KIMbia Athletics

Jason Hartmann delivered what could well be the breakout marathon performance of his career, winning the Twin Cities Marathon in a massive PB of 2:12:09 on Sunday.  Hartmann took the victory with a margin of almost one minute, as a trio of Kenyans, led by Augustus Mbusya in 2:13:03, took places two, three, and four. Although Hartmann’s potential in the marathon had been suggested by his 10th Place showing in the 2007 Olympic Marathon Trials — a 2:15:27 clocking on a hilly course — Sunday’s race marks his first major road win, and makes him the 4th-fastest American of 2009, behind only Olympians Keflezighi, Hall, and Ritzenhein.  In the past three years, only those men, and Olympian Brian Sell have run faster.

Full results can be found here.  Check back at the end of this week for a Q&A with Jason!

Battling a very competitive field in Atlanta on Saturday, Lineth Chepkurui, was able to score a huge win, a fast time, and a hefty paycheck at the Atlanta Journal Constitution Peachtree Road Race.  The 21 year old Chepkurui kept a phenomenal 2009 going by edging out Ethiopia’s Meseret Mengsitu by just one second while also running a PB time of 31:31. She also collected $32,500 in race earnings after sharing a $35,000 bonus prize purse from the Professional Road Racing Organization with the men’s winner, Sammy Kitwara. Lineth became eligible for the purse by winning other PRRO road races earlier in the year. Lineth’s KIMbia mate, Elva Dryer, placed 18th overall and was 6th American in the women’s race.

With the win, Lineth has added one more reason for her to be considered the most feared young Kenyan on the road. Just this year she has won Peachtree, Cherry Blossom, Crescent City, and Bloomsday, a veritable “who’s who” of non-marathon American road races.

In the men’s race, Boaz Cheboiywo was an impressive 5th* 4th place in 28:05. James Carney ran 28:19 finishing 10th* 9th overall and was 3rd American in the Peachtree race, which served as the USATF 10k National Championship. Abdi Abdirahman won the US Championship in 28:11 and Anthony Famiglietti was 2nd in 28:15.

*Updated results after 4th place finisher, Tadese Tola was DQ’d for unsportsmanlike conduct after elbowing Boaz in the final 30 meters of the race.
Full Results for Peachtree here.

As many American track fans caught their breath on a weekend falling between college conference and regional championship weekends, and professional track meets on each coast, KIMbia athletes still found themselves plenty busy in competition at several excellent, if less widely-covered, events.

With many KIMbia athletes making their States-side homes in Boulder, it was fitting to have so many of them run before the hometown crowd.  Each year, following an all-comers citizens’ race, the pros take to Boulder’s streets in a race scored by national affiliation, and, this year Millicent Gathoni — the defending champion — and Jane Gayunki led the Kenyan team, finishing 5th and 8th, respectively. In the men’s competition, KIMbia was represented on Team Kenya, Team USA, Team Commonwealth, and Team Colorado, with John Yuda our first finisher, notching a 3rd-place finish for Team Commonwealth.  Boulder-resident James Carney followed Yuda and was the first American finisher in 4th place. Other Top 10 finishes came from Gilbert Okari (6th) and Charles Munyeki (7th), both competing for Kenya.  Locally-based Jason Hartmann took 12th as a member of Team Colorado, and Fasil Bizuneh would represent Team USA in 15th. Read the full article

Lineth successfully defended her Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run title Sunday in Washington, D.C. She ran 53:32, a full 23 seconds up on 2nd-placer Belaynesh Gebre and nearly a minute faster than her winning time from last year.

The past week has been pretty good to Lineth: on March 28th, she ran what is arguably the best race so far of her young career to finish fourth at the world cross country championships in Amman, Jordan before heading back to Kenya and then to Washington. (You can check out results from Amman here; Lineth was only a few seconds out of the bronze medal position but helped Kenya to a dominating win over Ethiopia in the women’s senior race.)  After a weather-related flight delay in Nairobi, Lineth arrived late to the United States and hardly slept Saturday night. It didn’t seem to matter. Women’s results are here.

Jason Hartman’s 48:03 was good for 14th place and first American honors. He also wins a trip to the Himeji Castle 10 Mile Race in Japan. The Washington Post has a good recap of the race, and here are men’s results.

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.

Richard Kiplagat continued his strong spring season with a solid third-place run at this morning’s Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park. Richard ran 29:08 over the hilly course to finish behind half marathon ace Patrick Makau (28:19) and 2006 New York City Marathon winner Marilson Gomes dos Santos (28:31). In humid weather, times were slower than at last year’s race, when Richard was 5th in 28:51. Here’s a post-race video of Richard.

Jason Hartmann was the top American, finishing 10th in 29:38. Results are here.

Check back tomorrow for reports from the Bay to Breakers 12K, where Lineth Chepkurui will try to add to her spring win streak.

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.

Results | Post-race video of Fasil

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.

Jason Hartmann ran a smart race on a historic day in Central Park. With the top three athletes punching their tickets to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Jason consistently worked his way up through the pack to finish in 10th place with a time of 2:15:27, a great time considering the difficulty of this course. After the race, Jason was all smiles. “I’m happy. This was a big step forward for me. It gives me something to work with for the future.”

Ryan Hall ran away from the entire field to win in a Trials record time of 2:09:02. Dathan Ritzenhein finished 2nd in 2:11:07, with Brian Sell 33 seconds behind in 2:11:40. Those three athletes have secured the first spots on Team USA at the 2008 Olympic Games. However, Dathan Ritzenhein has said that his first choice will be the 10,000m if he qualifies for the US team next June in Eugene, Oregon. That would put 4th-place finishr Khalid Kannouchi on the starting line in Beijing.

Check back tomorrow for results from the main ING NYC Marathon where Elva Dryer and Stephen “Baba” Kiogora will be competing. Baba finished 2nd here last year and is hoping to improve (barely) on that position this year.

Video of winner Ryan Hall
Full Results

Tom Nyariki and Edna Kiplagat were both victorious at the BAA Half-Marathon. Nyariki’s time of 1:02:19 smashed the old course record by 38 seconds. Tom just held of Samuel Ndereba by one second. Edna cruised to a convincing 30-second win over Caroline Chepkorir. Richard Kiplagat struggled with blisters, finishing in 6th place in 1:05:13.

Full BAA Results

The results in Chicago were not as good. Ben Maiyo finished 5th and Christopher Cheboiboch 6th; James Koskei and Evans Rutto did not finish. Kathy Butler struggled in the heat, finishing in 2:48. It was a brutal day; race officials actually cut the race off short for people further back in the pack. Full Chicago coverage can be found at chasingKIMBIA. Results will be posted here.

In Minneapolis, Jason Hartmann finished 13th at the U.S. 10-Mile Championships in 50:15. Results can be found here.

Tomorrow we’re back in Boston for the Tufts 10K with Elva Dryer and Nicole Aish.