Richard Kiplagat and Fasil Bizuneh are among the elite field in Sunday’s NYC Half Marathon. Although he might not have the fastest half marathon personal best of the field, surely Richard will be the leading cat expert among the top finishers.
Fasil and Jason will be on hand for a question-and-answer session following the July 5 screening of the Running Film Festival, which will be held in Eugene, Oregon during the Olympic track trials. Jason and Fasil are among the subjects of Born To Run: A Tale of Endurance, which will be excerpted at the festival.
If you’re lucky enough to be in Eugene during the trials, come by and say hi. If you buy your tickets before June 15, you can win VIP passes and a massive flat-screen HDTV.
More info at the festival’s site. A trailer of trailers on the Running Times site.
Lots of fast times last night at Ridgemont High Stanford University. The KIMbia take:
Not sure why, but the men’s A 1500m race was split in two sections. Matt Tegenkamp won his section in 3:40.04 over, among others, Chris Lukezic. Chris Solinsky was in the other section and ran 3:43.59 in a race that Kevin Sullivan won in 3:39.75. Now, 3:43 might not seem all that impressive, but given that Chris fell during the race and got gashed up similar to last summer in Stockholm, we think it’s pretty darn good.
In the fast heat of the 5,000m, James Carney lowered his PR to 13:31.62 in his first track race of the year. Tim Nelson also ran well, posting a 13:38.78. Simon Bairu ran 13:46.75 in the same race.
Fasil Bizuneh won the glass-half-full/glass-half-empty award in the fast heat of the 10,000m. He smashed his former PR by running 27:50.48. But oh, that .48 of a second, as the Olympic A standard is 27:50.00.
Videos and full results here.
Then Kimbia would have taken the team title. (Well, if scoring was 4 deep.)
This morning in Central Park, Jason Hartmann, James Carney, Fasil Bizuneh and Tim Nelson took 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th, respectively, at the U.S. 8K championships. Jason ran 22:48 to finish 6 seconds behind winner Jorge Torres and Andrew Carlson. James and Fasil were also in the lead pack that went through 5K in 14:10. James finished in 22:53, Fasil in 23:03.
Tim was the top finisher from the chase pack, closing well after splitting 14:22 at 5K to finish in 23:05.
Jason Hartmann returns to action on Saturday at the Gate River Run 15 in Jacksonville, Florida. The national championship will be his first race since November’s Olympic Marathon Trials, where he was 10th in a personal best of 2:15:27. Fasil Bizuneh will also race Gate River.
What he’s been up to since the Marathon Trials: After the Marathon Trials, I took some time off. Being so amped going into the marathon, I felt pretty burnt out after the race. I escaped to Boulder, Colorado and spent about five weeks at the infamous Fightclub, hanging out and really taking my time to get back into running. I love being in Boulder, but I found it difficult this time trying to adjust to the altitude. But, both mentally and physically, it gave me a break from the strict lifestyle I was living leading up to the Trials. After the New Year, I came back to Eugene , put my head down, and really started training again.
How his recovery from the Trials went: My recovery was not great after the Trials. I was so exhausted by the training and the event itself, that I really needed a break. Like I said, I went to Boulder and it was not easy getting back into running shape because of the altitude. I remember when I first got to Boulder I was out for an hour run and picked it up just a little bit the last mile. I felt as though I was really running fast, and I was definitely trying to run fast, but when I got to the mile mark, I looked at my watch, and it read 5:40. So as frustrating as it was, my body was obviously telling me that I was not yet quite recovered. So I just stuck to putting in some miles with with Eduardo Torres, Jorge Torres and James Carney (for some runs) and didn’t really focus on hard workouts.
Goals for Gate River and the 8K in Central Park the following week: My first goal for both weekends is to compete hard. That is always my number one goal when I line up. No matter if you feel in good shape or bad shape you can always compete. Secondly, I would like to get a good read on my fitness. I have been in a bit of a foxhole since the New Year just focusing on training hard. And now, it’s important to see where I am at and to compete hard.
Who he’s been training with: I have been running by myself most of the time. About four times a week I run with my dog Maximus. Dathan Ritzenhein and I get together every so often but he has been kind of banged up with his IT band. I know we haven’t been able to get together as much as either of us would like.
Gate River and the Central Park 8K are springboards to: the track season. I am really trying to get away from the marathon training for the time being and focus solely on the Olympic Trials 10k here in Eugene on July 4th.
And, of course, his height: Compared to everyone else I run against I do tend to stick out. But when I used to play basketball back in the day, I was generally the short one. So I guess I can relate to these shorter guys out here.
James Carney placed sixth at yesterday’s U.S. Cross Country Championships to earn a spot on the team for next month’s World Cross Country Championships, to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 30.
Carney ran 35:56 for the 12-kilometer course in San Diego’s Mission Bay Park. Carney’s former training partner, Dathan Ritzenhein, won in 35:03. On the last lap, Carney was closing fast on Olympic Marathon Trials champion Ryan Hall, who placed fifth in 35:50.
Fasil Bizuneh placed 16th in 36:49. In the women’s 8K, Nicole Aish had an off day and finished 27th in 28:43.
Nicole Aish, Fasil Bizuneh and James Carney will take on the rest of the best U.S. cross country runners at San Diego’s Mission Bay Park on Saturday. We’ll have post-race reflections from them here this weekend. In the meantime, a few pre-race thoughts from Fasil and James.
What are your main goals for the race?
Fasil: I am going to get in there and mix it up with some of the best runners in the country and give myself the best possible chance to win my first national title.
James: Be assertive and aggressive. When the dust settles…hopefully I’ll be in the top 9.
If you make the team, will you run Worlds?
Fasil: I definitely plan on running Worlds after I qualify for the team on Saturday.
James: If I make the team, I would like to to make the trip to Scotland.
Are you in specific cross country shape, or just good general racing shape? (Or do you think there’s much of a difference between the two?)
Fasil: I don’t see too much of a difference between the two; nevertheless, I feel very strong and ready to compete over 12K.
James: When you’re fit, you’re fit. It doesn’t matter much if its a cross country course, a track, or a road race. I’m in base phase right now. I’m strong as hell, but maybe not that sharp yet.
The course in San Diego seems pretty straightforward. What’s the craziest cross country course you’ve raced on?
Fasil: When I ran World Jr XC in Belfast back in 1999, it was very muddy. There was a hill where you were running up a sidways slope, and people were sliding off that thing like crazy. I think my teamate Adam Tenforde fell three times and was covered in mud from head to toe at the end of it.
James: The XC trials in Houston 2003 was pretty crazy. You would sink up mid shin into the mud. However, I’d like to run Cinque Mulini in Italy sometime.
KIMbia’s newest athlete, James Carney, won the 2008 US Half Marathon Championships in Houston, Texas on Sunday. Carney, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Division II Millersville University, set the tempo from the beginning, cruising along at 4:45 pace, breaking the tape at 1:02:21, 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Jason Lehmkuhle. It was Carney’s first US Championship and a positive indicator for things to come. Last spring he ran 27:43 for 10,000 meters at the Cardinal Invite - a time that used to raise eyebrows, but has less impact today - and at this year’s US Olympic Marathon Trials, his debut marathon, Carney finished 14th in 2:16:54. In that race he finished one spot and seven seconds behind KIMbia’s other new member, Fasil Bizuneh. (Fasil trained with KIMbia’s marathon group in Boulder leading up to the US Olympic Marathon Trials, but was not represented by KIMbia at the time.) Fasil finished 2nd at last year’s US Half Marathon Championship with a similar time to Carney’s - 1:02:20. Both Fasil and Carney plan to run the 10,000 meters at this year’s US Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon.
In the women’s race, Kate O’Neill continued her impressive move to the roads with a 13-second victory over Desiree Davilla. KIMbia’s Nicole Aish had a great race, finishing 4th in 1:12:30. Elva Dryer, last year’s winner and this year’s favorite, did not finish.
