Sunday evening, Evan Jager and Chris Solinsky were the big stories for KIMbia out in Palo Alto at the Payton Jordan Invitational. Jager narrowly missed getting the win in a hot 5000, but still notched a major lifetime best. Ben True won to continue a torrid streak in which he was sixth at World Cross — but Jager took him to the wire, clocking a 13:14.60 to place second by just fourteen-hundredths of a second. The mark erased our resident steeplechase specialist’s previous PB of 13:22, set back in 2009 at the US Championships.

Meanwhile, Solinsky made his return to big-time competition after two and a half years of rehabbing his leg and rebuilding his fitness — and delivered a highly encouraging performance. Read the full article

As a running fan posted to Twitter on Saturday, the only inevitabilities in life seem to be death, taxes, and Shalane Flanagan winning the US Cross Country Championships. In the St. Louis-hosted 2013 edition of the race, Flanagan felt some pressure from Kim Conley, but the Jerry Schumacher-coached athlete still managed to open a sizeable margin of victory to capture her sixth US Cross Country title. Meanwhile, with the top six finishers in the men’s and women’s races earning berths to represent America at the World Championships, every entrant from the Schumacher training group placed in the top four of their respective races.

Lining up alongside Shalane, Emily Infeld took fourth in her first-ever competition as a pro athlete, defeating such accomplished athletes as Sara Hall, Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, Neely Spence, and Alissa McKaig. Just six seconds ahead of the fast-finishing Georgetown graduate was all-time great Deena Kastor. Mirroring Infeld on the men’s side was Elliott Heath — also in fourth, also in his debut. In what was arguably the fastest collection of track 10,000m runners ever assembled for this race, Read the full article

Fionnuala Britton took a tumble early in the 2013 running of the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country International Challenge Race. But the defending champion from 2012 recovered and went on win in dominating fashion. Her 16-second final margin kept her current campaign on the same impressive track as last season, adding the Great Edinburgh repeat title to the repeat Euro Cross title she won in Hungary four weeks prior.

Facing a strong British team, along with perennial European challenger Ana Dulce Felix and a battery of Americans, the Dublin-based cross country star overcame a fall while exiting a creek early in the proceedings. Britton scored a 20-second victory last year on the same hilly course, but faced a more accomplished field this time around: Read the full article

With winter on the horizon, several of KIMbia’s track athletes took to the roads for their final races of the 2012 season. Up in Providence, Andrew Bumbalough took home runner-up honors at the CVS Downtown 5k, which doubled as the USATF 5k Road Championship. Going blow-for-blow with Ben True in the final quarter-mile, Bumbalough got to the line just one-tenth of a second behind the New Hampshire runner. Though Bumbi entered the race with the fastest track PB for 5000m, True is no slouch himself, with a 13:20 lifetime best and the 2011 US Running Circuit grand prix title to his credit.

Running just behind the leaders in a large pack of about a dozen runners early on, the Tennessee native waited for the break to come after a pedestrian 9-minute split for the first three kilometers. When Leonard Korir finally dropped the pace to splinter the pack, Bumbalough stuck right on his heels, with True following closely and the field — including teammate Elliott Heath — in their wake. Bumbi moved to the lead on an uphill with 600m to go and dropped the hammer, but True — the defending champion here — utilized his prior experience on the course, waiting to make his final bid in the final 30 meters and slipping by at the line for the win. Read the full article

It has been three years since Matt Tegenkamp went to the East Coast and brought home a national championship at the CVS Downtown 5k. But on Monday, the two-time Olympian looked as good on the roads as ever, winning a second US road title at the New Haven 20k — in a championship-record time, no less.

After moving from 5k to 10k on the track, Tegenkamp got his first taste of longer road running in impressive fashion, clocking 58:30 to take down the old USATF record. In his wake was runner-up Luke Puskedra, who ran a sterling 61-minute half-marathon earlier this year, suggesting that Tegenkamp’s future in the half will be one to watch.

Three other KIMbia men took to the streets on Labor Day, as well: Sean Quigley, now based in Colorado, placed 6th in 1:00:02, with Brent Vaughn in 9th and Tim Nelson — fresh off his wedding — placing 11th.