In the photo below, a large pack of elite men thunders through the 5K split.

The Elites
Records were broken Labor Day weekend at the American Music Festival in Virginia Beach. However, this was not a demolition of disco LP's by disgruntled rock fans, but a wholesale demolition of the course records at the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Sunday morning by two Kenyans, Martin Lel and Margaret Okayo.

Lel, 25, and runner-up Paul Koech, 34, both bettered 2002 Rock 'n' Roll Half winner Paul Tergat's course record of 1:01:59. Lel pulled away (with two 4:32 miles) from the six-man lead pack on the two-mile-long finishing stretch down the concrete Virginia Beach boardwalk along the Atlantic Ocean, winning in 1:01:27 (4:41 average mile pace). Koech was two seconds under the old mark with his 1:01:57.

Although Lel (with bib #29) was not among the pre-race favorites, he has solid credentials, including a half marathon PR of 1:00:10 (winning the 2003 Lisbon Half Marathon), a marathon PR of 2:10:02 (second at the '02 Venice Marathon), and a third place at the '03 Boston Marathon (2:11:11). Koech, in contrast, has a spectacular running resume, including a world-best 10 mile (44:45 at the '97 Dam tot Damloop in Amsterdam), a 26:36.26 for the track 10,000 meters, a win in the '98 World Half Marathon Championships (a PR 1:00:01), two Kenyan cross-country titles, and a silver medal at the '98 World Cross Country Championships. Both winners earned $12,000 prize money plus a $1,000 course-record bonus. Lel, Koech, and Okayo all used the RnR Half as a tuneup for November's New York City Marathon.

Okayo, 27, shattered Deena Drossin's 2001 RnR mark of 1:10:08 with her 1:09:17, running solo essentially the whole race (the 14 elite women started 15 minutes before the elite men and the 15,000 other runners. Within a half mile of the start in front of the Virginia Beach Pavilion, it was Okayo, a gap to runner-up Margaret Atodonyang, then another gap to the women's pack. Starting fast with opening mile splits of 5:06 and 5:05, Okayo had a 27-second lead at 5K (16:04) and 55 seconds at 10K (32:32), went through 10 miles in 52:48, and extended her lead to more than two minutes, 1:09:17 to 1:11:27, over Atodonyang, 24, of Kenya at the finish. Russian Tatiana Khmeleva, 24, was third in 1:11:38, 13 seconds off her '02 runnerup time.

Okayo holds the course record at the Boston Marathon (a PR 2:20:43 for first in 2002), also winning the '01 New York Marathon, the '00 and '01 Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego (also organized by Elite Racing), and the '02 Milan Marathon. She was third in the inaugural '01 Rock 'n' Roll Half (in 1:10:43).

A total of $74,700 in prize money was distributed, a purse larger than all other road races in Virginia combined. Open men and women (ten deep) received $12,000, $7,000, $5,000, $3,000, $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, $750, $600, and $500. Men's and women's masters and wheelchair winners received $1,000 for first and $500 for second (although no women wheelchair athletes were entered). The top two Hampton Roads residents, male and female, received $500 and $250.

The Locals
Photo: (l-r) Dai Roberts of Virginia Beach (2nd local, 2nd master); Scott Bessette, 24, Springfield, NJ (1st, 20-24); and John Piggott of Hampton, VA (1st local finisher).

The first Hampton Roads finishers were John Piggott, 38, of Hampton, 26th overall in 1:11:02, and Leisa Ensle, 45, of Virginia Beach, the 17th female overall in 1:25:20.

International runners dominated the race, with Kenyans sweeping the top ten for the men. The only American in the top 25 was Kevin Taylor, 27, of Raleigh, NC (23rd overall in 1:07:42), an unseeded runner. For the women, the first runner after the all-foreigner elite field was Mercedes Gil, 41, of Fort Collins, CO, 14th overall for the women in 1:22:07.

Course record bonuses for Lel and Okayo were $1,000 each. Other time bonuses (world records, U.S. records, and American soil records) were out of reach this year, although Okayo was closest. Her 1:09:17 was just 47 seconds off Catherine Ndereba's American soil women's mark of 1:08:30.

Both masters winners came from the invited field, Jackson Kipng'ok, 41, of Kenya for the men (1:04:01), and Ramilia Burangulova, 42, of Russia for the women (1:16:50). Dai Roberts, 42, of Virginia Beach "double-dipped" with second place prize money for both Hampton Roads residents ($250) and masters ($500) with his 1:12:58. Gil was the second master for the women with her 1:22:07.

Virginia state all-comers half marathon records were broken by Lel (open), Okayo (open), Japhet Kosgei of Kenya (men 35-39, 1:02:06), Kipng'ok (men 40-44, 1:04:01), Burangulova (women 40-44, 1:16:50), Pat Ewell of Williamsburg (women 70-74, 2:22:34), and Bertha McGruder of New York (women 75-79, 2:56:48).

The Party!
There were 17,161 registrants for this year's Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon, with 12,343 official finishers (those recorded by the ChampionChip)--5,406 men and 6,937 women. On the course there were 20 live bands and 16 cheerleading squads. The rock band Goo Goo Dolls performed at the evening's post-race party on the beachfront stage adjacent to the morning's finish line.

The weather cooperated again for this end-of-summer race, with skies overcast for most of the race, although with sticky humidity. There was a combination of sun and clouds for about a half hour, but a cool front slipped through Virginia Beach during the race (after the elites had finished), keeping the temperatures in the 70s throughout the day, and producing heavy overcast and cooling breezes for the masses of late finishers, including 700 from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program.

Top photo: Runners at the 5K split. Merrilee Seidman of Alexandria, VA (on right, white shirt) finished in 30th place in her age division (45-49).

Bottom photo: On the boardwalk about a mile from the finish.

See complete results of the 2003 Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon.

See the official press release article about the race (with additional photo).