KIMbia Athletics

A day with Richard was a Manhattanite’s 40th birthday present!

New York Times story here.

Lots of KIMbia folks in action over what for non-professional American runners is a holiday weekend.

First up, on Sunday Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky race 3,000m in Gateshead, England. You can watch the meet live online here, starting at 9:55 a.m. Eastern time.

On Monday, Elva Dryer, James Carney and Fasil Bizuneh will contend for the national 20K title in New Haven, Conn. Elva and James were second in last year’s race. Running Times will have live coverage here.

The same day, (much) further south, Jane Gakunyi, Richard Kiplagat and Luke Kipkosgei will race half as far at the U.S. 10K Classic in Atlanta, Ga. Luke and Richard were second and fourth, respectively, in last year’s race.

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.

A women’s victory and the top three spots on the men’s side of yesterday’s Bellin Run highlighted the last spring appearances of many of our road racers. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Millicent Gathoni notched another dominating win, taking the Bellin Run 10K in 32:51, more than 2 minutes ahead of 2007 Chicago Marathon runner-up Adriana Pirtea. On the men’s side, John Yuda and John Korir both recorded times of 28:47, with Yuda getting the nod for the victory. Charles Munyeki completed the KIMbia sweep by placing third in 29:20.

At the Steamboat Classic in Peoria, Illinois yesterday, Luke Kipkosgei finished his spring season in fine form, running 18:18 for the 4-mile race to finish second, just one second behind Ridouane Harroufi. Richard Kiplagat took fourth in the strong field by running 18:20. Elva Dryer took fifth in 20:44, and Jane Gakunyi was one place and 2 seconds behind Elva.

Johns Yuda and Korir, Luke, Charles, Millicent and Jane will return home later this week. Some of them, as well as KIMbia stalwarts like Gilbert Okari, will return later in the summer for the height of the U.S. road season.

Bellin Run 10 results | Steamboat Classic 4-mile results

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.

Richard Kiplagat won yesterday’s Newport 10,000 over a strong field in 28:53. Running along the Jersey City, New Jersey waterfront, Richard finished 3 seconds up on Dejere Tadesse and Valentine Orare. Sameul Ndereba was fourth in 29:01. Results are here.

While we’re on the subject of Richard, you may have seen his name in the London Marathon results last month, and you might have been thinking, “Um, 2:17:34…?!?” Richard was at London to pace a group of British runners aiming to get under the Olympic standard of 2:15. When they slowed significantly around 35K, Richard waited for them and encouraged them to keep going. None made the mark. (The Brits who ran 2:13 and 2:15 were part of a group targeting 2:11.) Richard hopes to run his first serious marathon in the fall.

In this final installment of our interview about the post-election violence in Kenya, Richard Kiplagat talks about the role of Kenyan runners in helping to reunify their country.

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Intro photos by Toby Tanser. Intro music by Nick+Gerald. Outro music by Amaryoni.

In this interview, Richard Kiplagat describes how his and his KIMbia teammates’ training was affected by Kenya’s post-election violence. Richard also speculates on how the violence will affect Kenyans’ performances during the spring and summer roadracing season. (The interview was recorded on April 7. Since then, it’s been confirmed that Stephen Kiogora will not run Boston on Monday, because of losing too much training time during the violence earlier this year.)

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Photos courtesy of Toby Tanser. Music by Nick+Gerald.

Richard Kiplagat was home in Kenya when the post-election violence erupted at the beginning of the year. In this first of a three-part interview, Richard talks about what things were like during the worst violence, his difficutly in getting to the KIMbia camp in Iten and what lies behind the violence. In the second installment, he’ll describe training conditions for him and his KIMbia teammates once he got to Iten.

Click To Play

Photos courtesy of Toby Tanser. Music by Nick+Gerald.

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.