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Big Leads in the 28th Annual Grandma's Marathon Weekend Races
Three Local Women Place in Top 20 in Half Marathon Championship Race
from Grandma's Marathon June 22, 2004 Duluth, MN for the Washington Running Report
Photo above: Deena Kastor ran to a big lead in 9 m.p.h. winds
to win the 2004 USA Half Marathon Championship, photo by Action
Sports International
Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, CA Breezes to USA Women's Half Marathon Title
It was a day of big leads at the 28th annual Grandma's Marathon
starting with Deena Kastor, 31, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. opening
a significant gap right from the gun on the field of 56 women in
the 2004 USA Women's Half Marathon Championship. The race
started at 6:15 a.m. with clear skies, 50 degrees and wind
coming out of the west at 9 miles per hour. By the five mile mark, Kastor had approximately a 30 second lead
on a tight pack of runners behind her including Rachel Kinsman,
Jenny Spangler, Susannah Beck, Cori Mooney and Kim Pawelek.
Continuing to the finish all alone, Kastor pushed herself to a
winning time of 1:10:30 - just 30 seconds off of the Garry
Bjorklund Half Marathon course record set by Colleen DeReuck
during the 2003 national half marathon championship. Kastor will
take home $6,000 in prize money plus an additional $2,000 in
incentive money for running under 1:13:00. Meanwhile, Susannah Beck, Cori Mooney, Rachel Kinsman, Jenny
Spangler and Kim Pawelek battled it out to the finish with Beck,
36, of Yarmouth, Maine finishing second in 1:15:03 and Cori
Mooney, 30, of Boise, Idaho crossing the line in 1:15:17. Jenny
Spangler, 40, of Lake Villa, Illinois was first in the masters
division with a new Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon masters course
record time of 1:15:29. The top three women in the national
championship earned a spot on the USA team for the World Half
Marathon Championship, which will take place on October 3, 2004,
in New Dehli, India. Christina Wells of Woodbridge, VA finished tenth in 1:16:40,
Casey Smith of Arlington, VA placed 14th with a time of 1:17:49,
and Emily Richard of Washington, DC finished 20th in 1:18:46. In Grandma's Marathon, debut marathoner, Luke Metto took the
lead right away and ran strong through well over half of the
race, and was thought to be the clear winner. However, by the
last miles of the 26.2 mile course, his pace had dropped off to
over 6 minute miles, which was enough for Vladimir Tsiamchyk,
30, of Belarus to gain on the 28 year-old Kenyan. With the last
half mile of the race to go, Tsiamchyk surged passed Metto to an
unexpected first place finish of 2:17:59. Metto was second in 2:18:38, followed by Pavel Andreev, 34, of
Russia who ran a 2:18:59. Tsiamchyk earned $7,500 and an
additional $700 of bonus money for running under 1:18:00 Fedor Ryjov, 43, of Russia won the men's masters division
claiming his fourth Grandma's Marathon masters title and
finishing 6th overall with a time of 2:21:56. He will take home
$1,250 in prize money for his efforts. For the second year in a row, Fira Sultanova-Zhdanov dominated
the women's marathon from start to finish. With hopes of
breaking the course record of 2:27:05 that she set at the 2003
Grandma's Marathon, the 43-year-old was over a minute ahead of
her closest competitors at the 6.2-mile mark. She maintained a
significant gap throughout the race, and sped down the
homestretch with a smile on her face, crossing the finish line
in 2:35:08. Sultanova will go home with $7,000 for taking first
overall, $1,250 for being the first women's master and $900 for
finishing under 2:36:00. Elzbieta Jarosz, 32, of Poland placed second in the women's
marathon in 2:37:02 followed by Svetlana Demidenko, 28, of
Russia in third with a time of 2:37:16. In the wheelchair division, Scot Hollonbeck, 34, of Atlanta, Ga.
was hard at work wheeling to victory in his first Grandma's
Marathon with a time of 1:46:40. He crossed the finish line two
minutes and 46 seconds ahead of Chad Johnson, 28, Corydon, Ind.,
who was second place for the fourth year in a row with a time of
1:49:26. Anthony Russo, 22, of Tucson, Ariz. finished third in
1:49:53. Hollonbeck won $1,250 for his first place finish. There
were no women wheelchair participants registered for this year's
marathon. The temperature at the start of the marathon was 53 degrees with
clear skies and a west wind between 8 to 10 miles per hour. A
total of 9,576 people registered for the 28th annual Grandma's
Marathon, with 30 countries and all 50 states represented. Out
of 6,797 starters, there were 6,751 finishers. The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon course record holder, Ryan
Meissen, 26, of River Falls, Wis. earned his fifth victory on
the 13.1-mile course with his time of 1:05:51 - the third
fastest time in the history of the race. Eric Hartmark, 26, of
Roseville, Minn. was second in 1:06:56 followed by Duluth
native, Jeremy Polson, who crossed the line in 1:09:17.
Meanwhile in the women's division of the Garry Bjorklund Half
Marathon, Kate Davis, 38, of Woodbury, Minn. finished first with
a time of 1:21:43. Jennifer Blue, 28, of North Mankato, Minn.
crossed the line in second in 1:22:05, and Connie Bauman, 40, of
Clear Lake, Minn. was third with a time of 1:24:18. A record number of 5,614 registered for the 14th annual Garry
Bjorklund Half Marathon, of those 4,467 started and 4,435
finished. Top ten results, overall wheelchair results and age division
results are attached. For complete results log onto
www.grandmasmarathon.com. The date of the 2005 Grandma's Marathon weekend is June 16
through June 18 - we hope you can join us!
Results for the USA Women's Half Marathon Championship
FN LN OVERALL PACE TIME LAST 10K
Deena Kastor 1 5:23 1:10:30 33:30:00
Susannah Beck 2 5:44 1:15:03 35:48:00
Cori Mooney 3 5:45 1:15:17 35:48:00
Rachel Kinsman 4 5:46 1:15:20 36:04:00
Jenny Spangler 5 5:46 1:15:29 36:12:00
Kim Pawelek 6 5:46 1:15:32 36:03:00
Debbi Kilpatrick-Morris 7 5:48 1:15:53 36:24:00
Deeja Youngquist 8 5:50 1:16:25 36:59:00
Turena Johnson Lane 9 5:51 1:16:38 36:57:00
Christina Wells 10 5:52 1:16:40 36:41:00
Sonja Friend-Uhl 11 5:52 1:16:45 37:04:00
Jody Hawkins 12 5:55 1:17:27 37:45:00
Jennifer Derego 13 5:56 1:17:41 37:35:00
Casey Smith 14 5:57 1:17:49 36:51:00
Jill Boaz 15 5:58 1:17:58 37:45:00
Katie Courtwright 16 5:58 1:18:00 38:26:00
Katie Blackett 17 6:00 1:18:30 37:44:00
Heather May 18 6:01 1:18:38 36:35:00
Shelly Larson 19 6:01 1:18:45 37:43:00
Emily Richard 20 6:01 1:18:46 37:04:00
Marie Sample 21 6:02 1:18:51 37:33:00
Debbie Leyden 22 6:02 1:18:55 37:21:00
Donna Anderson 23 6:02 1:18:57 37:47:00
Robyn Friedman 24 6:02 1:19:03 37:58:00
Heather Bury 25 6:04 1:19:28 39:07:00
Machelle Cochran 26 6:05 1:19:33 38:14:00
Mary Akor 27 6:06 1:19:43 37:51:00
Seana Larson 28 6:06 1:19:43 38:28:00
Katrina Price 29 6:06 1:19:45 38:39:00
Desiree Budd 30 6:06 1:19:46 38:08:00
Susan Loken 31 6:06 1:19:52 38:30:00
Melissa Rittenhouse 32 6:07 1:20:02 38:11:00
Monica Hostetler 33 6:08 1:20:14 39:04:00
Christy Nielsen-Crotts 34 6:09 1:20:22 39:02:00
Michelle Ihmels 35 6:09 1:20:23 39:26:00
Kristin Reccek 36 6:10 1:20:40 38:04:00
Beth Old 37 6:11 1:20:55 39:45:00
Kimberly Lorenz 38 6:12 1:21:05 38:59:00
Katie Koski 39 6:15 1:21:44 39:30:00
Heather Hunt 40 6:16 1:22:02 40:31:00
Lucie Mays-Sulewski 41 6:17 1:22:16 39:52:00
Debra Gormley 42 6:19 1:22:42 40:18:00
Rachel Earney 43 6:20 1:22:54 40:02:00
Michelle Simonaitis 44 6:24 1:23:43 40:35:00
Sarah Anderson 45 6:25 1:23:57 40:32:00
Lynn Knothe 46 6:26 1:24:12 41:12:00
Ann Ringlein 47 6:29 1:24:46 41:19:00
Lisa Pohlit 48 6:29 1:24:55 41:15:00
Tracy Stewart 49 6:32 1:25:32 41:39:00
Sonya Anderson 50 6:33 1:25:48 41:44:00
Kimberly Jaick 51 6:37 1:26:29 42:14:00
Jeanne Lasee-Johnson 52 6:39 1:26:56 42:54:00
Robin Lawhorn 53 6:40 1:27:14 42:20:00
Jeanne Fleck 54 6:46 1:28:39 43:10:00
Staci Bennett 55 6:58 1:31:14 43:44:00
Chelle Belland 56 7:01 1:31:50 45:40:00
Photo: The fans along the route cheered Kastor to a dominating
performance. Teddy Mitchell, fourth in Grandma's Marathon,
commented to the Duluth News Tribune that the winds were
devastating and always in one's face.
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