Meb, Ritz, Kara and Desi To Run 2012 NYC Half
In Addition to The 'Big 4', Other Americans Like Bauhs, Cherobon-Bawcom, Pritz & Culley Will Also Race
By David Monti.
(c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
February 16, 2012
(NOTE: David Monti provides professional athlete consulting for the NYC Half and the New York Road Runners)
NEW YORK (16-Feb) -- A quartet of American marathon stars will open
their spring racing season here at the NYC Half, the New York Road
Runners announced today. Desiree Davila, Kara Goucher, Meb Keflezighi
and Dathan Ritzenhein will all take part in the March 18, race which has
been expanded to 15,000 runners this year and will be contested for the
first time on a record-standard course.
"We are ecstatic to welcome four of America's brightest running stars to NYC," commented the NYRR's president and CEO Mary Wittenberg through a
news release. "New Yorkers and runners and fans everywhere will no
doubt be awed as this spirited foursome races through the city streets
on their 'Road to London.'"
|
Davila, Goucher and Keflezighi have already secured their Olympic Team
berths after the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston last month.
Davila and Goucher finished second and third, respectively, in the
women's race, while Keflezighi won the men's. Ritzenhein finished
fourth, and will attempt to make his third Olympic team by qualifying in
the 10,000m at the USA Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., in June.
Goucher, Keflezighi and Ritzenhein have all run the NYC Half before, but
for Davila --who has a half-marathon personal best of 1:10:34-- this
will be her first.
"After the high of the Olympic Trials, followed by a bit of recovery time, it was important for me to find a race that would get me excited
to compete and motivated to train hard through the spring season,"
Davila said through a statement provided by the NYRR. "The strong
fields that NYRR traditionally puts together, along with the thrill of
running through the streets of New York, made the NYC Half the perfect
opportunity."
Goucher, who has a half-marathon best time of 1:06:57, agreed. "This
will be my first race after making the 2012 Olympic team. I couldn't
imagine a better place to start my run-up to the London Games," said
Goucher through prepared remarks, who finished third in the event last
year.
Keflezighi, the 2009 ING New York City Marathon champion with a 1:01:00
half-marathon career best, said he's anxious to race again on the
streets of New York which have been so favorable for him throughout his
career. "NYRR events have been a big part of my professional career, so
I am very excited to start my 2012 Olympic Games buildup at the NYC
Half," he said through a statement. "I recovered well from the Olympic
Trials and look forward to competing against the field."
Ritzenhein --who a ran 1:00:00 personal best at the 2009 IAAF World
Half-Marathon Championships where he earned a bronze medal-- hopes that
the NYC Half will provide him with the same boost for his track season
as it did for his Nike Oregon Distance Project teammates Mo Farah and
Galen Rupp who finished first and third, respectively, in the race last
year. Both men went on to have terrific track seasons, culminating in
two world championships medals for Farah and a seventh place finish at
the world championships in the 10,000m for Rupp.
"Coming off the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, I need a big race to test
my fitness but more importantly to turn my focus to making the Olympic
10,000-meter team, and the NYC Half is the perfect step in achieving
that goal," Ritzenhein said in a written comment.
In addition to the Big Four, Wittenberg also said that other top
Americans --Scott Bauhs (1:01:30 PB), Janet Cherobon-Bawcom (1:10:59),
Molly Pritz (1:11:05), Julie Culley (debut, 2009 world championship 5000 team member), Jeannette Faber (1:14:19),
and Stephanie Pezzullo (1:13:12)-- would also run the race.
This year's NYC Half will be held on a modified course which will allow
for both a 50% increase in the size of the field, and record-setting.
Runners will begin at the southwest corner of Central Park, run a
counterclockwise loop of the park, head south on Seventh Avenue and
through the heart of Times Square, west on 42nd Street, south on the
West Side Highway, through the tunnel under Battery Park, then to the
new finish line adjacent to the South Street Seaport. All of the action
will be captured live on WABC-TV which will broadcast the race for the
first time.
The race has a $100,000 prize money purse, the largest of any
half-marathon in the United States, with $20,000 set aside for the race
winners.
|
|
|