It's November 1st, and the start of the build-up for the 2015-2016 INdoor T&F season!
Time for R&R is over!
Stanley Biwott and Mary Keitany won the 45th Annual NYC Marathon today!
Slow times, but times in NY come 2nd to who wins, and how they do it.
For Biwott (2:10:34), it came down to a 3-man race, with Geoff Kamworor and Wilson Kipsang.
Then Kipsang fell back, with Kamworor only losing it in Central Park.
He ran 2:10:48, with Lelisa Desisa passing Kipsang for 3rd, 2:12:10 to 2:12:45.
Biwott supposedly ran Miles 20 to 25 in just 22:46--or an average of 4:33.2 per mile, his fastest being a mere 4:21.
WOW!
Forty year old Meb Keflighizi got an "American Master's" record (2:13:32)----whatever that is!
(I only recognize actual Age records, and Meb was nowhere near the Age 40 World Record of 2:08:42!)
Reminding one of Des Linden in the 2015 Boston Marathon, 26.2 rookie Laura Thweatt LED through about 15 miles (or co-led, with Portugal's Sara Moreira), hitting the Half in 1:12:56.
But she wasn't able to sustain the pace--despite appearing to run comfortably throughout--and slowed to 1:15:27 for her 2nd half.
Thweatt is now 19th A-T US (on a list which includes Boston Marathon times!).
Also, it now is necessary to run UNDER 2:29:00 to make my Top 24 US list, as the last of the 2:29's was eliminated by Thweatt's run!
She and Meb both got 7th places!
Nick Arcianaga appears to have dropped out---or finished well back!
Alana Hadley injured her ankle, and was forced to DNF---again!!
(I'll have more to say about Alana later!)
Keitany won by over a minute from Aselefech Mergia, 2:24:25 to 2:25:32.
She hammered 3 late miles in 15:41 (5:13 & two 5:14's) to put the race away!
Before Mergia "emerged"---LOL---Tigist Tufa gave some challenge to Keitany.
But she eventually fell back, when Keitany made her move!
Tufa and Moreira followed Mergia, also under 2:26.
Tatyana McFadden, the most dominant Women's Wheelchair racer of All-Time, won again, destroying the NYC Course Record by about 7 minutes--ending in 1:43:04!!
It was her 12th straight Marathon win!!
Collegiate XC was busy this weekend, with all (or most) of the Conferences being run.
As I've said numerous times, course times aren't really important in XC--just who wins!
Here's the rundown, Conference by Conference.
While MS victim Kayla Montgomery didn't run, her Lipscomb teammates scored a measly 19 points to destroy the field in their Atlantic Sun meet!
The SEC was dominated by Arkansas, with the Men scoring 25 points & the Women 38 points!
However, Alabama's Antibahs Kosgei beat Arkansas's Christian Heymsfield for the Men's win, running 23:24.
The Women's race was all Dominique Scott's, as she beat Chelsea Blaase by 17 seconds in 19:23.
In 22nd was fast 1500 woman Rhianwedd Price.
Nikki Hiltz was 34th.
The ACC races had some interesting results.
Thomas Curtin dueled Justyn Knight, and won by a second in 23:23.
Zak Seddon ended in 38th!
Notre Dame's Molly Seidel and Anna Rohrer went 1-2, but it was no contest, as Rohrer finished 32 seconds behind Seidel's 19:36.
Another top Frosh, Ryen Frazier, came back from a poor race, ending in 5th, 14 seconds behind Rohrer!
Caroline Alcorta was 12th, ten seconds back of Frazier!
The Syracuse Men won with 46 points, while Virginia's Women scored 71 points for the win!
Who won the PAC-12 Individual Men's race?
You have to ask??
Mr Cheserek's time was 23:06, or 7 seconds ahead of Sean McGorty!
While Colorado beat Stanford, 46 to 57 (Oregon 3rd with 83), the Stanford Men had their best squad out there.
After McGorty came the Rosa twins, with Joe in 8th, and Jim in 20th.
Between them came the last 2 HS sub-4:00 milers, with Grant Fisher beating Matthew Maton by 14 seconds and 6 places (11th and 17th).
John Dressel was 6th!
Aisling Cuffe is back all the way!
She won by just 2 seconds over Colorado's Kaitlyn Benner---but she WON!!
Maddie Meyers and Erin Clark followed, completing the group running under 20 minutes!
Waverly Neer was 5th (20:00.6!!), with Anna Maxwell taking 16th, and Sarah Feeny ending in 21st.
Sarah Baxter was just 44th, about 29 seconds behind Feeny!
Colorado's Women beat Oregon's, 45 to 51 points, with Stanford 3rd with 80.
The Big East meet was won by Georgetown's Men and the Providence Women.
G-town beat Villanova by just 1 point, 33 to 34!!
Providence's total was 26 points!
Patrick Tieman took the Men's race, but the listed time of 22:23 was WRONG for the 8K course---unless it was ENTIRELY DOWNhill!!
Jordan Williamz was 5th!
Sarah Collins took the Women's race by 15 seconds over Lauren Mullins.
Bella Burda was the first Frosh in 4th, 20 seconds behind Collins's 19:32.
Oklahoma State's Men (28 points) and Iowa State's Women (63 points) took the Big 12 Conference races.
Vegard Oelstad won with a time of 23:58, one second in front of Jake Burcham.
Cerake Geberkidane was 3rd!
Perez Rotich beat Erin Hooker for the Women's title, both running just under 20:50.
Today's Big 10 meet for Men was won by Michigan's 63 points.
For the Women, there was an upset of sorts, with Penn State beating Michigan, 53 to 58.
Matt McClintock took the Men's race in 23:12 over Mason Ferlick's 23:14.
Erin Finn--frontrunner deluxe!--led all the way, winning in 19:44.9 over Alexis Wiersma's 19:49.9.
The former INdoor HSR holder for the 5000, Tessa Barrett finished in 12th, fading from 5th at 4K.
I saved the Mountain West Conference results for last, because I believe we have the next Women's NCAA Individual Champion who won this race!
Her name is Allie Ostrander, and she just becomes more amazing with each race she runs!
Here, after taking the lead after 3K, she just destroyed the field, winning by over 15 seconds from Courtney Frerichs, who is no slouch!!
Not to mention beating Alice Wright, who finished 4th!
Times were exceedingly SLOW (Ostrander ran 21:49.97!!) for both races, as Jerrell Mock took the Men's race with just 26:16.26.
Either the courses were longer than 8 and 6K, or just VERY difficult.
(I watched the races, and they WERE filled with hills (and a somewhat wet & muddy surface), so maybe those times were legit!)
BTW, New Mexico's Top-Rated Women scored just 24 points for the win!
There was a XC race in Boston--the Boston AA--which had some "name" runners.
Trevor Dunbar took the Men's 8K, his 23:17 beating the unknown (to me!) Jimmy Spisak's 23:20.
Tabor Stevens was 3rd, with Will Geoghegan in 4th.
The Women's race was taken by Liz Costello's 16:35 for the 5K route.
Liv Westphal was 2nd in 16:40.
And "comebacking" Mary Cain was 3rd, another 6 seconds back.
(A bit more on Cain in a minute!)
Cory McGee was 6th, but almost a full minute behind Cain!!
In HS Cross Country, Phil Rocha missed the Mt SAC Course Record by a couple of seconds with his 5K in 14:24--then bragged that he thought it was a "soft" record, and that he could have beaten it with better competition!
(That remark created a bit of controversy!)
Annie Hill, a 10th Grader, beat 4:16+ 1500 Woman Christina Aragon over 3 Miles in the Montana State HS meet.
Her 16:30 beat Aragon by 17 seconds!!
A couple of 10 Mile races had some good results.
In Great Britain, the Great South race was won by Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot in 51:17!
But it missed Sonia O'Sullivan's Course Record by 17 seconds!
Jo Pavey, now all of 42 years of age, took 2nd in the British Over 40 Record of 52:44.
(It's interesting that Pavey's time was one full minute slower than Molly Huddle's recent 51:44 over the same distance. Huddle recently turned 31. So Pavey was slower by 1 minute, while 11 years older than Huddle!)
Moses Kipsiro took the Men's race in 46:00!
Tyler Pennell took the Pittsburg 10 Miler, running 46:50, beating a couple of Africans!
Buze Diriba took the Women's race in 52:55.
The Frankfort Marathon produced a new National Record for the host country, Arne Gabius's 2:08:33 beating Jorg Peter's 1988 German NR by 14 seconds!
Finally, in the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, Tim Ritchie ran 61:22 for the win.
He beat Jake Riley's 63:23 by just over two minutes!!
For the Women, it was relative unknown Maegan Krifchin's 69:50 beating Neely Spence Gracey's 69:58.
Krifchin's former PR was 1:10:56!!
(She also has a 2:33+ Marathon PR--which probably isn't long for this world!!)
It was also Gracey's first time under 70 minutes!
So, what about Cain and Hadley?
For Cain, it seems to be all positive!
In a great article (on T&FN's website recently), she was quoted as saying she's happy being in NY and living at home while attending Fordham University.
It sounds as though she has NO intention of returning to Portland, although she says she's in daily contact with Alberto Salazar, who has her working out under the supervision of John Henwood.
She feels she's in great shape, and is happy with her recent XC race results.
She also says she's looking forward to a strong INdoor season!
(Although she didn't specifically say she'd be trying for the US team for Portland's World Championships, I have to assume she'll compete at USATF and (if she makes the team!!) in Portland!)
One possible positive aspect of her move back to NY is that she MIGHT choose to forego "rust-busting" on Seattle's Oversize Track.
After all, she has both The Armory and Staten Island's new INdoor arena where she can open her season!
Why travel 6000 miles (Round-Trip to Seattle) when you've got TWO (legal-size!!) tracks so close to home??
And Hadley?
So sad that she was forced to DNF yet again--especially in such a prestigious event like NY's Marathon!!
But here's the deal!
(And this is ENTIRELY just MY personal opinion!!)
She's been running for 12 years, even though she's just 18 (Born January 8th, 1997!), and has been running Marathons since turning 14!
She had some early success.
After a relatively slow initial race, she sped the Indianapolis course in 2:41:56 in 2013, finishing 2nd Woman to Colleen De Reuck, at just 16.
Then she took 3:22 off that time, winning the Indy race in 2014 in 2:38:34, breaking De Reuck's Course Record!
But since then, it seems to have been one DNF after another.
This despite the fact she says her workouts have been the best-ever!!
My problem with this latest DNF isn't that she DNF'ed---it happens to the best of athletes!---it's that it seems to be becoming a PATTERN!!
And with this ankle problem---not sure how bad it is yet!--it puts her participation in the Olympic Trials race in some doubt!
NYC was supposed to (hopefully) improve her PR by a minute or two, and provide a confidence boost for her OT race.
Forget that!
Let's Run has had a discussion about this----teenagers running Marathons.
Most people believe she should have worked her way UP TO the Marathon distance, rather than basically START FROM that point!!
As I've noted a few times already, she remains the HS Frosh Class Record holder for the 10000 on the track, her Record being 34:59.38 back in 2012, when she was 15.
Imagine what kind of times she MIGHT have run---over 10000 and 5000, especially---if she'd continued as a HS amateur!!
But even though she's now a College Freshman (at University of North Carolina in Charlotte), it's not too late for her to change course--pun not intended, but it works!
If I were her coach (Her father Mark coaches her!!), I would tell her to give the 26.2 mile distance a rest---for at least two years, maybe three!.
I would move her to the Track, and have her start where she WOULD normally start--with the 3000, or even the 1500/Mile!
Run as fast as she can at those distances, training specifically for them, with some (over-) distance work directed at the 5000.
Then, after running, say, 15:40 or better, try the 10K, and attempt to get as close to 32:00 as possible!
THEN, and ONLY then---maybe after those 2 years I suggested---move "up" to the HALF-Marathon.
Lower THAT PR to, say, 1:11 or 1:12 (I believe her Half PR is 1:16:41 from a couple of years ago!), and THEN move up again---to the 26.2 Mile distance!
For a couple of reasons!
She does SOME track stuff now, but IMO not enough!
Especially if she were to delay her return to the 26.2 for awhile!
Get faster!
The faster she becomes at shorter distances, the more confident she'll feel running faster at longer distances.
There's no reason to believe she couldn't improve on that 34:59 by a substantial margin---if she WANTS to!!
(But I think she should HAVE to run Track distances---to get away from her mentality of "Marathon ONLY"!)
Once she's at 32:00 for a Track 10K (or as close to that time as she can get), then she can start training for a Half---knowing she can go out at, say 33:30 pace, and not be even close to her PR!!
If she intends to eventually break 2:30:00 for the Marathon, she'd need a 13.1 Mile PR of about 1:12:00 or faster, to give her the level of confidence needed to go out in 1:15, and keep going!
(How can she go out in 1:15 now---confidently!!--knowing her PR is just 1:16:41??!!)
Yes, a 19 year old African (Shure Demise) ran 2:20:59 in Dubai this year!
But Alana Hadley is NOT Shure Demise!!
Not yet, anyway!
And (IMO), she'll never come close to a time like that if she continues on the path she's on!
For her sake, I hope she thinks long and hard before running another Marathon---even though I know she REALLY wants to run the Olympic Trials race!
As I said earlier, my time of Rest & Relaxation is over!!
With INdoor T&F due to begin (unofficially!) on November 20th (a JDL meet!), it's time for this blog to begin to preview this coming season!
With the WC set for the United States, this INdoor season---at least for the US, if not the rest of the World!---could be one of the best!
Watch for the first of SEVERAL Preview posts---soon!!
No comments:
Post a Comment