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A Great Day for a Run: Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile

 

By Jim Hage
April 5, 2009
Washington, DC
For the Washington Running Report

Cherry Blossoms. For many Washingtonians, the delicate pink flowers mean a slow stroll around the Tidal Basin, a parade, tourists, and traffic. But for area runners, cherry blossoms come in the singular and signal the opportunity to mix it up at 10 miles with the best in the area, the country and the world.

So on a perfect spring morning, with the blossoms in all their glory, as it happened, a record field of 14,893 finished the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run downtown. Top honors, for the second straight year, went to Ridouane Harroufi and Lineth Chepkurui. Harroufi (27), from Morocco, continually maintained contact with a fast and repeatedly surging lead pack, and then wasted his five remaining pursuers with a blistering kick to the finish line. His time of 45 minutes 56 seconds was the fastest since Simon Rono ran 45:51 here in 1998.

"The other guys, the Ethiopian [runner-up Feyisa Lilesa] and the Kenyan [third-place finisher Silas Sang] pushed the pace, but I stayed back, waiting," said Harroufi, who pumped his fist and held up two fingers as he broke the tape.

Chepkurui (21), from Kenya, tolerated no such drama and simply outran her competition at the eight-mile mark, then coasted to an uncontested finish. Her time of 53:32 was 23 seconds ahead of runner-up Belaynesh Gebre and 49 seconds faster than her winning time last year. Teyba Naser, born in Ethiopia but a Bahrain national, was third in 53:58. Naser won the St. Patrick's Day 8K in 2008 and ran 32:28 to finish second in the Cooper River (SC) 10K the day before Cherry Blossom.

Both Harroufi and Chepkurui earned $7,500 for their winning efforts.

In her final tune-up for the London Marathon on April 26, two-time Olympic marathon silver medalist Catherine Ndereba (36) finished fifth in 54:27. Olga Romanova (28), the 2003 Cherry Blossom champion, was sixth in 54:32.

While area runners tend to cede the top places to the international crowd-the first 13 men and 11 of the top 12 women were foreign - many locals acquitted themselves admirably. Georgetown Running Company's Wilson Komen-although born in Kenya, Komen has been in this area longer than most Washingtonians-ran 50:59 and finished 21^st in his best race since returning from a longstanding hamstring injury.

Bert Rodriguez (29), from Arlington, finished eight seconds behind Komen in 22^nd place in yet another personal best (51:07). Rodriguez and Kyle Smits (30), one place back in 23^rd, ran 51:11; the two worked together throughout the race. Jake Klim also took advantage of the excellent racing conditions and added to his recent string of PBs, running 51:31 to finish 25^th.

Among the women, Olga Romanova, from Russian but living in Gaithersburg since 2003, finished sixth in 54:32, her best finish since winning the race six years ago. Sally Meyerhoff, from Tempe, AZ, was the first American, seventh overall in 54:38. Meyerhoff thumped top-seeded American Zoila Gomez, who finished 16^th in 55:55, and took fourth in the Olympic trials marathon last year.

Former Stanford runner Amanda Trotter (24), from Arlington, was the first local runner, finishing 20^th in 57:11. Melissa Tanner (28), from Bethesda, was 23^rd in 58:45, and Veena Reddy (30), who won the Army Ten-Miler in 58:08 last fall, was 24^th in 59:22. Reddy, from Arlington, is recovering from an Achilles' and plantar injury, but is prepping for the Boston Marathon later this month.

Ray Pugsley (40), from Potomac Falls, VA, won the masters division in 52:11 and continued his solid streak in his new age group. Pugsley finished second at the cross country nationals on February 7 and second again in the Shamrock 8K, running 25:03 in Virginia Beach. "It's a great start, now I just need to stay healthy," Pugsley said.

Maureen Ackerly (40), from Richmond, took the women's masters title, finishing 25^th overall in 1:00:18.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty added another spring PB to his racing log, finishing 211^th among the men in 1:02:59, a 6:18 per mile pace -this after a 3:25:46 PB in the National Marathon two weeks earlier.

Nianxiang Xie (81), from Rockville, took honors as the oldest finisher, running just under 10-minute per mile pace in 1:39:57. Xie had been slowed over the winter by a broken arm.

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