KIMbia Athletics

Four KIMbia athletes took the line at the IAAF World Championships in Cross Country, with Lineth Chepkurui captaining her Kenyan team, Shalane Flanagan and Brent Vaughn headlining the US senior women’s and men’s teams, respectively, as the reigning national champions, and Andrew Bumbalough making his senior debut after competing in the junior race in 2006.

Brent Vaughn placed 55th, which was something of a disappointment to the Boulder-based runner.  He positioned himself to take a shot at a Top 25 finish, sitting in the chase pack through three laps, and hitting 6k in 30th place. After one more steady circuit in the mid-30′s, he began to struggle and said the conditions didn’t agree with him.

Reached briefly via Skype, Brent offered the following thoughts from Spain when asked to summarize his race:

No good — it was warm. I was out perfectly and covered all the moves well. I had the fitness to be in it, I still believe. I managed the chaos well… I thought I just had some heat problems.

Brent returns to Boulder to prepare for Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1st.

Four KIMbia athletes took the line at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, with Lineth Chepkurui captaining her Kenyan team, Shalane Flanagan and Brent Vaughn headlining the US senior women’s and men’s teams, respectively, as the reigning national champions, and Andrew Bumbalough making his senior debut after competing in the junior race in 2006.

Shalane Flanagan affirmed her status as one of the world’s best runners, once again, taking bronze in the deepest distance race on the planet. Flanagan planted herself among the leaders from the very start, and prepared to be a part of any late-race maneuvering, even making an appearance at the front of the lead pack.  When the race broke open on the penultimate lap, the Massachusetts native lost a little ground, but battled back over the final 2k loop to pass Ethiopia’s top entrants in Meselech Melkamu and Wude Ayalew and make a play for second place. Read the full article

KIMbia will be well represented this weekend at the IAAF World Championships in Cross Country, with Lineth Chepkurui captaining her Kenyan team, Shalane Flanagan and Brent Vaughn leading the US senior women’s and men’s teams, respectively, as the reigning national champions, and Andrew Bumbalough bringing experience from the 2006 junior race into his senior debut.

Today we sift through the Twitter updates we’ve received from the KIMbia contingent in Spain. From @DadVaughn, @abumbalough and @ShalaneFlanagan, we get reports of a nice-looking course, pictures from the beach, and more… Read the full article

KIMbia will be well represented this weekend at the IAAF World Championships in Cross Country, with Lineth Chepkurui captaining her Kenyan team, Shalane Flanagan and Brent Vaughn leading the US senior women’s and men’s teams, respectively, as the reigning national champions, and Andrew Bumbalough bringing experience from the 2006 junior race into his senior debut.

Andrew writes to us from Spain to describe the host town:

After a long journey we finally arrived in Punta Umbria, Spain – a small coastal town about ninety minutes drive from Sevilla. We got in around midnight to the hotel and luckily food was still available. We ate a quick dinner and then hit the hay to try and get rested after a long trip. The next morning I woke up to a bright and powerful sun that I hadn’t seen in months thanks to Portland’s gray, damp climate. While it is only about 65 degrees outside, the sun is warm and bright making it very pleasant. I even needed sunglasses on my run! Read the full article

KIMbia will be well represented this weekend at the IAAF World Championships in Cross Country, with Lineth Chepkurui captaining her Kenyan team, Shalane Flanagan and Brent Vaughn leading the US senior women’s and men’s teams, respectively, as the reigning national champions, and Andrew Bumbalough bringing experience from the 2006 junior race into his senior debut.

Simon Bairu placed an impressive 12th last year, and though he is taking a year off from the event, he provides us with a first-hand look at what will be going down on the course this Sunday:

The IAAF Cross Country Championships is the greatest distance race in the world. I love the fact that you are going up against the top six runners from each country from around the world. You’ve got milers, 10k runners, and marathoners, all gunning for the hardest gold medal in distance running. It’s like our Super Bowl. Read the full article