Sergio Reyes  Wins 2010 USA Marathon Title at Medronic Twin Cities Marathon

by: By Charlie Mahler, Running USA wire
October 3, 2010

Deba women's race winner; Hussein, Loken USA Masters champions

MINNEAPOLIS - (October 3, 2010) - Sergio Reyes made patience his winning virtue at the USA Men's Marathon Championship held at Sunday's Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.

The Duarte, California resident waited out the early breakaway of Luke Watson, David Jankowski and Seth Pilkington and then delayed his own final bid for victory until 23.5 miles into the race to win his first USA crown in 2 hours, 14 minutes, 2 seconds, a personal record.

"Basically, I kept telling myself not to take the lead until I was ready to go for it," Reyes explained. "I didn't want to step into that new territory until I was ready to commit the whole way, which I finally did around 23 miles."

Jeff Eggleston finished second in 2:14:09, while Fernando Cabada, the 2008 USA and Twin Cities Marathon champion, was third (2:15:25).

At the 29th race edition, ideal marathoning conditions - in the form of starting line temperatures in the low 40s with calm winds and sunny skies produced more than 4,400 finishers - greeted the USA Championship field running for the $25,000 national champion's prize and two berths on Team USA for the IAAF World Championships marathon in Daegu, South Korea next September.

Minnesota native Watson, Jankowski and Pilkington were the early aggressors in the race, clocking miles under 5:10 to kick off the proceedings. Watson proved an early DNF and Pilkington gave way later, but Jankowski, a 28:27 10,000 meter runner making his marathon debut, kept a margin on his pursuers until 17 miles.

When he was finally caught, the lead pack numbered just the three runners who would divvy up the podium places - Reyes, Eggleston and Cabada. Jankowski couldn't keep pace with the new leaders, but he held together to finish fourth in 2:16:15.

When Reyes, 28, who ran an inauspicious 2:38:04 marathon debut at Twin Cities 2005, finally put hammer to tong as he shook off Cabada thoroughly and put enough space between himself and Eggleston for what turned out to be a 7 second win.

"They looked like they were starting to peak-out just a little bit," Reyes said of Eggleston and Cabada. "I hate to leave it to the last quarter of a mile or last mile or anything, I did not want it to come down to that, so I'm just going to go when I think I can manage to finish without crawling."

Eggleston kept Reyes close but Reyes was determined.

"The race isn't over until the line," the newly-minted U.S. champion continued. "I pretty much pictured him on my heels the entire way. So even in the last two-and-a-half miles, I imagined him right behind me ready to kick me down at any point. I knew I couldn't drop a step - I had to keep pushing the entire way."

Remembering his 2005 marathon debut at Twin Cities, Reyes marveled at his inexperience.

"I had a lot to learn," Reyes said of his initial run from Minneapolis to St. Paul. "I was out of college, I was a 10K guy on the track and I thought the jump the marathon shouldn't be too bad - I've run a half or two before. I had a lot to learn back in '05 to get me to where I am now."

Eggleston established a new PR as the national runner-up, bettering his January 2010 P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona debut by 23 seconds. He and Reyes earned the right to represent the United States at the World Championships marathon.

Cabada, who was confident beforehand that he could win with a less-than-perfect race, ran faster for third place in 2010 than he did in his rain-soaked 2008 victory on the same course.

In the women's Open race, Ethiopia's Buzunesh Deba, 23, a Brooklyn, New York resident, became the first woman to win both of Minnesota's elite marathons in the same year with an unchallenged 2:27:24 win that echoed her Grandma's Marathon victory last June.

For the 20th consecutive year, the event hosted the USA Masters Marathon Championships. Masters standout Mbarak Hussein, 45, from Albuquerque, N.M, who won both the overall and Masters titles at this event in 2005 and 2006, returned to take another U.S. Masters title, finishing seventh overall in 2:16:58, a pending U.S. 45-49 age group record, while evergreen Susan Loken, 47, of Phoenix returned to Twin Cities, running 2:44:43, to reclaim the Masters title she last won in 2007.

29th Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon: USA Men's & Masters Championships Results
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Sunday, October 3, 2010

1	SERGIO REYES	28	PALMDALE	CA	2:14:02	$26,900
2	JEFFREY EGGLESTON	26	NEW YORK	NY	2:14:09	$16,150
3	FERNANDO CABADA	28	LONGMONT	CO	2:15:25	$11,000
4	DAVID JANKOWSKI	25	BLOWING ROCK	NC	2:16:15	$7,800
5	DREW SHACKLETON	24	LOS ANGELES	CA	2:16:31	$5,700
6	MICHAEL RENEAU	32	CORVALLIS	OR	2:16:47	$4,600
7	MBARAK HUSSEIN	45	ALBUQUERQUE	NM	2:16:58	$12,550*
8	TRENT BRINEY	32	NEW YORK	NY	2:17:47	$2500
9	DONOVAN FELLOWS	31	WOODBURY	MN	2:18:05	$1900
10	CRAIG LEON	25	ATHENS	OH	2:18:29	$900
11	TYLER SIGL	24	SEYMOUR	WI	2:19:20
12	JOSH EBERLY	30	GUNNISON	CO	2:20:28
13	DAVID WILLIAMS	39	MILWAUKEE	WI	2:20:39
14	SCOTT SCHMICK	27	OKEMOS	MI	2:20:50
15	MICHAEL WARDIAN	36	ARLINGTON	VA	2:21:18
16	PAUL GUEVARA	24	ARLINGTON	VA	2:21:54
17	NICK HIRD	26	ROCK ISLAND	IL	2:22:16
18	KYLE SHACKLETON	24	LOS ANGELES	CA	2:22:42
19	BEN CARLSON	26	STANHOPE	IA	2:23:03
20	MATT HOOLEY	28	MADISON	WI	2:23:09
21	PHILIP RICHERT	23	ANDOVER	MN	2:23:41
22	MATT DEWALD	28	IOWA CITY	IA	2:23:59
23	PAUL LIMPF	23	SEATTLE	WA	2:24:10
24	MICHAEL BRESSON	39	SPOKANE	WA	2:24:38
25	JOSHUA TREVINO	26	IRVING	TX	2:24:42
26	KELLY FERMOYLE	24	Mendota Hts	MN	2:24:53
27	MATT LEVASSIUR	29	ALAMOSA	CO	2:24:53
28	JACOB PUZEY	28	HERMISTON	OR	2:25:05
29	ROBERT WILEY	35	GURNEE	IL	2:25:24
30	DAN GREENO	22	ST MICHAEL	MN	2:25:42

MASTERS Men (40+)
1) Hussein, see above
2) Carl Rundell, 42, MI, 2:26:58, $5800
3) Matt Sandercock, 41, PA, 2:27:23, $4000
4) Bob Weiner, 45, CO, 2:29:34, $2000
5) Dennis Simonaitis, 48, UT, 2:29:48, $1200
*pending U.S. 45-49 age group record (previous, 2:23:35, Sam Ngatia (CO), Twin Cities Marathon, 10/03/04)

WOMEN
1) Buzunesh Deba (ETH), 2:27:24, $25,000
2) Svetlana Ponomarenko, 40, RUS, 2:35:23, $16,500
3) Serkalem Abrha (ETH), 2:36:16, $10,000
4) Alena Vinitskaya (RUS), 2:36:31, $7000
5) Galina Alexandrova (RUS), 2:38:21, $5000
6) Violetta Kryza, 42, POL, 2:40:35, $5000
7) Valentina Calimova (RUS), 2:41:26, $3000
8) Caitlin Chrisman (NC), 2:41:53, $3750
9) Leah Kiprono (KEN), 2:43:16, $1000
10) Ruth Perkins (WA), 2:43:19, $1500
11) Ashley Tousley (IA), 2:44:09, $850
12) Susan Loken, 47, AZ, 2:44:43, $8650
13) Carol Jefferson (PA), 2:44:44, $550
14) Tamara Karrh, 40, GA, 2:44:53, $5250
15) Krista Plummer (PA), 2:45:17, $400
16) Meghan Arbogast, 49, OR, 2:45:48, $3850

MASTERS Women (40+)
1) Ponomarenko, see above
2) Kryza, see above
3) Loken, see above
4) Karrh, see above
5) Arbogast, see above
6) Jill Boaz, 43, CA, 2:46:47, $2000
7) Marybeth Reader, 41, MI, 2:51:08, $1200

Complete race results and more at: mtcmarathon.org

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