News Archive

Cape Cod this weekend are the Falmouth Mile and New Balance Falmouth Road Race. Sara Vaughn (Bowerman AC) will be on the track in the Falmouth Mile, her first race since her 4:08.74 PB at Harry Jerome. On Sunday, we’ll have four women racing the main 7-mile road event in Falmouth: Meghan Armstrong Peyton (Team USA Minnesota); Fiona Docherty (ASICS), flew out to Massachusetts with coach Steve Jones yesterday; Diane Johnson (ASICS), fresh off her 32:38 PB at Beach to Beacon last Saturday; and Adriana Nelson (ASICS), looking not only for a top result but to take the US division against a very strong invited field.

The calendar is counting down to the two biggest events on any T&F calendar…a month from today the IAAF Daegu World Championships begin, the competition opening with the women’s marathon at 9:00 a.m. on August 27th. South African star Rene Kalmer, reigning ING NYC Marathon champ Edna Kiplagat (Nike), and reigning world championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Life Insurance/adidas) are in training now for the marathon.

And a year from today, London is certain to put on a first-class opening ceremony to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympic Games. Lots of miles to be run between now and then for qualification and then for actual Olympic prep, and we will be doing all we can to support our athletes and coaches on the Road to London.

Six months out from an expected marathon debut at next year’s US Olympic Marathon Trials, Meghan Armstrong Peyton (Mizuno/Team USA Minnesota) kicked off a new blog last week, with a first post on how she got here. “The Journey Begins.”

Yuriko Kobayashi (Toyota Wellness) took the bronze medal in 15:42.59 at this weekend’s women’s 5000m at the 19th Asian Championships, held in her hometown of Kobe, Japan. Yuriko was the gold medal winner in the 2009 East Asian Games 5000m, and also finished 11th at the 2009 Berlin IAAF World Championships 5000m.  This coming Friday, Yuriko will travel to Boulder Colorado with her Toyota teammates for three weeks of altitude training.

Despite some lingering problems with her IT band, Rene Kalmer (Nedbank/adidas) won this weekend’s Lotto South African Half-Marathon Championships in 72:59, 16 seconds up on second-place finisher Zintle Xiniwe. The win is reported by Race Results Weekly to be Rene’s 31st national title. Saturday’s course unfortunately went long, as a lead vehicle driver missed a turn near the 9K mark and added about 180m to the race length. David Monti calculates that Rene’s 72:59 time for the long course would translate to about 72:20 on a correct-length course. Rene is on the South African marathon team for the Daegu World Championships.

Defending champion Irvette van Blerk (Nedbank) had to scratch with an Achilles problem, but expects to be back in action for a half-marathon in Phalaborwa on July 23rd, and a pair of 10K’s in August.

Diane Nukuri Johnson (ASICS) continued her recent hot streak, winning this morning’s 5th Season 8K in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a new PB and Burundi national record of 26:07. “I was surprised how many runners they had in this year. There were four or five Kenyan girls here this year, and the men’s field must have had 20 Kenyan guys. It is nice to have a good race like this so close to home and be able to drive instead of flying across the country.” Diane’s mark was 35 seconds faster than her 2009 win in the event.

Adriana Pirtea Nelson (ASICS) smashed her 10K PB this morning with a 32:49 effort at the hot, humid, and muggy Peachtree 10K, finishing 6th overall and top American woman in the usual stellar field in Atlanta. “I was being a little conservative at the beginning, and even with the long downhills, ran about 16:09 or 16:10 for the first 5K. After that, I felt good on the hills and could pass a lot of people.”  The new mark sliced more than half a minute off her former PB of 33:21, which she set at the 2007 World’s Best 10K.

Lidia Simon (ASICS) took 14th in 35:03. In the US men’s 10K Championship run as part of Peachtree today, Josh Moen (Mizuno/Team USA Minnesota) took 12th (21st overall) in 29:20, with Justin Young right behind him in 13th (22nd overall) in 29:26. Race conditions were reported as temperatures in the mid-70s at the start with humidity over 80%.

Sara just finished racing the 1500m at the Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome Track Classic in Canada, and absolutely nailed it. She took almost three seconds off her PB with a 4:08.74 (preliminary result) for 3rd place. “I felt really, really good. I thought if I got under 4:10 today, I’d be happy, but now I want to find another race. I was a bit conservative, and the third lap was a bit slow. I wanted to go with 500m left, but got a little boxed in. From 300m out I was able to go, and I hit about 62 seconds for the final 400m! I think I can get to 4:05 if we can find a meet over in Europe quickly.”

Since returning from last year’s maternity leave, Sara has now run PBs this year for the indoor 1500m (4:20.52), 800m (2:03.70), and now today’s awesome effort. Great job!!!