Boulder Wave Articles

A pair of wins by two of our women who will shortly be racing the US circuit in June.

In the South African 10K Championships in Germiston this morning, Irvette van Blerk exacted a measure of revenge on Lebo Phalula, who pipped her by four seconds at the Spar Ladies 10K in Port Elizabeth, with a very strong 34:03 win at 5400 feet altitude.

In Marion, Iowa, Diane Nukuri Johnson (ASICS) successfully defended her title at the Marion Arts Festival 5K. Describ ing her run as “a hard workout,” Diane came home in 16:07, 20 seconds faster than her winning time last year.

The next race for both Irvette and Diane will be the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K in Albany, New York, on June 4th.

In reported conditions of rain, lightning, and thunder, Switzerland’s Grand-Prix von Bern 10 Mile had some of the slowest winning times in race history today. The men’s race was won in 48:18, with only five men from the elite international field breaking 50:00. On the women’s side, nobody went under 55:00. Rough day to be out on the roads in Bern. On the women’s side, Yuri Kano (Mizuno) of the Second Wind AC took 3rd in 57:25, with teammate Yumi Hirata (Mizuno), who moved to SWAC this Spring from her former Shiseido club, finished 5th in 58:44. The women’s race was a sprint to the finish as Kenya’s Monica Chepkoech outleaned Hungary’s Aniko Kalovics 55:55.7 to 55:55.8. Yuri and Yumi fly back to Albuquerque tomorrow, and their next race will be the May 30th Bolder Boulder 10K, where they will run on Team Japan with Miki Ohira.

Josh Moen (Mizuno/Team USA Minnesota) finished 2nd in a big PB of 1:16:09 at this morning’s US 25K Men’s Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Team USA Minnesota reported that Josh and defending champ and teammate Andrew Carlson went out with the leaders and were still with a front pack of five runners at mile 7.  At that point, the lead pack was reduced to three, with Moen and Carlson staying in contention until mile 12 when the eventual winner (Fernando Cabada) made a surge and separated himself from the two Team USA Minnesota runners. Cabada went on to win in 1:15:41. “The race went pretty well for me,” said Josh via a Team USA Minnesota e-mail release.  “The first few miles people were relaxed and the pace was sporadic, anywhere from 4:40 to 5 minutes (the opening mile was run in 4:39).  By the seventh mile, three of us worked together to pull away from the other two runners in the lead pack.  At mile eleven in the rolling hills, Andrew put a gap on me, but I caught him and just pushed hard to put a little distance between us. With two miles to go, the monkey jumped on my back and I was worried Andrew was going to catch me.  It wasn’t until the last quarter of a mile that I knew I was in the clear to take second place.  I wanted to win this race but I think I ran pretty smart.  I was in it the whole time.” This is the third straight strong run for Josh in the past month. On April 23rd, he finished as top American (8th overall) in the hot and humid Crescent City Classic 10K in 29:38. Then on May 1st at the Lilac Bloomsday Run (12K), he came top American again (10th overall) with a nice 35:21 run, kicking home in two-minutes flat for the final 800m. Next up, Josh will go after the ever-elusive 300 perfect score at the post-race bowling party to be hosted this evening by Greg Meyer.

A couple of days delayed, but here is an article out of South Africa on Rene’s run on Sunday.

http://www.supersport.com/athletics/running/news/110508/Kalmer_finishes_fifth_in_Prague

Reigning Olympic Marathon Champion Constantina Dita (ASICS) will be the Event Ambassador for this year’s Tata Consultancy Services World 10K Bangalore. The TCS World 10K is one of a series of three major races in India, including also the Mumbai Marathon and Delhi Half-Marathon. This year’s race will take place on June 5th in Bangalore. Pusa will visit Bangalore for five days in June for the race, taking part in such events as a fashion show, opening reception, press conferences, and other race-related activities. Attached is a scanned copy of an article written by Constantina appearing in today’s “Times of India” Bangalore edition, as well as in eight other regional editions of the newspaper. Tata Consulatancy Services has just come on as race sponsor this Spring, and has given an immediate boost to the race budget, with a prize purse of $170,000, including $21,000 each for the men’s and women’s champions. The event is organized by India’s Procam International. Here is a link to the race website:

http://www.tcsworld10k.procamrunning.in/

A couple of days late on the weekend wrap-up, but…

Out at the Stanford Invitational on Friday night, Kenyon Neuman took 18 seconds off his 10,000m PB to finish 11th in the “A” Heat in 29:07.33. It was another solid step up the ladder. This kicks off his track season in earnest, with upcoming plans to compete in another outdoor meet at CU’s Potts Field, the Mt. SAC Relays, and the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational.

Over in the UK, John Beattie won by over a minute in the Eastleigh 10K in 29:42, a local race he had done as a schoolboy. He wrote that it was “not all out + just a good solid tempo effort ahead of coming out to US and nice to get some local recognition in my home town.” John will travel to the US next month for training, and then compete in the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational on May 1st.

In South Africa, Rene Kalmer had an interesting weekend, to say the least: 48.695 kilometers of racing and a trifecta of three wins in three races. Preparing for the Prague Marathon, Rene doubled on Saturday at the Yellow Pages Germistown meet, winning both the 1500m (4:20.10) and 5000m (16:07.57) by more than 10 seconds each. Then on Sunday morning, as part of a planned 45K training run in prep for Prague, Rene ran the 65th Annual Springbok Pharmacy Jackie Gibson Marathon at altitude (it makes sense…water stops, mile markers, roads closed to traffic) and won in 2:51:35, some 13 minutes up on second place. Fresh off her new half-marathon PB in New York, Irvette van Blerk also doubled in Germistown, with 2nd in the 1500m (4:31.26) and 3rd in the 5000m (16:21.10). Both Rene and Irvette will race in the Old Mutual Two Oceans Half-Marathon in Cape Town on April 23rd.

At the end of last year, Antonio signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with Mizuno for 2011-2013, and he is being featured as one of Mizuno USA’s Ambassadors. Many thanks to Ron Wayne and Mizuno for their support of Antonio, as well as two other Boulder Wave athletes, Patrick Rizzo and Josh Moen. The video interview within this Mizuno profile is also nicely done.

http://www.mizunousa.com/running/ambassador/antonio-vega

A watercolor painting of Tomo Morimoto and Chieko Yamasaki is featured in a new poster (see below) that the organizers of the Vienna City Marathon will sell at this year’s race to raise relief funds for the victims of Japan’s ongoing disaster. Many thanks to our friend, race director Wolfgang Konrad, for taking this initiative. Tomo and Chieko were both members of Japan’s Tenmaya team when they went 1-2 in Vienna in 2006. Chieko has since retired from her competitive running career.

The Tenmaya Department store group also has a Japanese restaurant called “Tenmaya” just off the Graben in the center of Vienna. It is just a short walk from the Staatsoper and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Stop in and have a meal next time you are in Vienna. We are working to make the poster available at the restaurant, and will order copies to be sent to us here in Boulder, as well as to the Tenmaya team in Okayama, Japan.

A very chilly day in NYC that prompted Irvette van Blerk (South Africa)  to comment five minutes before the start, “I can’t feel my feet!” surprisingly brought a pair of fast men’s and women’s races. The NYC Half-Marathon is by no means a cupcake…the initial eight miles or so are over the undulating hills of Central Park, but once the athletes are realeased to Seventh Avenue and the West Side Highway, the pace goes nuts. In the women’s race, reigning ING  New York City Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat (Nike) contended over the Central Park miles with a group that included compatriot Caroline Rotich, former world cross-country champion Weknish Kidane, and America’s half-marathon recordholder Kara Goucher. With a steadily accelerating pace, the front group dwindled to four (Edna, Rotich, Goucher, American Shewarge Amare) at the ten mile mark, hit in 53:10. Rotich began to step on the gas, with only Edna keeping pace over the next two miles of 5:03 and 5:04. Rotich continued her surge, finally separating from Edna to open up 5 seconds at the 20K, and eight seconds at the finish (68:52 CR). Edna ran great, with a 69:00 effort that was a new PB and was also under the old course record. Edna’s husband and coach, Gilbert Koech, was happy with the result. “I didn’t know how Edna would handle the long flat stretch at the end of the race, but with 15:50 for the last 5K, we know things are going well. London is of course the big target for us this Spring.” Irvette came through the cold in spectacular fashion, dropping 13 seconds off the 71:09 PB she set last year in winning the South African national championship. Some prudent shopping for gloves and armwarmers at Niketown on Saturday helped save the day. Adriana Pirtea (ASICS/Romania) ran tough all day, hampered by a tight hamstring brought on by the cold. Shaking off fleeting thoughts of stopping to protect herself from further injury, Adriana pushed on and ran a very solid 72:03, good for 12th place. Her husband/coach, Jeremy Nelson, said after the race, “She’ll probably take a good break now and start shorter road racing in May. It’s been an intense start to the year with Osaka, Yokohama, and this race, but she’s run well in them.” Next home of our group was Fiona Docherty (ASICS, New Zealand), who knocked close to two minutes (!) off her PB, with a 72:49 for 14th place. “I’m delighted. London next month should be really exciting.” Yuri Kano Second Wind AC/MIzuno) had a rough day of it, completely understandable. Minutes before rhe start of the race, NYRR President Mary Wittenberg introduced Yuri to the field of runners and commented on the past week of devastation in Japan, and Yuri was greeted with a warm round of applause and cheers of support. Early on in the race, she had to stop to use a toilet, lost over a minute there, then after beginning to run again realized she’d left her gloves in the porta-potty. On a run Monday morning she thought about the past week. “I probably had some stress and fatigue from the past week in Japan. Every night going to sleep, we didn’t know if there’d be another earthquake, or what else might happen. I’m really happy Mary and the Road Runners invited me, but when I was warming up, I realized I didn’t feel very sharp.”