Kim Conley, USA, 15:29, 15:05.20

Keira D’Amato, USA, 15:08, 16:09.86

Emily Durgin, USA, 16:05, 15:24.19

Annie Frisbie, USA, 16:35, 16:05.78

Sammy George, USA, 15:53, 15:19.66

Tori Gerlach, USA, 15:56, 15:44.13

Marielle Hall, USA, 15:08, 15:02.27

Elly Henes, USA, N/A, 15:03.27i

Emma Grace Hurley, USA, 16:13, 15:57.23

Katie Izzo, USA, 16:00, 15:41.33

Weini Kelati, USA, 15:18, 14:58.24

Erika Kemp, USA, 15:45, 15:10.10

Melissa Lodge, USA, N/A, 15:53.81i

Sharon Lokedi, Kenya, 15:48, 15:13.04i

Betty Sigei, Kenya, N/A, 15:37.80

Emily Sisson, USA, 15:38, 14:53.84

Rachel Smith (Schneider), USA, N/A, 14:52.04

Emma Spencer, USA, 16:41, 16:04.95

Susanna Sullivan, USA, 16:35, 15:42.59i

Senbere Teferi, Ethiopia, 14:29 (WR), 14:15.29

Abbey Wheeler, USA, N/A, 15:40.67i

 

2022 B.A.A. 5K MEN’S FIELD (NAME, COUNTRY, ROAD 5K PB, TRACK 5000M PB)

Eric Avila, USA, 13:55, 13:18.68

Geordie Beamish, New Zealand, N/A, 13:12.53i (NR)

David Bett, Kenya, 13:54, 13:06.06

Ben Blankenship, USA, 13:56, 13:33.07

Robert Brandt, USA, N/A, 13:19.11

Sam Chelanga, USA, 13:43, 13:09.67

Edward Cheserek, Kenya, 13:29, 13:04.44

Adam Clarke, Great Britain, 13:42, 13:39.21

Graham Crawford, USA, 13:54, 13:22.68i

Aaron Dinzeo, USA, 14:25, 13:58.37

Brandon Doughty, USA, N/A, 13:39.06

Mason Ferlic, USA, 13:52, 13:24.94

Sydney Gidabuday, USA, 13:53, 13:22.66

Eric Hamer, USA, 14:43, 13:29.60

Brian Harvey, USA, 14:01, 14:13.93

Stanley Kebenei, USA, 13:53, 13:45.87

Joe Klecker, USA, N/A, 13:06.67

Kasey Knevelbaard, USA, 13:56, 13:24.98i

Lawi Lalang, USA, 13:30, 13:00.95

Matt McClintock, USA, 13:49, 13:47.68

Tim McGowan, USA, 14:11, 13:54.20

Reuben Mosip, Kenya, 13:34, 13:50.80a

Charles Philbert-Thiboutot, Canada, 14:04, 13:22.44

Brian Shrader, USA, 13:57, 13:29.13

Zouhair Talbi, Morocco, N/A, 13:18.17i

Aaron Templeton, USA, 13:48, 13:39.39

Josef Tessema, USA, 14:05, 13:22.28.

(03/30/2022) Views: 1,716 ⚡AMP
by Running USA

Galen Rupp, Rhonex Kipruto, Molly Seidel and Sara Hall will headline 2022 united airlines NYC Half

The 2022 NYC Half Marathon scheduled for March 20 will boast its most impressive field of professional athletes ever, the New York Road Runners announced Tuesday.

In total, 24 Olympians, eight Paralympians, and six open division athletes who hold national half-marathon records in their respective countries will descend upon the big apple next month in the race’s first running since 2019. The last two years saw the NYC Half Marathon canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The men’s open division will see US Olympic medalist Galen Rupp try his hand in the half marathon. He is the American record-holder in the 10,000 meters while winning the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London at that race. He also has a bronze medal in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio. 

Rupp will be racing the NYC Half Marathon for just the second time ever after finishing third in 2011.

“The NYC Half was my debut at the distance, and was only the second road race of my professional career,” Rupp said. “I can’t believe that more than a decade has passed since then. It’s wild that the race will be more than double the size it was when I ran in 2011, and I’ve heard the Brooklyn-to-Manhattan course is challenging, but a great tour of the Big Apple. With the World Championships taking place in my home state of Oregon later this summer, I’m looking for the race to be a great stepping stone to everything else I want to achieve in 2022.”

He’ll have plenty of top-notch competition, however. Rhonex Kipruto of Kenya is the 10K world-record holder while Ben True was the first American man to win the NYC Half Marathon in the open division back in 2018.

Five-time US Olympian Abdi Abdirahman will be making his 10th appearance at this event next month — a stark contrast to US Army officer Elkanah Kibet, who makes his debut at the NYC Half Marathon after finishing in fourth place at the 2021 New York City Marathon back in November.

The women’s opened division is headlined by half-marathon American record holder Sara Hall, who is a two-time defending champion at the New York Mini 10K.

She ran a record 1:07:15 half marathon just last month in Houston.

“My NYC racing career started with my win at the Fifth Avenue Mile way back in 2006 and along the way I’ve broken the tape at… the New York City Marathon weekend and twice won the New York Mini 10K in Central Park,” Hall said. “Until now, though, I’ve never stepped to the line at the NYC Half. Setting the American record over that distance last month gives me a ton of confidence as I train for this new challenge.”

She’ll be joined by Molly Seidel, who won bronze in the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics before setting an American course record in a fourth-place finish at the 2021 NYC Marathon.

Both the women’s and men’s wheelchair division champions from last year’s half marathon return in U.S. Paralympic medalists Tatyana McFadden and Daniel Romanchuk.

Romanchuk is a two-time NYC Marathon winner, including a title in 2018 that saw him become the first American and youngest athlete ever to win the men’s wheelchair division.

McFadden is one of the most decorated Paralympians there is, winning 20 medals over six Games.

“I love this race. We get to run by all the great NYC iconic spots,” McFadden said. “It’s fun seeing all the kids running in Times Square as we go by; it will be great to be back after so long.”

(02/23/2022) Views: 1,284 ⚡AMP
by Richard Heathcote

Ben True had never run further than 24 miles before finishing seventh at New York City Marathon

Ben True had never run a distance of 26.2 miles before. He didn’t do too badly for a novice.

True finished seventh in the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:12:53.

Most people might think that coming in seventh in one of the biggest marathons in the world — 25,010 runners finished the race this year, and in the past it’s seen twice that — is a jaw-dropping feat, especially for someone who says the longest distance he’d run before Nov. 7 is “probably” 24 miles.

Yet, when asked if he’d surprised himself, True said he isn’t satisfied with his performance.

“Actually, I was slightly disappointed,” True reflected five days later. He was also the No. 2-ranked American to finish.

“I think I took things a little too conservatively,” he judged, explaining that he held himself back a mile to a mile and a half too long before accelerating to run the last 6 miles to the finish. “I didn’t go fast enough.”

The Upper Valley is home to notable Olympians and elite athletes — Norwich is known for being a “cradle” for Olympic athletes — and True, like many of them, initially came to the area to study at Dartmouth College, where he graduated with a major in art history in 2009. He was the first student in the Ivy League school’s history to break the four-minute mile and earned All-American honors in cross country running, outdoor track and field and Nordic skiing.

Growing up in North Yarmouth, Maine, True was known since his teens at Greely High School as a champion runner and skier in the state. He chose Dartmouth over Stanford, he said, because “the area and campus were much more to my liking, and I wanted to continue both running and skiing.”

Ben True is by his own acknowledgement an athlete who has traditionally trained alone and chosen to live apart from the running meccas of Colorado or Oregon.

For a brief spell after college, True tried living in Eugene, Ore., where he joined the Oregon Track Club, but it didn’t suit him.

“I’m a pretty big homebody. I like the Northeast more,” he said.

Until he made his marathon debut, True’s running career has been focused on competing and racking up national and global wins in 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter track races and 5K and 10K road races. But shorter-distance events exact a toll on an athlete’s body that becomes more problematic with age.

“Training for the 5K was wearing on my body a lot and tiring me out, really stressing my nervous system, all that speed work,” the 35-year-old said. “So it seemed like an appropriate time to take on the challenge of marathon running, which frequently draws people in their 30s and 40s as it is less impactful on the body.

“It was the right time to move up to the longer distance,” True assessed.

True said he chose New York for his first marathon rather than one of the other big destinations such as Boston, London or Tokyo because he had run a half-marathon there in 2019 — placing 10th at 1:02:56 — and because New York Road Runners, the organization that produces the NYC Marathon, in past years had invited True to ride in the lead vehicle at the head of the race.

“I’ve always had a lot of success in New York,” True said. “It just seemed the right place to run my first marathon.”

Despite what has been described as his “lone wolf” training regimen — his former sponsor Saucony even made it the theme of a YouTube campaign — True recruited two other running partners: Dan Curts, an Iowa State standout, and Fred Huxham, an All-American from University of Washington, who both relocated to Norwich, where they helped True to train for the marathon. 

“I used to do the majority of my training starting from my house,” True said, explaining his normal routine, which began with a 12-mile run at 10 a.m. and ended with a 5-mile run at 6 p.m. But since Curts, a year ago, and Huxham, six months ago, became part of his running pod, “we tend to meet someplace, like West Windsor, Orford, Enfield, South Strafford, running mostly on dirt roads.”

In addition to the average 120 miles per week that True would run in training for the marathon, the trio have formed a running club — Northwoods Athletics— with an eye to supporting professional runners and a weekly open invitation running group, Tour de Woodstock, for recreational runs on the weekend.

The Tour de Woodstock, which began last fall with 10 people and now has a core posse of about 15 and some weekends attracts double that, meets at East End Park on Pleasant Street in Woodstock, NH and is meant to include runners of all levels and abilities who can break off into smaller groups if they want to.

They gather at an eating spot for waffles afterward.

The mission, according to True, is to inspire people to run by providing a social element that will motivate them to enjoy the sport more.

“We had our first bonfire potluck lunch at a member’s house” two weeks ago, he said.

Northwoods Athletics is still in a formative stage — the website only recently went up — but True said one of its purposes will be to find a new economic model to train and support professional runners.

At present, professional runners are largely sponsored by athletic shoe companies, whose terms often preclude athletes and athletic clubs from accepting other sponsors. That makes athletes rely upon a single sponsor, which can have devastating impact when a contract is not renewed.

True said Northwoods Athletics wants to develop new avenues to pay runners, perhaps through contracting with employers to manage a running program for the company’s employees, similar to a company-sponsored health club membership, which would also in turn identify the company as a sponsor of the athlete.

True also hopes to see Northwoods Athletics as a vehicle to make the Upper Valley a hub for runners, at least during the nonwinter seasons. (True himself has spent winters training in Charlottesville, Va., and Boulder, Colo.)

“One of the reasons I’ve done my training alone is that I’m here, but there are not many people here,” he said.

“We’re hoping to add a few more guys to get a critical mass and a women’s team, too,” True said.

As for when True plans to run his next marathon — he doesn’t know. He is still undecided whether he will train for another track season, and if he does, then it would conflict with the time and technique required to train for a long-distance running.

In either case, True said he does not need to make that decision until January.

“So I have some time,” he said.

(11/15/2021) Views: 1,168 ⚡AMP
by John Lippman

It is Going to Be a Busy 7 Weeks With All 6 World Marathon Majors Taking Place

For the first time ever, all six World Marathon Majors will be contested in the fall of the same year. Due to postponements caused by COVID-19, the Berlin, London, Tokyo, Chicago, Boston, and New York City marathons are all scheduled to take place within a seven-week timeframe.

For many athletes, these marathons will be their first 26.2 since the onset of the pandemic, and they’ve set big goals for the return of the sport.

Between runners doubling in events to some chasing national records, the best marathoners in the world are taking full advantage of these highly anticipated competitive opportunities. Here, we outlined some quick takeaways and storylines we’ll be watching based on the early elite field announcements. (And we’ll keep this list updated if and when top runners throw their name into one of these amazing fields!)


Berlin Marathon—Sunday, September 26

MEN:

Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopia (2:01:41)

Right now, the only elite runner confirmed for the Berlin Marathon is Kenenisa Bekele. Berlin will be the first of two marathons in 42 days for the Ethiopian runner, who is also scheduled to race the New York City Marathon on November 7, a grueling double that will mark Bekele’s first races since March 2020.

As three-time Olympic champion told Sports Illustrated, he is ready for the challenge.

“For a whole year, I couldn’t race and it’s been really difficult for athletes,” Bekele said. “I want to take this chance and see what is possible.”

London Marathon—Sunday, October 3

Eight weeks after winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics, Brigid Kosgei aims to defend her title in London. The world record-holder from Kenya will be going for her third consecutive victory in London against a stacked field that includes defending New York City Marathon champion Joyciline Jepkosgei and two-time Tokyo Marathon winner Birhane Dibaba.

On the men’s side, Shura Kitata will also be looking to defend his title in London after a disappointing performance in Tokyo. The Ethiopian standout struggled in the heat during the Olympic marathon in Sapporo and dropped out of the race, but he’s aiming for redemption on a course where he experienced a breakthrough last year.

“I was disappointed to have to pull out of the Olympic Games Marathon, but I just did not adapt to the weather well,” Kitata told World Athletics. “It was very cold in Ethiopia prior to leaving for Tokyo and when we got there the weather took its toll on my body and made my breathing very hard. But I’m healthy and looking forward to racing in the Virgin Money London Marathon again. I am preparing very well and my coach has me very ready to defend my title in London.”

Chicago Marathon—Sunday, October 10

Almost a year after she nearly broke Deena Kastor’s American marathon record, Sara Hall is gearing up to again chase the elusive time set 15 years ago. In Chicago, Hall aims to continue her breakthrough streak, which started during the 2020 COVID-adjusted season, and run under the record of 2:19:36.

“It has been too long since I’ve been back, and when I thought about where I wanted to chase the American record, I thought it would be more exciting to do it at home, in the U.S., and Chicago is such an epic race,” Hall said in a statement. “I’m really excited to have my best marathon yet on U.S. soil.”

After dropping out of the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, Hall made an impressive comeback with a runner-up finish at the London Marathon last October, and a victory at the Marathon Project in December. Hall’s winning time of 2:20:32 is her personal best and the second-fastest performance ever by an American woman.

Hall will have stiff competition up front with Ruth Chepngetich in the field. The Kenyan marathoner set the half marathon world record in April. She had an off day at the Tokyo Games and dropped out of the marathon around the 20-mile mark. Chicago will be the 2019 world champion’s first major marathon since the Olympics and her first race on U.S. soil.

Another American to watch will be Keira D’Amato; she made headlines in 2020 with huge improvements on the track and the roads, which helped her land her first professional contract with Nike at 36 years old. D’Amato was expected to be an Olympic team contender in the 10,000 meters, but she withdrew from the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, citing a hamstring injury. The Chicago Marathon will be D’Amato’s first race since February.

Galen Rupp, who placed eighth in 2:11:41 at the Tokyo Olympics on August 8, is returning to race the marathon in Chicago. This marathon holds some significance for Rupp, who became the first American male athlete since Khalid Khannouchi to win the race in 2017. The last time he competed in the Windy City was during his comeback to the sport after having Achilles surgery. In the 2019 race, he dropped out just before the 23-mile mark, but he’s looking to improve this time around.

“My goal is winning,” Rupp said in a statement. “I want to come back and win. 2019 left a sour taste in my mouth. I didn’t finish that race so I cannot wait to get back out there and come back stronger than ever. It has been a wild ride since then. I’m healthy, I’m happy, and it’s going to be tremendous to come back.”

Boston Marathon—Monday, October 11

Boston will have one of the deepest elite fields on the women’s side with nine women who have run under 2:22, including Olympic bronze medalist Mare Dibaba and 2017 Boston Marathon winner Edna Kiplagat.

The race will also be Des Linden’s first of two marathons this fall. The 2018 Boston Marathon champion is entered in the New York City Marathon on November 7, a shorter than normal timeframe between major marathons. Boston will be Linden’s first major marathon since she finished fourth at the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. This spring, Linden set the 50K world record by averaging 5:47 pace for more than 31 miles.

Fellow Americans Jordan Hasay and Molly Huddle will also be returning to Boston after the event took a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
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In the men’s field, several past podium finishers are making their return to Boston, including Kenyan standouts Wilson Chebet, Felix Kandie, and Paul Lonyangata. A large American contingent will be led by four-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman, who finished 41st in the marathon at the Tokyo Games. Including Abdirahman, eight of the top 12 finishers from the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials are scheduled to compete.

New York City Marathon—Sunday, November 7

The field assembled for the women’s race, especially the American contingent, is the most stacked marathon of all the fall races. Tokyo Olympians Molly Seidel, Sally Kipyego, and Aliphine Tuliamuk are all slated to return to competition in the Big Apple after representing Team USA in Sapporo.

Fellow podium finisher Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya is also returning to the distance after dominating the marathon to win gold in her first Olympic Games. She has the fastest personal best among the field after running 2:17:16 in Valencia last year. Including Jepchirchir, the New York City field includes four women who have run under 2:21.

Outside of the Olympic team, a handful of the top Americans are also gearing up for fast times in the city. Emily Sisson, Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce, Roberta Groner, and Laura Thweatt are scheduled to compete. And Des Linden will be racing her second marathon of the fall after competing in Boston on October 11.

Along with Bekele’s double, Abdi Nageeye’s performance will draw fans in to watch the men’s race in New York City. The runner from the Netherlands secured a silver medal in the Tokyo marathon by crossing the finish line in 2:09:58, a huge improvement from his 11th-place finish in Rio. He’s finished in the top 10 twice at the Boston Marathon, but this fall will mark his debut in New York City and he’s feeling confident in his chances.

“For me, winning the silver medal in the Olympic Games was not a surprise,” Nageeye said in a statement. “There were many good athletes in the race, but I knew my preparation had been good. I was ready for the conditions, and most importantly I believed in myself. I will take that same focus into my preparations for New York, and my belief and confidence in my abilities is even higher than it was in Sapporo. There is nothing I want more than to bring a New York City victory back home along with my Olympic medal.”

There will also be a couple of highly anticipated marathon debuts, including Kibiwott Kandie and Ben True. Kandie is the half marathon world record-holder and a world championships silver-medalist. True will be aiming for redemption after finishing fourth in the 10,000 meters and narrowly missing out on making Team USA at the Olympic Trials in June.

(08/28/2021) Views: 1,359 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Olympians, champions and top americans will lead fields for 2021 Asics Falmouth Road Race

Falmouth Road Race, Inc., organizers of the 49th Annual ASICS Falmouth Road Race, one of America’s premier running events of the summer season, today announced the men’s, women’s, and wheelchair open fields for this year’s race. Defending champions Leonard Korir and Sharon Lokedi lead an accomplished field of Olympians, World Champions and top Americans participating in the August 15, 2021 race.

WOMEN’S OPEN DIVISION

Lokedi, a Kenyan elite and 10-time All American at the University of Kansas, will race 2019 runner-up Sara Hall, who has won 11 U.S. national titles from the mile to the marathon. Hall recently finished sixth at the U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000m and won the AJC Peachtree Road Race, which hosted the National 10K Championships. The duo is joined by Edna Kiplagat, a Boston, London and New York City champion as well as a two-time World Athletics Marathon Championships gold medalist. 

Twelve-time All American and NCAA DI 10,000m champion Emma Bates and 2021 Olympic marathoner Molly Seidel will also participate. Bates is gearing up for a fall marathon and Seidel will run, alongside her sister Isabel, as a post-Olympic celebration.  

Accomplished women racing the leaders include Jordan Hasay, an 18-time All American and multiple podium finisher at the Boston and Chicago Marathons; former Falmouth champion and three-time Olympian Diane Nukuri; NCAA 10,000m champion Natosha Rogers; young talent Iveen Chepkemoi; Emily Durgin who finished runner-up at the AJC Peachtree Road Race with a 31:49 personal best, and Taylor Werner the recent USATF National 6K champion.

Many of the women in the field raced in the 5,000m and/or 10,000m at the recent U.S. Olympic Track Trials including Rogers, Durgin, Werner, Erika Kemp, Makena Morley, Jaci Smith, Fiona O’Keefe,  and Paige Stoner.

MEN’S OPEN DIVISION

The 2019 podium of Leonard Korir, Stephen Sambu, and Edward Cheserek return. Korir, an Olympian, became the first American man to win the Falmouth Road Race since 1988. He has 10 USATF national titles and holds the fastest-ever marathon debut by an American (2:077:56). 

Sambu looks to add an impressive fifth Falmouth Road Race title to his name. A road running star, Sambu set the 8K world record at the B.A.A. 10K, a race he has won twice. He is also a four-time champion of the Shamrock Shuffle. Edward Cheserek, the most decorated NCAA distance runner of all time with 17 NCAA Division I titles, ran for the University of Oregon. At Boston University in 2018, Cheserek ran the indoor mile in 3:49.44, which at that time was the second fastest indoor mile in history.  

Chasing the trio are 2018 Falmouth Road Race champion and 2018 NCAA 10,000m winner Ben Flanagan, of Canada, and Ben True, who holds five national titles, set a 5K national record at the 2017 B.A.A. 5K and recently finished fourth in the 10,000m at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Fresh from a two second 1-2 finish at the 2021 AJC Peachtree Road Race, Sam Chelanga, a six-time USATF National Champion, and Fred Huxham are in the field, as are B.A.A. 10K champion David Bett, 2018 Falmouth runner-up Scott Fauble and top 5,000m runner Emmanuel Bor. 

Many of the men running the ASICS Falmouth Road Race competed at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Track Trials including Korir, Chelanga, Bor, True, Biya Simbassa, Jacob Thomson and Frank Lara.

(07/27/2021) Views: 1,465 ⚡AMP
by Running USA

Woody Kincaid Wins the Men’s 10,000 Meters at the Olympic Track and Field Trials

In the first track final of the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, Woody Kincaid, Grant Fisher, and Joe Klecker earned spots on Team USA heading for Tokyo.

Kincaid, 28, finished in 27:53.62, by virtue of a blistering final 400 meters, which he covered in 53.47. His Bowerman Track Club teammate Fisher, 24, was less than a second behind in 27:54.29, and Klecker, also 24, of the new On Athletics Club in Boulder, ran 27:54.90.

Ben True, 35, finished in hard-luck fourth place; he couldn’t match the closing kick of the three Olympians and crossed the line in 27:58.88. True, who has never made an Olympic team, will be the alternate.

The race opened up with a fast pace, because most of the field did not have the 27:28 Olympic qualifying standard they need—along with a top-three finish—to earn a trip to the Games. This race was the last chance for them to run the standard.

Conner Mantz of BYU, Robert Brandt of Georgetown, and Frank Lara of Roots Running ran up front for the first two miles, but by halfway, reached in 13:56, the pace slowed, leaving no hope for anyone without the standard to get onto the team. Lopez Lomong dropped out, grabbing his right leg, as did Eric Jenkins, leaving only five men with the standard in the field.

The big crowd in the early miles was distracting for Kincaid. “My confidence was the lowest 10 laps in, that’s when the doubts really crept in,” he said in a press conference after the race. But as the miles clicked off, the pace slowed, and he made his way to the front, he felt better. “With four laps to go, this is what I had practiced in my mind over and over. I’m going to get into third or fourth position, just like practice, and that’s what happened.”

Kincaid said his last lap was the easy part: “It’s just everything you’ve got,” he said. “Getting there, in a position to win, is the hard part.”

He had praise for his teammate, Fisher, whom he runs with every day. “It’s a shame that I like him so much, because I have to race him all the time,” Kincaid said.

Kincaid said he plans to race the 5,000 meters and if he makes the team in that event, he’ll do both the 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters at the Games.

Fisher was soaking in the moment. “I’ve dreamed about this moment, but even now it doesn’t feel real,” he said in the post-race press conference. “I don’t even know how to describe it, but I’m just so happy.”

Klecker, the third-place finisher, had his collegiate career at the University of Colorado shortened by the pandemic. “This means a lot,” he said. “I mean I had my NCAA career cut short. I never won an NCAA title, but making an Olympic team makes up for that.”

He is the son of Janis Klecker, a 1992 Olympian in the marathon for the U.S. Her advice? Candy. “She told me that the night before she made an Olympic team, she ate a Snickers bar, and I followed that to a tee and it worked out,” Klecker said.

True said he was turning his attention to the 5,000 meters later in the meet, but he has plenty of other things to look forward to. His wife is expecting their first child on July 15, and he’ll make his marathon debut this fall.

Galen Rupp, who already is representing the U.S. in the marathon, finished sixth in 27:59.43.

It is the first Olympics for Kincaid, Fisher, and Klecker. The event represents a changing of the guard—the top three are a complete turnover from the 2016 squad, when Rupp, Shadrack Kipchirchir, and Leonard Korir were the Americans who went to Rio in the event.

(06/19/2021) Views: 1,235 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Some Veteran Pro Runners Are Making Less This Year, and They're Ditching the Sport

Many athletes are confronting a bleak financial reality. Some are quitting the sport entirely.

What do Noah Droddy, Ben True, and Andy Bayer have in common?

They’re all ranked among the top 10 Americans of all time in their events—Droddy in the marathon, True in the 10,000 meters, Bayer in the steeplechase.

How Much Do Pro Runners Make? For Some Veterans, It’s Less This Year

And they were all dropped by their sponsors at the end of 2020.

This news took a while to seep out—after all, athletes don’t tend to publicize it when their sponsors reduce their pay or stop supporting them altogether. But Droddy, 30, and True, 35, have been open about their status and confirmed it in calls with Runner’s World (both had been sponsored by Saucony), and Bayer told the Indy Star that Nike dropped him and he has left the sport, at age 31, for a job in software engineering.

Droddy—one of running’s most recognizable figures in races with his long hair, backward baseball cap, and habit of losing his lunch at marathon finish lines—summed up his situation in a tweet on February 19.

Is he right? Is it typical for top runners, at the height of their careers, to lose financial backing from shoe companies? Or is this an anomaly at the end of an unusual, pandemic-marred 15 months?

Runner’s World had conversations with eight athletes, four agents, two marketing employees at brands, and three coaches to get a sense of the current economics for athletes. They painted a complex picture.

Are most pro runners broke?

Many are just getting by. For years, America’s pro runners have been on shaky financial footing. With the exception of those who win global medals or major marathons, distance runners often struggle to earn enough money to pay for their essentials (rent and food), plus cover all their running-related expenses, such as coaching, travel to races and altitude camps, health care, gym membership, and massage.

Over the past year, the pandemic has erased lucrative racing opportunities. Additionally, shoe companies have been reevaluating their sports marketing budgets, from which runners are paid. Experts say that the result has been an increasing bifurcation between the sport’s haves and have nots.

The most successful, those destined for the Olympic team or starring on the roads, are earning generous base payments and bonuses for setting records or winning. Many of the rest are scraping by, with smaller contracts, if any, and they’re supplementing their shoe company earnings with jobs.

Running’s middle class, much like America’s, is shrinking.

The exception is runners who belong to a single-sponsor training group, like those in Flagstaff, Arizona (Hoka); Boston (New Balance); and Portland, Oregon (Nike). In those cases, coaching, travel, and training camp costs are absorbed by the club, easing the financial pressure on athletes and making it possible for them to pursue the dream.

Brands these days appear to be more eager to devote dollars to groups and the athletes who train with them, rather than individual athletes training on their own in different locations. That presents a quandary for midcareer runners who have achieved a level of success. Faced with the loss of a sponsorship, they aren’t always willing to pick up and move to a new town and a new coach.

What do contracts look like?

If you’re a top runner in the college ranks, and you’ve won multiple NCAA titles at the Division I level, shoe companies—Nike, Adidas, Brooks, Saucony, Hoka, and others—will usually come calling, offering more than $100,000 a year for multiple years, with a spot in a group or a stipend to pay your coach. Those companies are betting on those NCAA champions to be Olympians of the future.

Dani Jones, for instance, won three individual NCAA titles at the University of Colorado, and she signed with New Balance at the end of last year. Her agent, Hawi Keflezighi, said she entertained competing offers from other companies.

A midcareer athlete with a breakthrough performance—hitting the podium at a major marathon or making an Olympic team, for instance—might also be rewarded with a base contract worth $50,000 to $100,000.

The top sprinters earn even more (although their careers are typically shorter). Usain Bolt famously made millions, and Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse was 21 when he signed a deal worth $11.25 million—before bonuses—from Puma in 2015, the Toronto Star reported.

The payouts drop significantly after that. Let’s say you’re a distance runner, but you haven’t been able to get a big win in college, although you’ve come close. The lucky ones are looking at deals for about $30,000 to $75,000 per year.

Your agent takes a 15 percent cut of that. And this base salary most often comes without benefits: no health insurance, no 401(k). As independent contractors, pro runners are paying all their own taxes. (In contrast, traditional full-time employees have half of their Social Security and Medicare taxes paid by the employer.)

Many young runners out of college join pro groups, and they’re not making anything beyond free gear and coaching. Others might get a stipend worth $10,000 or $12,000 a year.

The contracts typically sync with the Olympic calendar. At the end of 2020, many athletes’ contracts were expiring—even though the Olympics didn’t happen. That’s how Droddy, True, and Bayer were dropped. Shannon Rowbury, a three-time Olympian, told Track & Field News her deal with Nike was extended for one year, two if she makes the Olympic team this summer.

If an athlete has a good Olympics, the sponsoring company often has an option to extend the deal for an additional year, which includes the world track & field championships. It’s at the company’s discretion—not the athlete’s.

Parts of the sponsorship model appear to be changing, but slowly. When NAZ Elite announced a new deal with Hoka last fall, it included health insurance for the runners. Similarly, members of Hansons-Brooks in Rochester, Michigan, get health insurance if they work in the Hansons running specialty stores. And last May, Tracksmith brought Mary Cain and Nick Willis on as employees at the company—Cain in community engagement, Willis as athlete experience manager—with the plan that both would continue to train and race at an elite level.

Why doesn’t anyone know exactly how much runners are making?

As part of these deals, athletes have to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), promising to keep the terms quiet. If an athlete violates the NDA, the sponsor can void the contract—or sue for breach of contract.

This is, in fact, similar to other sports. In basketball, LeBron James is being paid $39.2 million this season by the Los Angeles Lakers. But he also has an endorsement deal with Nike, and the exact structure of that is unknown.

In running, prize purses are publicized—$150,000 for winning the Boston Marathon, $25,000 for being the top American at New York in 2019, $75,000 for winning the Olympic Marathon Trials.

But as in other sports, the terms of the sponsor deals are kept mum. And appearance fees at major races, as well as time bonuses within those appearance fees, which represent a major source of income for road runners (mainly marathoners), are also mostly unknown.

Athletes feel that the silence around sponsor contracts and appearance fees puts them at a disadvantage—it’s hard to know their market value. Yes, they can—and do—have quiet conversations with peers about it. But lacking broad knowledge, they lack power.

And as a result, the industry is rife with rumors and assumptions. Athletes’ values are often inflated through the grapevine.

“I think it is very similar to the dynamic that would occur if no one knew the price of home sales,” Ian Dobson—a 2008 Olympian who ran for Adidas and Nike during his pro career, which ended in 2012—told Runner’s World. “How could you ever be confident in a sale price if you didn’t know what any other homes in your neighborhood were selling for? Granted, we don’t know every detail of every home sale in the neighborhood, but it’s certainly helpful to know in general terms the dollar amount that these are going for so that we can all understand what value our home might have.”

Also, athletes keep quiet when their circumstances change. They feel embarrassed. One athlete told Runner’s World, “No one in track wants to be the one to say, ‘I got dropped,’ or ‘I got reduced.’ It's all taboo.”

Even so, $30,000 is nothing to sneeze at—especially for a job that’s about pursuing individual goals.

No, it’s not. But not every contract is structured the same way.

Some pay that base amount, no matter what. Other contracts penalize athletes with reductions if, for instance, they don’t finish in the top three in the country in Track & Field News rankings, or if they get injured and can’t race a certain number of times per year.

That’s why numerous Nike athletes seemed to be eagerly seeking racing opportunities of any kind last summer amid the pandemic. Marathoner Amy Cragg raced a 400 meters at an intrasquad meet on July 31, and finished in 90.15 seconds—6:00 pace—presumably to check a box on her contract. On August 7, she ran 800 meters in 3:03.85. The record of those races are in her World Athletics profile.

A Nike spokeswoman, when asked about athletes racing in 2020 to meet contractual obligations, responded: “We do not comment on athlete contracts.”

Time bonuses, once seen as a reliable way to beef up athletes’ base payments, are also becoming less frequent or harder to hit, as shoe technology improves and fast times become more common, according to one agent.

What role do agents play?

For athletes who have never previously had a sponsorship deal, it’s almost impossible to secure one without the help of an agent, who can get in the door at all the major brands.

For American distance runners, there are nine main agents—all men—negotiating the deals (Keflezighi, Josh Cox, Paul Doyle, Ray Flynn, Chris Layne, Dan Lilot, Tom Ratcliffe, Ricky Simms, and Mark Wetmore). Karen Locke, one of the few female agents in track and field, represents a few distance runners among her roster of clients in field events.

Of course, all the prominent agents—who have multiple clients across multiple brands and at various stages of their athletic careers—have data about what athletes are worth. But they have a duty to each one to maintain confidentiality about the specifics of that deal.

Agents bring to their athletes a broad picture of the market and what each might command, providing advice to those considering offers: Yes, this a fair offer, a solid deal. Or no, you can do better.

They also help get athletes into competitive track races like the Diamond League and elsewhere, or into the World Marathon Majors. They can handle travel arrangements to meets and help to make sure records get ratified. Generally, their role is to go to bat for athletes, no matter what they need.

For their services, they take 15 percent of everything an athlete earns: sponsor deals, appearance fees, and prize money, no matter how small the race or winnings.

Agents are supposed to negotiate on behalf of each client individually, but athletes have no idea if that’s happening. Are they being used as part of a package deal? Thrown in at a minimal rate as a thank you to a brand for giving a generous deal to a superstar? Or, on the upside, getting a small appearance fee from a major marathon that they wouldn’t be able to get into on their own, because they have the same agent as a mega-star?

“Agents want to bring in the most money for their combined athletes—if they manage 20 athletes, they’re trying to bring in the maximum money they can across 20 athletes,” one athlete told Runner’s World. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re trying to maximize for each individual. The difference between earning $20,000 a year and $30,000 a year is profound in terms of your ability to actually train as a professional. But it translates into a small amount [$1,500] for the agent.”

Why is the market tricky right now?

The pandemic caused upheaval in marketing budgets. Also, the people who work in marketing at shoe brands can be inexperienced in the running industry, and turnover often runs high at those positions, jeopardizing relationships between athletes and brands that have lasted years.

The marketing budget questions are not limited to running, said Matt Powell, a sports business analyst and vice president for NPD.

“I think brands are taking a more circumspect view of endorsement contracts in general—whether it’s teams, leagues, or individual athletes,” he said. “They’re [questioning whether] they’re getting the return on that investment.”

Nike is rumored to have cut its marketing budget for running, amid layoffs at the company. Nike did not return an email from Runner’s World seeking clarification on the budget or the numbers of runners it currently sponsors.

Although Nike’s superstars are said to be fine and not facing any reductions in their deals, one Nike athlete, a 2016 Olympian, told Runner’s World, “It’s pretty much assumed that everyone is getting less.”

And it’s believed that several of these contracts are for shorter periods of time than they might have otherwise been: through the world championships in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon, instead of through the next Olympics in 2024.

In answer to questions from Runner’s World about True and Droddy—as well as rumors about a new Saucony-sponsored training group—Saucony responded with an emailed statement from Fábio Tambosi, Saucony’s chief marketing officer:

“At Saucony we believe you cannot have a sports brand without the inclusion and authentic connection with athletes. We are excited about the evolution of Sports Marketing as a brand pillar for years to come, and remain committed to building an athlete strategy that aligns with this goal.” 


Good news abounds, too

On the positive side for distance runners, Puma has re-entered the distance running market. Molly Seidel was lured from Saucony to Puma, and Aisha Praught Leer told Women’s Running she signed a “big girl contract” with Puma. Additionally, the company started a group in North Carolina, coached by Alistair Cragg and with three athletes so far.

The shoe company On has also invested heavily, starting a new team in Boulder, Colorado, coached by Dathan Ritzenhein and with athletes like Joe Klecker and Leah Falland.

Keira D’Amato, 36, signed her first pro contract, with Nike, after a string of impressive performances during the pandemic on the track and roads. She has kept her job as a realtor.

Keflezighi sees an opening for apparel brands that don’t have footwear to sponsor more athletes. Women’s apparel company Oiselle has done this for years, and Athleta is now sponsoring Allyson Felix. Could a menswear company be far behind? These arrangements leave athletes free to choose their own running shoes, which can be advantageous as shoe technology advances so quickly.

Why do brands have pro runners anyway?

Beyond the individual dollar amounts in contracts, brands seem to be rethinking what the role of a professional athlete is. Is it to inspire with performances, and hope those performances translate into shoe sales? Or is it to connect with fans on social media and promote product sales that way?

“You have to kind of look at it big picture,” True told Runner’s World. “These companies aren’t giving athletes money for charity; they’re doing it for a marketing investment and they’re looking for a return on their investment. And currently—and this is not ideal, in my mind—you look at the rise of social media and influencers. They are very inexpensive for marketers to go after and they get their products in front of a lot of eyeballs.”

A 2:20 male marathoner who also has a drone and a great Instagram account or YouTube channel might be gaining followers, True said, while a 2:05 marathoner is training hard and devoting his craft toward the next race.

“The average person, they don’t understand that 15-minute difference,” he said. “One historically will cost that company a lot of money. The other does not cost much at all and will get a whole lot more eyeballs on the product. You have to understand that.”

In his nine years with Saucony, True, training on his own in Hanover, New Hampshire, was part of only one ad campaign the company ran. The company preferred to use models for its ads and catalogs.

In February, True ran 27:14 for 10,000 meters, a personal best and faster than the Olympic standard. He wore Nike spikes and a plain yellow singlet. If all goes according to plan, he’ll race the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June and try to make his first team. His wife, professional triathlete Sarah True, is pregnant and due in July. And after that, he’ll run a fall marathon. True intended to debut at the marathon last fall, before the pandemic canceled all the races.

He’s moving ahead and training hard, despite the financial uncertainty. “I would have loved to have spent my entire career with Saucony,” he said. “I very much enjoyed working with them. I’ve been fortunate enough that I have had probably a lot more support than many other people in my position. That’s been nice.”

At this point, he is hoping another company will pick him up to take him through the next few years. “If a company just gave me a bonus structure that is fair for the result, I’d be happy with that,” he said. “It’s not like we’re looking for huge amounts of money. I’m very pragmatic and very realistic. I don’t think you should be paid for potential; I think you should be paid for results.”

(06/13/2021) Views: 5,522 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Elise Cranny (30:47) & Marc Scott (27:10) Win The TEN in California, Lead 10 Athletes Under Olympic Standard

The Bowerman Track Club had a good day as BTC athletes won both races and had four athletes in each race pick up the Olympic standard.

Women’s Race: Cranny Outkicks Schweizer to go to #3 all-time US

The Bowerman Track Club’s Elise Crannyused a 65.11 final lap to kick by teammateKarissa Schweizer to win The TEN tonight in 30:47.42 to Cranny’s 30:47.99 as the two women became the sixth and seventh US runners in history to dip under the 31:00 barrier for 10,000 meters. They are now the third- and fourth-fastest women in US history.

Britain’s Eilish McColgan also broke 31:00 in third in 30:58.94, just off the 30:57.07 personal best that her mom and coach Liz ran to win in Hengelo back in 1991, the year she won the 10,000 world title in Tokyo. 2015 world championship bronze medallist Emily Infeld (31:08.57) as well as Marielle Hall (31:21.78) also left tonight’s race with the 10,000 Olympic standard of 31:25.00. Hall already had it thanks to her 31:05 at Worlds in 2019; for Infeld, 30, her time was a 12-second personal best.

 

The race was very evenly run at almost exactly 75-second-per-lap pace for 7200 meters (22:28) with pacers Vanessa Fraser and then Courtney Frerichs leading through 6400. Four sub-75 laps after 7200 meters winnowed the lead pack down from four to two with three laps to go. Schweizer did all of the leading for the final 6+ laps until Cranny kicked by for the win in the final 50 meters. Cranny ran her last 1600 in 4:38.76 with lap splits of 72.59, 71.70, 68.75, 65.74

Men’s Race: Scott leads five men under Olympic standard

The Bowerman Track Club’s Marc Scott’s hot start to 2021 continued tonight as he ran 27:10.41 to win the men’s 10,000 and move to #2 all-time on the British 10,000 list. Scott wasn’t the only man leaving the race happy as the point of the race was to get the Olympic standard of 27:28.00 and all five men that finished the race were well under the standard.

In his 10,000 debut, Grant Fisher ran 27:11.29 for 2nd, meaning he’s now the 5th-fastest American in history. 12:58 man Woody Kincaid was third in 27:12.78 as Bowerman Track Club athletes swept the top 3 places.

Ben True, currently unsponsored, ran a big pb of 27:14.95 for 4th (previous pb of 27:41.17). And in the shock performance of the night, Harvard grad Kieran Tuntivate of Thailand ran 27:17.14 for 5th, meaning a guy who came into the night with a 13:57.60 5000 pb ran the equivalent of two 13:38’s back-to-back and is now #4 all-time in Asian history.

The race was rabbited perfectly through 8000 meters by Evan Jager and Sean McGorty. The field went through 5000 in 13:45 and McGorty hit 8000 in 21:57.85 (27:22 pace). After McGorty stopped at 8k, Scott did most of the leading although Fisher had the lead with 2 laps to go. Scott immediately picked up the pace and his final 5 laps were 64.18, 65.49, 64.62, 61.18 and 57.13, meaning he covered his last 1600 in 4:08.40 and last 2k in 5:12.58

(02/21/2021) Views: 1,260 ⚡AMP
by Let’s Run

Drew Hunter is out for the IAAF World Championships due to a foot injury

Making Team USATF for the upcoming IAAF World Championships in Athletics was Drew Hunter's biggest career accomplishment. The 21 year-old adidas athlete, who trains in Boulder, Colo., with the Tinman Elite group, scrapped his way to a fifth place finish in the 5000m at the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships in July, despite enduring searing foot pain in the weeks leading to those championships which made running almost impossible. As the third man across the finish line with the World Championships standard, Hunter was going to his first big global championships.

"I just did everything I could," Hunter told Race Results Weekly in a telephone interview last night from Boulder. "It's the hardest team to make and I made it. I earned that spot."

But over the last month, Hunter's foot woes have only gotten worse. Despite countless treatments, cross training, ice, anti-inflammatories and rest, the 2019 USA indoor two-mile champion had to accept that his track season was over. He made the decision with coach Tom Schwartz after a workout he attempted last Friday with Tinman teammate Sam Parsons who is preparing for the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile.

"I warmed up with Sam for his last workout for Fifth Avenue," Hunter recounted. "I'm going to do a hard workout with Sam and see where my foot is at. I did one stride and my foot was on fire. I knew I was done."

Hunter informed USATF of his decision to withdraw from the team. Although the national federation hasn't named a replacement yet, the next athlete in line is Ben True who finished seventh at the USATF Championships and had the World Championships standard at the time of the meet (American athletes were not permitted to chase the standard after the national championships).

Although severely disappointed, Hunter is trying to use this setback as a learning experience. Analyzing his workouts and training schedule with his coach, he has traced the injury --first an inflamed and torn plantar, then a fractured cuboid bone in his right foot-- to what seemed like the most successful period of running of his young career. On June 13, Hunter ran a personal best 7:39.85 for 3000m at the Bislett Games in Oslo. His foot was just a little sore, but his fitness was excellent and he wanted more.

"I felt my planter and it wasn't bad," Hunter explained. "I had the same symptoms before the Oslo Diamond League. Then I ran Olso, then hopped on a flight straight to Boston and did the Boost Games Mile (where he finished second in 3:58)." He continued: "My plantar was sore, but it was very minor. Right after Oslo and Boost Games I ran really well. I looked in my training log and I know where I screwed everything up."

Hunter, who was a miler in high school, had been successful as a 5000m man on a relatively low-mileage training plan. A big training week for him was 80 miles, but wanting to increase his fitness base he ran successive 90-mile weeks after Oslo. That, Hunter said, was the tipping point.

"I ran my two highest mileage weeks ever back to back," Hunter said. He added: "It just kind of slowly got worse and worse."

In his one tune-up race for the USA national meet, Hunter ran the 1500m at the Sunset Tour meeting in Azuza, Calif., on July 9. He clocked a solid 3:37.29, showing that he had enough fitness to run the 5000m at the national meet, but his foot felt awful.

"Then I ran Azuza, and after the race I could barely walk," Hunter said. "My plantar was, like, on fire. After Azuza my training went really inconsistent and really shaky into nationals. I couldn't do long runs, I couldn't do workouts."

Hunter knew the injury was bad, but decided not to get an MRI because part of him didn't want to know how bad it really was. He was committed to the national meet and didn't want to pull out. That's what professional athletes do, he said.

"I didn't get an MRI before and that was intentional because I knew something was wrong. I knew I had a plantar problem, but I didn't want to know how severe because I was all-in on running nationals." He continued: "So I just worked with my soft tissue therapist and just managed it."

Ironically, by taking so many steps to protect his plantar Hunter actually caused the cuboid fracture. The planter problem is mostly resolved, he said, but the the cuboid fracture needs more time to heal.

(09/04/2019) Views: 2,377 ⚡AMP
by David Monti

Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha won the 5,000 easily at Payton Jordan invitational last night clocking 13:10 along with other top performances

The big names at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford's Cobb Track and Field stadium in Palo Alto, Calif. all got wins last night. 

Clayton Murphy won the 1500 (3:37.59) comfortably, Jessica Hull won the 1500 (4:12.08).

 Allie Ostrander the steeple, Jenny Simpson got the win (15:21) over Rachel Schneider in the 5,000.

Yomif Kejelcha won the 5,000 easily (13:10 for him, 13:17 for 2nd) and Sifan Hassan’s 10,000m debut (31:18) was a success.

Ben True won the 10k (27:52) but no one got the Worlds standard.

New Balance professional Jenny Simpson won the women's 5,000 meters in her outdoor season opener in 15:21.12.

Simpson, who last ran an outdoor 5,000 in August of 2013 in Switzerland in a personal-best 14:56.26 after capturing the USATF title that year, was competing at Payton Jordan for the first time since winning the 1,500 in 2010 in 4:08.11.

Simpson ascended to No. 3 in the world this year in the 5,000, also achieving the IAAF World Championships standard.

(05/03/2019) Views: 1,801 ⚡AMP

Ben True, Justyn Knight and Ben Flanagan, Two three and four at B.A.A 5K

Justyn Knight was third Saturday at the B.A.A 5K in a time of 13:46. He was third in a very respectable field, losing to Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia (13:42) who’s an Olympic bronze medallist in the 5,000m and Ben True, one of the best American distance athletes on the roads.

True was sixth at the 2015 World Championships in the 5,000m.

After what Knight describes as a lack-lustre indoor season, he’s had a very solid opener. Knight only ran one race in the 2019 indoor season and says he wasn’t in his ideal race shape through the winter.

“My indoor season was what everyone saw, I was out of shape. I knew I wasn’t as fit as I would’ve like to be, but I still wanted to race and see where I was at relative to my fellow competitors. I wasn’t ready to run fast then, but I feel I’m in a completely different spot now.”

Training partner Ben Flanagan was fourth in Saturday’s race just behind Justyn in 13:49. Flanagan and Knight train together with the Reebok Boston Track Club. Knight’s next race will be Payton Jordan on May 2 in Palo Alto, California.

(04/13/2019) Views: 2,792 ⚡AMP

Ben Flanagan and Justyn Knight will be facing a very deep field at the B.A.A 5K race on Saturday

Ben Flanagan and Justyn Knight will both race the B.A.A 5K on Saturday. They will face a very deep field including World Championship top six finisher Ben True and 2019 USATF Indoor 2-mile champion Drew Hunter.

Both Flanagan and Knight run for the Reebok Boston Track Club out of Charlottesville, Virginia.

We asked Flanagan and Knight how they thought they would do if on Saturday they were told they had to run a marathon instead of a 5K. Flanagan joked that, “I mean, I could finish it.” He continued, “I think I would try and run around 5:30 miles for as long as possible.

I would hope to finish around the 2:30’s. It’s so hard to say.” Flanagan hasn’t done a long run longer than 14 miles recently and says that the marathon is a distance he really respects. “It would be impossible to go out there and do a good job without months of preparation.”

Knight took a slightly more aggressive approach saying he would aim for high teens or low twenties. “Oh my gosh, I mean I hope that I’d run between 2:18 or 2:20 but I don’t even know what a minute means in the context of a marathon.”

Knight only ran one race in the 2019 indoor season and says he wasn’t in his ideal race shape through the winter. “My indoor season was what everyone saw, I was out of shape. I knew I wasn’t as fit as I would’ve like to be, but I still wanted to race and see where I was at relative to my fellow competitors. I wasn’t ready to run fast then, but I feel I’m in a completely different spot now.” Knight says he always races to win and that’s the mindset he has heading into the weekend.

Both runners are starting their 2019 outdoor seasons with the World Championships in mind. Neither Flanagan or Knight are certain of which distance they would ideally qualify at, but they know they’d like to be there.

(04/10/2019) Views: 2,372 ⚡AMP

Belay Tilahun of Ethiopia and Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya won their New York City racing debuts in the open division

Tilahun, a 24-year-old member of West Side Runners, recorded his surprise victory in a time of 1:02:10 with an exciting kick through the final two miles. 

“I was feeling quite cold at the beginning, but as I was warming up, I began to feel better. After about 15 kilometers, I was confident that I could win. So I used the finishing kick that I had to win,” Tilahun said. 

Eritrea’s Daniel Mesfun finished second in 1:02:16 after leading for the majority of the race, while U.S. Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo took third in 1:02:19 in his half-marathon debut. 

A record eight American men finished in the top 10 in the open division, as Chelimo was followed by Jared Ward, Noah Droddy, Brogan Austin, Tim Ritchie, John Raneri, Parker Stinson, and Ben True, respectively.

 In the women’s open division, Jepkosgei, the half marathon world record-holder, won her first-ever race in the United States on a solo run to the finish in a time of 1:10:07. The world championship silver medalist in the distance became the sixth woman from Kenya to win the event, and the first to do so since 2014. “This season I am preparing to debut in the marathon, and this was a great half marathon to see how my body feels,” Jepkosgei said.

Fellow Kenyan Mary Ngugi came through the finish line one minute later in 1:11:07 to take second place, 15-hundredths of a second ahead of last year’s champion, Ethiopia’s Buze Diriba.

Emma Bates, the 2018 USATF Marathon champion, was the top American in the women’s open division, taking fourth place in 1:11:13. She was followed by 2018 Boston Marathon winner Des Linden in fifth place in 1:11:22.

(03/19/2019) Views: 2,520 ⚡AMP

Canadian marathon record holder Cam Levins and 2015 Pan Am Games medallist Sasha Gollish are set to run United Airlines NYC Half

The 2019 United Airlines NYC Half-Marathon has a truly star-studded lineup. In the men’s field, Levins is joined by Americans Ben True and Paul Chelimo. Chelimo is an Olympic silver medallist over 5,000m and Sunday will be his half-marathon debut.

Chelimo told Let’sRun on Monday that he’s less concerned about time, and aiming for a spot on the podium. True was sixth at the 2015 World Championships in the 5,000m and is the 2018 NYC Half defending champion. 

Levins is targeting the London Marathon at the end of April where he will race against world record holder Eliud Kipchoge. “I’m very excited to meet him, he’s an inspiration to marathoners everywhere, but if he goes out on world record pace I’d hardly even call it the same race.”

Levins’ half-marathon personal best is a 1:02:15 from the World Half-Marathon Championships last March in Spain, which is less than a minute off of the current Canadian half-marathon record of 1:01:28 set in 1999 by Jeff Schiebler. It would take a very strong run for Levins to knock down this mark, but it doesn’t seem out of the question considering the strength of Sunday’s field. 

On the women’s side, 2:32 marathoner Sasha Gollish is joined by 2018 Boston champion Des Linden, half-marathon world record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei and two-time marathon world champion Edna Kiplagat. 

Gollish’s personal best is from 2018 World Half-Marathon Championships where she was the first Canadian across the line in 1:11:52.

(03/13/2019) Views: 2,788 ⚡AMP

Olympian Leonard Korir is aiming to become only the fourth man to win the Gate River Run three years in a row

The two-time defending champion headlines the elite men’s field entering Saturday’s 42nd annual Gate River Run through downtown Jacksonville, the national 15-kilometer championship for USA Track and Field.

With one more victory, the 32-year-old Leonard Korir can join a select club as winners of three straight men’s titles. Only Todd Williams (1994-96), Meb Keflezighi (2001-04) and Ben True (2013-15) have previously accomplished the feat.

Race director Doug Alred said he’s hoping to see a tight contest, and he feels the odds this year are good.

“It’s not that exciting when one person just runs away with it,” he said. “If the leaders can just stay together onto the Hart Bridge, that would be great.”

So far, that’s been the case in Korir’s past two victories. His 2017 win was the event’s closest finish ever, edging Shadrack Kipchirchir to the finish line by a fraction of a second.

Despite his record in Jacksonville and his international achievements at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, there’s reason to believe that Korir is far from a lock to repeat Saturday.

Unlike 2017 and 2018, he did not win the USATF cross country championships, held this time in Tallahassee on Feb. 2. Instead, he took third, while Kipchirchir beat him out by five seconds.

In addition to Kipchirchir, 2016 champion Stanley Kebenei returns, coming off a fifth-place finish in the cross country finals.

(03/08/2019) Views: 2,580 ⚡AMP

Defending Champions Ben True, Buze Diriba, Ernst van Dyk, and Manuela Schär will Return for defending titles at 2019 United Airlines NYC Half

The 2019 United Airlines NYC Half will feature a star-studded field featuring nine Olympians leading 25,000 runners from Brooklyn to Manhattan in the first race of the 2019 NYRR Five Borough-Series.

The elite field will be headlined by 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden and U.S. Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo, who will make his half marathon debut, as well as all four defending event champions: Ben True, Buze Diriba, Ernst van Dyk and Manuela Schär. 

In addition to Linden, the Americans will be represented by two-time TCS New York City Marathon top-10 finisher Allie Kieffer, USATF champion and Pan American Games medalist Kellyn Taylor, 2018 Boston Marathon runner-up Sarah Sellers, and 2018 USATF Marathon champion Emma Bates.

This year, runners will begin their journey on Prospect Park’s Center Drive before taking the race onto Brooklyn’s streets.

For the second year in a row, the course will take runners over the Manhattan Bridge and up the FDR Drive before a crosstown dash on 42nd Street and a turn north on 7th Avenue, through Times Square, and into Central Park.

This year’s less hilly Central Park route finishes just north of Tavern on the Green and will feature a shorter post-race walk-off for runners to exit the park and start their celebrations.

(02/22/2019) Views: 3,084 ⚡AMP

Paul Chelimo is running the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon, his debut at the distance

Paul Chelimo, 5,000-meter silver medalist at the 2016 Olympics, is making his debut in the half marathon distance. Last fall, Chelimo won the USATF 5K championships in Central Park in a course-record time of 13:45.

The 14th running of the event will take runners on a 13.1-mile tour through New York neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan and past iconic city landmarks.

“I’m really excited about this new challenge in my career,” Chelimo told the New York Road Runners in a press release. “I’ve been doing longer runs than ever in my training this winter, and am ready to show the long distance guys a thing or two on March 17.”

Chelimo will face some hefty competition in the race. Ben True, who won last year’s race in 1:02:39, is returning to defend his title. The field will also include four-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman, 2018 USA Marathon champion Brogan Austin, and U.S. Olympian Jared Ward, who finished as the top American finisher at the 2018 NYC Marathon.

“I am ready to show the long distance guys a thing or two on March 17. I have unfinished business on the track, and then I’m looking forward to making a debut in the TCS New York City Marathon in the near future.”

(02/21/2019) Views: 2,747 ⚡AMP

Jack Robertson continues to amaze, he wins B2B by nearly a minute in extreme humidity

NZL’s Jake Robertson destroyed the competition at the 21st Beach to Beacon 10k Saturday August 4.  His 27:37 is the 3rd fastest ever in Cape Elizabeth. Stephen Sambu was 2nd in 28:26, 2016 champ and Maine native Ben True was a close third clocking 28 :29. Sandra Chebet won the women’s race in 31:20, Ababel Yeshaneh (Eth) 2nd 31:25, Molly Huddle 3rd 31:40. Very humid. Jake Robertson as been training in Kenya for the last few years and continues to run some amazing times.  More than 6,500 runners participated in Maine's biggest road race, which was the brainchild of Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson. Samuelson, a Maine native, won the Boston Marathon in 1979 and went on to win it again in 1983. She took gold in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, the first time the marathon event was open to women. She created the 6.2-mile race that starts at Crescent Beach State Park and ends at Fort Williams, home to the Portland Head Light. It follows her old training route growing up in Cape Elizabeth.     (Sat 4  (08/04/2018) Views: 2,111 ⚡AMP

Ben True was the first American to win the Beach to Beacon and wants to do it again

Ben True, who became the first American runner to win the TD Beach to Beacon in 2016 and finished second in 2017, will return to the race this year. True, a North Yarmouth native and Greely High graduate, leads the men’s elite field for the Aug. 4 race, which was announced by race officials Monday. True is joined in the men’s field by two-time Olympian Lopez Lomong, 2012 Beach to Beacon winner Stanley Biwott, and Jake Robertson, who set the New Zealand record in the marathon earlier this year. This year’s top contenders will join a field of more than 6,500 runners who will wind along the fast, relatively flat course that begins near Crescent Beach State Park on Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth and ends in Fort Williams Park near Portland Head Light. (07/17/2018) Views: 1,813 ⚡AMP

America's Ben True and Ethiopia's Buze Diriba are back to Defend Their Titles at BAA 5K Saturday

The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) announced Monday the elite field for the BAA 5K and Invitational Mile, to be held on Saturday, April 14 two days before the Boston Marathon. New Hampshire’s Ben True will return to Boston looking to earn his fifth BAA. 5K title, while Ethiopia’s Buze Diriba will defend her 2017 crown. Canada’s Nicole Sifuentes and American Drew Hunter will lead world-class fields at the tenth annual BAA Invitational Mile. A $39,900 prize purse will be distributed to the top finishers of the BAA 5K, while a $14,500 prize purse will be available in the BAA Invitational Mile. True is a veteran and New England favorite on the roads of Boston, having broken the American record twice at the BAA 5K in both 2015 and 2017. A year ago, True timed 13:20 en route to his fifth win in seven years. Coming off a win at the NYC Half in March, True will drop down in distance and face a tough field that includes fellow Americans Eric Jenkins, Tommy Curtin, and Scott Fauble. Jenkins, a native of New Hampshire, is a two-time NCAA champion and was runner-up at last year’s USA Championships 5000m on the track. (04/10/2018) Views: 2,054 ⚡AMP

Ben True is the first American to ever win the NY City Half Marathon

Ben True out sprints Dathan Ritzenhein to win the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon this morning. Running his first half marathon Ben posted a 1:02:39 beating 35-year-old Ritzenhein who finished three seconds back.

True said after the race that he questioned whether he could hang with Ritzenhein after the 35-year-old made his move. It wasn’t until the last mile of the race when True, 32, felt confident that he could prevail.

“When Dathan pulled away, probably around mile 10, I wasn’t quite sure I was going to be able to reel him back in,” True said.

“And even when I started reeling him back in, I didn’t know if I was then going to be able to get around him. It really wasn’t until the very end that I was like, ‘All right, I can get this.’”

The real challenge of the day was the weather, 29 degrees and headwinds up to 14mph. The women’s race was also a sprint to the finish. Ethiopian Buze Diriba (1:12:23) out kicking America’s Emily Sisson by just one second.

True's first place finish in the men's open division represents the first time an American man won the open division in the event's history.

(03/18/2018) Views: 2,811 ⚡AMP

The best Half Marathon time in the last 12-months on US soil is 1:00:04. Can that change Sunday?

Kenyan Olympic 5000m champion Vivian Cheruiyot said that she expects to run a fast time at the New York Half marathon on Sunday. The elite men's field looks strong. Kenyans Wilson Chebet (59:15) and Stephen Sambu (60:41), Ethiopia's Teshome Mekonnen (60:27) with Dathan Ritzenhein (60:00), Abdi Abdirahman (60:29) leading the American charge and also Ben True who will be running his first half. But it is the women's race that has the real top names. Cheruiyot, 34, is stepping up her campaign in marathon after graduating from the track competition and will be using the race in New York as part of her preparations for the London marathon on April 22. "It is always a pleasure to race against some of the world's best runners because it brings out the best in you. I know the organizers in New York have assembled a big team of elite runners and I am excited to run the New York Half Marathon this Sunday,” she said before her departure on Thursday night. She will face Ethiopians Mamitu Daska and Buze Diriba and her compatriot Betsy Saina. (03/16/2018) Views: 2,128 ⚡AMP