On what proved a gruelling day for all competitors, Kimbia athletes Andrew Bumbalough and Shalane Flanagan battled to strong performances at the Boston Marathon today, Bumbalough turning in a superb performance to finish fifth in 2:19:52, less than four minutes behind race winner Yuki Kawauchi and just over a minute off a podium finish.

Flanagan, meanwhile, endured a rough time in the conditions, with freezing temperatures, driving rain and a constant headwind hammering the runners throughout. In a race won by fellow American Desi Linden in 2:39:54, Flanagan battled to seventh place in 2:46:31.

“It was basically the nastiest conditions you could imagine running in,” said Bumbalough. “I made the decision early not to go with the lead group, it just felt a little quick for the day and we had a nice solid group of guys that stayed together for a long time. I’m really happy with the decision I made to run a pace I knew I could run for the day and see what that got me. I never anticipated how much the front group would blow up but I made the exact decision I wanted to.

“We run in pretty tough conditions in Portland, but it’s never like this. This was a deluge, an atmospheric river. I knew it was going to be tough. I didn’t realize it would be as tough as it was, but I was ready.”

It was Bumbalough’s first time cracking the top five at a major marathon. “Fifth place is great, I beat dudes I had no business beating,” he said.

His interview with Letsrun.com afterwards:

In the women’s race, reigning New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan endured a tough day at the office, the Marblehead native forced to make a quick pitstop early in the race to use the portable bathroom. She soon rejoined the lead pack, but when the field began to splinter in the latter of the race, Flanagan was soon detached. Nonetheless, on a day where more than half of the elite fields failed to finish, Flanagan drew on all her resolve to reach the finish at Boylston Street.

Linden had told Flanagan early in the race that she planned to drop out, but she nonetheless helped Flanagan to rejoin the pack after her bathroom break. “She said: ‘I’ll help you get back to the pack,'” said Flanagan. “I like Des and I don’t mind talking to my friends when I’m racing. I think she wanted me to know if she could help me out, if she was going to drop out, she was willing to help me.”

On her end result, Flanagan said: “It was good, but not what I wanted. Boston is known as being a magical place, but you never know what you’re going to get. There’s nothing easy about Boston.”

Men’s result 

Women’s result

In his debut at the distance, Andrew Bumbalough ran 2:13:58 to place 25th at the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday. The race was won in an event record of 2:03:58 by former world record-holder Wilson Kipsang.

Andrew met his goal of having his first marathon be a controlled learning experience. Before the race, he had said he’d be happy with a time between 2:11 and 2:14. He passed halfway in 1:06:15, then slowed over the second half, but never disastrously so. Mission accomplished!

Andrew’s road to a marathon start line was longer than originally planned. His 1:02:04 half marathon PR in March 2015 was to be the first step in a build-up to the Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2016. Soon after that race, however, Andrew began to be plagued by what was ultimately diagnosed as a sports hernia, which required surgery in the summer of 2015. In 2016 he missed more time owing to a sacral stress fracture. He resumed running last July, and in November showed he was the Andrew Bumbalough with a 28:06 track 10,000.

Andrew now plans to recover from Tokyo before building for a summer track season.

Serious note though. Truly thankful to be back at it. There was some good and bad out there but fortunately it never got ugly!

— Andrew Bumbalough (@abumbalough) February 26, 2017

Ganbatte, Andrew Bumbalough!

Andrew will make his marathon debut on February 26 at the Tokyo Marathon, one of the six races that constitute the World Marathon Majors.

“I’m not looking to knock it out of the park in my first at-bat in the marathon,” Andrew says. “I plan to run conservatively, to have a good experience my first time out.”

One reason Andrew chose Tokyo for his debut is that there are often several runners aiming for the 2:10-2:12 range that Andrew has targeted for his debut. The race’s Japanese contingent alone includes five men with PRs of 2:10 or 2:11.

Andrew returned to top form last fall, capped by a 28:09.35 10,000 at the Hachioji Long Distance meet in Tokyo, Japan, on November 26. The performance, less than 13 seconds off his personal best for the distance, showed that Andrew had overcome a year and a half of injuries and setbacks that kept him from competing in last summer’s Olympic Trials.

To date, Andrew’s longest race is a half marathon. He ran his personal best of 1:02:05 to finish fifth overall and top American at the NYC Half in March 2015. He’s now doing altitude training in Flagstaff, Arizona, to tackle twice the distance.

On November 26, Andrew Bumbalough ran 28:09.35 for 10,000 meters, less than 13 seconds off his personal best, at the Hachioji Long Distance meet in Tokyo, Japan. A late-in-the-year near-PR on the track is notable for pretty much anyone, but for Andrew, who’d spent much of the previous year and a half injured, the performance was even more remarkable. It also gives him a huge confidence boost as he eyes his debut marathon in 2017.

“I was really pleased with the way it went,” Andrew says about his first track race in two years. “I thought 28:00 was possible on a good day, and I felt really good through a little past halfway. My lack of complete fitness caught up with me the last two miles, especially once they picked up the pace.” The race was won by Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi, the world junior record holder at 1500 meters, in 27:33.94.

“Just the fact that I’m talking about being near my PR after such a long layoff is really exciting,” Andrew says.

Andrew’s year-plus injury woes started, as they sometimes do, at another time when he was in great shape. In March 2015, he ran a PR of 1:02:04 at the NYC Half Marathon to place fifth overall and first American. The race was intended to be the first step in a slow build-up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials last February. Instead, once he started his transition to training for outdoor track, he was bothered by what was ultimately diagnosed as a sports hernia. In July 2015, he had surgery to repair the small tear that extended from his lower abdomen to his upper thigh. He didn’t run for three months.

When Andrew resumed training, it was time to start gearing up for 2016. “If it had been any other year but an Olympic year, I would have taken a slower approach coming back,” he says. Rushing his comeback while not yet feeling like his old self mechanically led to a sacral stress fracture. “By late spring it was obvious I wouldn’t be running the Olympic Trials, so I decided to stop and get healthy,” Andrew says.

He began running again in July, and did only easy running his first two months back. With September came the addition of workouts and the obligatory rust-buster race, an 11^th-place, 14:18 performance at the national 5K championships in Providence, Rhode Island, on September 18. “I wanted to get out there and race, but I knew I wasn’t fit enough to mix it up with those guys,” he says of runners like winner Ryan Hill (13:57) and U.S. Olympians Shadrack Kipchirchir, Leonard Korir and Donn Cabral. Andrew’s progress continued two weeks later with a 48:13, 8^th-place finish at the national 10-mile championships in Minnesota.

Despite now feeling on the cusp of 10,000-meter PR fitness, Andrew won’t be tackling the distance again soon. Instead, next month he’ll head to Flagstaff, Arizona, for an altitude training block before his debut marathon in the first half of 2017. “I’m not looking to knock it out of the park in my first at-bat in the marathon,” Andrew says. “I plan to run conservatively, to have a good experience my first time out.”

The site of Andrew’s debut has yet to be announced. Regardless of the locale, when the only person ever to make Chris Solinsky vomit after a workout is healthy and eager, as Andrew now is, it will be a race worth watching.

Evan Jager continued his clear, convincing run as America’s best steepler — not that anyone was doubting his status there.  The American record holder confidently claimed his third consecutive national title in the event, clocking an 8:18.83 and a solid one-second victory.

In another display of remarkable consistency, Lopez Lomong came home in third place in the 1500m with his time of 3:39.10, marking the sixth time in the last seven years that he has taken a medal home from the US Championships. Meanwhile, their teammate Andrew Bumbalough produced a quality showing in the 5000m, going up against four runners with PB’s of 13:16 or better… and beating all but one. Bumbalough made a late bid for the win with two laps to go, and hung on for a runner-up finish to perennial champion Bernard Lagat. The Tennessee-native posted a 13:32.01 in his bid for his first track national title, marking one of the quicker efforts in recent USATF 5000m races.

Sean Quigley also showed nicely with a fourth-place finish in the 10,000m. Quigley was one of the last men standing in a deep field, as he hung in with the small breakaway pack that winnowed the pretenders from the contenders. His final time was 28:29 and his fourth-place finish represents his best showing at a US Championship on the track.