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Articles tagged #Joseph Gray
Today's Running News
World-class runner Allie Kieffer keeps a low racing profile here in Austin, but when she does race, she wins.
A last-minute entry in this year's 3M Half Marathon, Kieffer took advantage of ideal running conditions Sunday morning — mid-40s and clear — to add another victory to her Austin racing résumé, while Joseph Gray, a World Mountain Running champion, topped the men’s field.
Even though Kieffer has a perfect record in Austin, Sunday's 3M win was somewhat of a redemption for her. Running in the highly competitive Barron Collier Companies Naples Half Marathon last week in Florida, she went off course, losing her lead and placing fourth.
“I took a wrong turn at the Naples Half, so I couldn’t cross the line first,” Kieffer said. “So today I was thinking, ‘I want to win.' I was feeling pretty competitive.
“I wasn’t intending to race today,” she added. “Initially I was just going to pace it with a friend, but I couldn’t find him at the start.”
Kieffer took off from the starting line on Stonelake Boulevard in North Austin at a brisk pace of 5 minutes, 52 seconds per mile, with Karen Bertasso-Hughes and Shannon Gaden about 50 yards back. Kieffer hit the 5-kilometer split in 18:14, with Bertasso-Hughes just nine seconds behind.
The 3M race is known for its “downhill to downtown” course, and Kieffer worked every downhill. By the 10K mark (36:31) on Great Northern Boulevard, she had a 23-second lead on Bertasso-Hughes.
“When I took the lead around 3 miles, I just didn’t look back,” Kieffer said.
She stepped on the gas after the 15K mark (9.3 miles) on Shoal Creek Boulevard, dropping the pace to 5:50 a mile, gaining more than a minute ahead of Bertasso-Hughes in the process. Kieffer crossed the finish line on San Jacinto Boulevard in 1:16:24, leaving Bertasso-Hughes and Gaden to battle for second. Gaden prevailed 1:17:00 to 1:17:49. Caroline Brooks came in fourth in 1:17:53, with Elizabeth Laseter rounding out the top five in 1:18:04.
“Allie was so far ahead that we were just racing for second place,” said Gaden, a newcomer to Austin by way of Denver. “I was able to catch her (Bertasso-Hughes) around 10 miles.”
“I’m really happy. … I felt surprisingly good. I needed to win this race,” said Kieffer, who plans to run the Ascension Seton Austin Half Marathon next month and is looking to run an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time next fall at the BMW Berlin Marathon.
The men’s race featured a stirring duel between Colorado Springs’ Gray and Austin’s Mitch Ammons, a 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier.
Gray, Ammons and University of Texas ace Kobe Yepez formed the lead pack in the early miles, passing through the 5K mark together in 15:17. But after that it was a two-man race as Gray and Ammons pulled away. Ammons took the lead at 10K, passing the mark in 30:33, just six seconds ahead of Gray. But by 15K (45:52) they were stride for stride, with 2019 3M champ Michael Morris moving into third place ahead of Yepez.
In a sprint to the finish line, Gray edged Ammons 1:04:23 to 1:04:27. Morris, the track and cross-country head coach at San Marcos High School, took third in 1:06:07, with Al Maeder fourth in 1:06:31 and Yepez fifth in 1:06:51.
“This was my first race of the year. Actually my first race in a while, so I wanted to be smart and run a progressive effort,” said Gray, a dominant figure in Colorado’s mountain running scene. “Mitch is a strong runner and made it an honest effort.”
Approximately 4,500 runners finished the race, the fifth in the Austin Distance Challenge. The sixth and final event is the Austin Marathon on Feb. 19.
“I found out two minutes before the race that there was a champion mountain runner entered, who’d gone 1:03 for the half-marathon," Ammons said. "We were yo-yoing back and forth the whole way. He’d pull ahead on the uphills, and I’d lead on the downhills. It was a lot of fun. My time was a personal best for me by more than a minute, and I wouldn’t have run this fast if it weren’t for Joe. He pushed me a lot. I really, really tried to catch him on the final straight. I gave it everything I had.”
(01/23/2023) Views: 737 ⚡AMPWelcome to the 3M Half Marathon! This year join over 7,000 fellow runners in Austin, Texas to run a personal best at the 3M Half Marathon. 3M Half is a fun and fast stand-alone half marathon boasting one of the fastest half marathon courses in the country. You’ll enjoy a point-to-point course with mostly downhill running that takes you past...
more...Joseph Gray, Lee Troop, Deborah Conley, Lyndon Ellefson, Alan Lind, and Peter de la Cerda will be inducted into the Colorado Running Half of Fame. The Colorado Running Hall of Fame recognizes Coloradans for remarkable achievement and influence on the sport of distance running. Each year nominees are accepted, and in January the inductee class is selected and notified. In February the class is announced. The year 2020 forced the delay of honoring the Class of 2020 in May 2020. As a result, this year we will celebrate the six 2020 honorees plus three additional members will be selected for 2021.
Joseph Gray is an American world champion runner who competes mostly in trail, mountain and snowshoe races. He won the World Mountain Running Championships in 2016 and 2019. He is the first Black American to not only make the Team USA World Mountain Running Team, but also the first Black American to win the USA National Mountain Running Championships and the World Mountain Running Championships.
Joseph has been a 31-time Team USA national team member. He is the only Black American to be part of the U.S. Mountain Running Team at any level. He is an 18-Time USA National Champion and is a 5-time Xterra World Trail Running Champion.
Lee Troop started out as a long-distance track runner and represented Australia in the 5000m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and attended his first World Athletics Championships the following year. He was a 4X national 10,000m champion and broke the Australian record in the 5000m in 1999. He competed for Australia two times in the World Cross Country Championships and moved up to the marathon distance in 1999 with a 2:11 performance.
Deborah Conley is a Colorado native, and former University of Colorado runner. She was a member of the first women’s Cross Country team to win a conference title. As a master runner, she has been on multiple Cross Country teams that have medaled at USATF Cross Country National Championships and USATF National Club Cross Country Championships.
Peter de la Cerda lives with his wife and five children in Alamosa, CO, where he teaches 7th grade social studies and has coached at Alamosa High School (15 years XC and 7 years track). He is a 2X NCAA Individual National Champion (5000m Indoor ’93, 10,000m Outdoor ’93) and 11X All American.
Alan Lind’s 47 year career in running began at Poudre HS where he achieved a 13th place finish at the ‘76 Colorado State Cross Country meet and 6th in the mile at the State Track meet in the spring of ‘77. At Colorado State University he lettered all four years and ran his 1st marathon in 1978 and followed this with a 2:37 effort in 1980 and ran 2:26 in the next three years.
Lyndon Ellefson lived an adventurous life ending tragically in mid stride as he fell through a glacier crevasse near Cervinia, Italy, 1998. He was there as a member of the original, international Fila Skyrunners Team and was on a high-altitude training run in preparation for the Skyrunning Marathon.
(01/19/2021) Views: 1,317 ⚡AMPThe USATF Mountain, Ultra, Trail (MUT) Council is proud to announce members of Team USATF scheduled to compete at the 15th WMRA Long Distance Mountain Running Championships June 24, in Karpacz, Poland.
The double loop course covers 36 kilometers (22.4 miles) with 6890 feet of ascending and descending. The route will challenge the five women and five men of Team USATF by climbing and descending the peak of Mt. ŚNIEŻKA twice.
Mt. ŚNIEŻKA rises just under one mile above sea level at 5250 feet. The top three US finishers will score for the team in each gender division.
The 10 members this year’s team range in age from 21 to 36. The women’s Team USATF is comprised of Addie Bracy, Ashley Brasovan, Renee Metivier, Sandi Nypaver and Kathryn Ann Ross. The men of Team USATF will be Anthony Costales, Joseph Gray, Tatye Pollmann, David Sinclair and Andy Wacker.
(05/03/2018) Views: 4,262 ⚡AMP