KIMbia Athletics

With January’s Olympic Marathon Trials keeping most elite American distance runners off of fall marathon starting-lines, the New York Road Runners injected some domestic star-power into the New York City Marathon weekend with a new professional 5k road event. Called the Dash to the Finish, Britain’s Chris Thompson of the Oregon Track Club took home top honors, while Andrew Bumbalough placed fifth in 13:59, six seconds back. With a course that went past New York City landmarks throughout Midtown — including the crossroads of the world, Times Square — the event was approached by Bumbalough and teammates Matt Tegenkamp, Evan Jager and Lopez Lomong, as a fun way to check their fitness and stay excited about their running, as they continued the thankless job of packing in the miles, back home. Tegenkamp took 7th in 14:02 with Lomong 8th and Jager 10th.

Each of the athletes will be buckling down in off-season base-building mode for the coming months, with no immediate plans for indoor competitions on the books.

The KIMbia performances highlighting this year’s US Championships included four qualifiers to Worlds and one US title, plus one alternate spot and two other top-five finishes.

W10,000m — If you wanted a demonstration of the term “putting on a clinic,” Shalane Flanagan delivered one in the 10,000m, taking the lead almost immediately and methodically clipping off 74-second laps. No other athlete in the field tried seriously to match her pace, and she ended up soloing an extremely impressive 30:59.97 to dominate the field and claim yet another US title. That mark is the 6th-fastest American performance ever.

M10,000m — Matt Tegenkamp, possessor of the world-class gear-change that netted him 4th-place and 8th-place finishes at previous World Championships, was poised to strike late in a very pedestrian 10,000m. Read the full article

The great mile races around the world have a special cachet in the sport, thanks to the superstars who have won them in the past, and the difficulty in winning them in the present. Like the Bislett Games Dream Mile, The Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic has earned a sterling reputation thanks to a history that features wins by Olympic Gold Medalists and World Record holders like Noah Ngeny, Daniel Komen, Hicham El Guerrouj, and Asbel Kiprop — now The “One and Only Land Cruiser,” Haron Keitany, joins those ranks with an impressive win on Saturday. Read the full article

At the USATF High Performance meeting at Occidental College, it was Andrew Bumbalough raising his game the most, among KIMbia athletes. Running 3:37.15 for 6th place in a very quality field, Bumbalough was barely a half-second out of first, and bettered his previous personal best, set in New York two years ago. In the same race, teammate Evan Jager continued a rapid return from nearly a year away from racing, running what he called a “really, really stupid” race — but still improving two-seconds from his performance at Stanford and getting to within almost half a second of his PB. His final time was 3:38.80.

Delilah DiCrescenzo made an injury-delayed 2011 debut and impressed with a very solid steeple, clocking 9:50.12 and placing 4th. The mark is her fastest season-opener ever, her 4th fastest steeple ever, and has her ranked 4th in the United States this season.

Next on the agenda for KIMbia track athletes are Diamond League meets in Eugene and New York.

Evan Jager opened up the 2011 season on Sunday by sticking his nose in a very competitive 1500m race at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational. He came away with a very credible 3:40.52 in only his second full race since September of 2009. He discussed what he was thinking going into the race, and what he’s focused on, moving forward.

You said post-race that you had come in thinking you could run 3:40 and maybe dip under. Were there workouts that indicated your fitness was there, or had Jerry discussed that being something you should be able to hit? Or is it simply, I’m a pro — I need to be able to run there.
There were no workouts, really, and Jerry and I hadn’t really talked about the time at all. It was just getting out there and competing again. Yeah, just in the back of my mind, I figured, being a professional– I mean, I was able to run 3:41 in my freshman year of college, so I thought 3:40 would be a somewhat achievable goal. And also, kind of basing it off last year, coming back after being off for two months for the navicular stress reaction and opening up and running 3:38, I figured I should be able to run 3:40. Read the full article