Great Cow Harbor 10-K Story Lines
By Chris Lotsbom, @ChrisLotsbom
(c) 2013 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
September 20, 2013
NORTHPORT, NY — Race Results Weekly will be on hand for the 36th running of the Great Cow Harbor 10-K in Northport, New York, on Saturday, September 21. The race is a point-to-point hilly contest in this beautiful village by the Long Island Sound. Here are five story lines to watch out for in tomorrow’s race.
1. Can Mo Trafeh win his fifth race title in a row? Trafeh, 28, has been victorious in the last four editions of the Great Cow Harbor 10-K, setting a course record of 28:17.4 in 2011. Though his time was slower last year (29:20.6), the California-native knows what it takes to win on Long Island, having experienced the course in both fast and slow years.
2. Alisha Williams attempts to retain her title. In 2012, Williams pulled away from Stephanie Rothstein Bruce and went on to win in 33:00.1, taking home $3,500. The 31-year-old has had a strong season of racing and is coming off an eleventh place finish at the Stratton Faxon New Haven Road Race 20-K. The key factor Williams has over the field is experience: for seven straight years she has finished in the top-ten among women. Working against her are all the miles she has been logging with training partner Mattie Suver in advance of the ING New York City Marathon.
3. The Colorado trio of Alisha Williams, Mattie Suver, and Wendy Thomas. All three Colorado-based athletes have traveled East to New York, a state they have had success in before. Williams and Suver, based out of Colorado Springs, have shown their strengths at 10-K in the Empire State, with Williams winning last year’s Great Cow Harbor contest and Suver taking top American honors at the Oakley New York Mini 10-K in June, where she timed 33:11. Thomas, 34, was 12th at the Mini 10-K and fifth at the Stratton Faxon New Haven Road Race earlier this month. She hails from Windsor, Co, and will be running the Twin Cities Marathon.
4. Who will emerge from the men’s field? Among those entered are Fernando Cabada, Hansons-Brooks Distance Project teammates Dustin Emerick and Brendan Gregg, Team USA Minnesota’s Andrew Carlson and Jon Peterson, as well as 2009 fourth place finisher Matt Llano. Anyone of these men could challenge Trafeh up front on the right day. Carlson, the 2010 third place finisher, knows the up and down course, as does Cabada, fourth in 2011. In three of the last four editions, the margin between first and second has been less than five seconds. The only exception to the trend was Trafeh’s course record run in 2011, when he won by 56 seconds.
5. Will new course records be set? The Great Cow Harbor 10-K course records stand at 28:17.4 for the men (Trafeh) and 32:26.4 for the women (Janet Bawcom, 2011). Conditions for Saturday’s race look to be comfortable at 64F (18C) with a 10% chance of rain and very little wind, ideal for a record run. The only thing that could derail any record attempts is humidity, estimated at 75% at 9:00am EST, just as the elites will be finishing.