KIMbia Athletics

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Between a 20-minute jog and a session of mile repeats, Boaz and James do enough to exhaust most people.

James and Boaz enjoy an easy hour lope around the Reservoir, and unexpectedly meet some fellow KIMbiaites.

Welcome to In Carney Nation. We’ll have video of James Carney and Boaz Cheboiywo every weekday as they prepare for Nov. 2’s New York City Marathon.

Charles Munyeki eked out a 2-second win over Gilbert Okari in this morning’s BAA Half Marathon in Boston. Charles ran 1:02:46 to claim his first victory at a major American road race. One week after winning the San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, Gilbert ran 1:02:48.

Charles and Gilbert finished almost a minute ahead of third-place finisher Karim Elmabchour of Morocco. In fourth place was 39-years-young James Koskei. James ran 1:04:48.

Jane Gakunyi ran 25 seconds faster than last weekend in San Jose to place fourth in 1:12:32.

All four of today’s half marathoners will now return home to Kenya to rest, recover and recoup for the spring road race season.

Boston results are here.

Laying off the near-foolhardy opening pace of the leaders (who were 1:02:26 at halfway), Timothy Cherigat ran his best race of the past few years to take third at this morning’s Chicago Marathon. In warm conditions, with the temperature above 70 when he finished, Timothy ran 2:11:39. He finished looking really strong.

The top two finishers, Evans Cheruiyot and David Mandango, were the only ones from the early lead pack not to come back to Timothy. For example, Emmanuel Mutai, who was so impatient early on that he surged ahead of designated pacesetter Boaz Cheboiywo at 10 miles, faded to sixth in 2:15:36. Timothy, in contrast, was eighth at halfway in 1:03:54.

Christopher Cheboiboch had an off day, placing 12th in 2:23:22 after passing halfway in 1:05:29.

Searchable results are here.

Gilbert handled with aplomb a high-class field at this morning’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in San Jose, Calif. He ran 1:01:46 to top Moroccan road ace Ridouane Harroufi, who won several major U.S. races in the spring, by 11 seconds.

Gilbert was joined in San Jose by several KIMbia teammates. Charles Munyeki continued his recent strong running with a fifth-place finish in 1:02:15. The seemingly ageless James Koskei was eighth in 1:03:02. In the women’s race, Jane Gakunyi was fifth in 1:12:57, and Kathy Butler took seventh in 1:14:52.

Gilbert and Munyeki will go the (half) distance again next Sunday at the BAA Half Marathon in Boston.

San Jose results are available here.

Chris Solinsky takes in New York City for the first time, in this video by Jeremy Mosher of our friends at Less Than Our Best.

Here’s a nice post-Fifth Avenue Mile video interview with Chris, covering what he learned from his just-concluded season, the impending move to Portland, heading Down Under during the U.S. winter and getting his feet wet (ha ha) in the steeplechase.

A brief but busy day on East Coast roads for KIMbia on this last Sunday of summer.

First up, the CVS 5K in Providence, Rhode Island. In his road 5K debut, Matt Tegenkamp went through the mile in 4:23 with road veteran Luke Kipkosgei right with him. Matt gained a slight edge by the two-mile mark, but fellow U.S. Olympian Anthony Famiglietti, who was familiar with the course from having raced it before, reeled Matt back in, then surged away for the win on the race’s one major hill in the last half mile. Fam ran 13:41, with Matt second in 13:49 and Luke third in 13:57.

Jane Gakunyi took third in the women’s race in 15:51 behind Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan (15:28) and Ireland’s Mary Cullen (15:45).

A few hours later, Chris Solinsky tore down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue with a bunch of miler specialists, and placed fifth in 3:54.1. Olympic bronze medalist Nick Willis (3:50.5) edged out Bernard Lagat to win by a tenth of a second.

Providence results | NYC results

As many know I will be running the CVS 5K U.S. road champs this weekend. I wanted a fun way to end the season with little pressure and on U.S. soil. It was a tough decision because of the great field assembled for the Fifth Avenue Mile on the same day, but the 5K being a U.S. championship was the reason it won out.

I am still feeling good, still fit and wanted to see what I could do on a road course. The field in Providence is going to very tough and should be a great challenge. There was a little rough patch in my racing season but I have things back on track and hopefully this will finish out the season on a high note.

A recap of the season coming soon (hopefully with video).

After this weekend, a very short break, then on to a new adventure: altitude training.