Cherry Blossom official distance – 9.39 miles
Silver Spring resident Lindsay Flanagan leads a chase pack of elite women on the Cherry Blossom course Sunday. Photo: Dustin Whitlow/D. Whit Photography
The final re-measurement of the Cherry Blossom race course determined that the rerouting caused the race distance to total 9.39 miles.
A traffic accident that was treated as a crime scene near the Kutz Bridge, less than 90 minutes before the elite women’s advanced start, forced the course to reroute from its path around the Tidal Basin, instead diverting near the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on West Basin Drive and onto Ohio Drive. The alteration affected miles five and six.
A man riding a motorcycle hit a woman who was crossing Independence Avenue away from a crosswalk at 5:52 a.m. As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, U.S. Park Police had no updates on the female pedestrian’s condition — she was taken to George Washington University Hospital on Sunday. Charges had not been filed against the driver and the investigation remains active and open. U.S. Park Police are looking for witnesses with information about the crash and can be reached at department’s tipline at 202-610-8737 or [email protected].
[button-red url=”http://trackshackresults.com/cherryblossom/2015/” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red] The race’s results page include a projected time for each finisher, extrapolating their 9.39 mile pace for 10 miles. Reactions among competitive runners reflected frustration at losing the opportunity to chase personal best times on an otherwise-perfect day for racing but also concern for the accident victim and appreciation that the race started as scheduled. Click here to learn more about how a course is certified.
The top two elite women’s times were fast enough to warrant sub-52:00 performance bonuses. Kenyans Mary Wacera and Cynthia Limo’s times extrapolated to 51:45 and 51:46, earning them $1,000 and $750, respectively. Men’s winner and runner-up Stephen Sambu and Jacob Riley both missed performance bonuses. Sambu’s extrapolated time of 46:10 just missing the sub-46 and Riley’s 46:18 was six seconds short of earning him $10,000 for surpassing Greg Meyer’s American Record, though Riley’s time would not have been recognized for record-keeping purposes.
