Sorry for not updating the women but we were interviewing the men. Here is our 'in progress recap'.
Women’s 10K:
Wendy Thomas took the field through in a brisk 73.9 and very quickly there was a four-woman breakaway: Thomas, Deb Maier of Cal, Natosha Rogers of Texas A&M and Alisha Williams. By 1000 meters (3:10.0), the pack, led by Shalane Flanagan had bridged the gap. Thomas, relatively new to competitive track racing, seemed to have gone out too fast. As the pace continued to slow, Flanaga, moved to the lead as the pack approached the 1600, going through in an 80.1 and 5:09.3.
With the field going through lap leading into the mile so slow, a pile-up knocked down Rogers and Nike’s Lisa Uhl. Uhl fell badly and was 50 meters back. Rogers surged quickly but Uhl moved back into contact more patiently. After the mile, Maier threw in a 76.5 to open up a 25 meter lead on Flanagan, who appeared to be waiting for Uhl.
At 2400, Uhl had worked her way back to the top chase group: Flanagan, Amy Hastings, Rogers, Williams, Meaghan Nelson of Iowa State, Janet Cherobon-Bawcom and Uhl....the group remained 50 meters behind Maier.
After Maier hit 3200 in 10:17 and a 77.9 lap, Flanagan was starting to pull the rest of the peloton back into the lead with a 76.5 and 10:20 as the lead was down to 20 meters. Then, just when it seemed they would catch her, Flanagn slowed things down to 80+ 400 pace. Heading into 3 miles, the chances of hitting the Olympic A of 31:45 SEEMED out the window, although in 2008 the top three women closed very fast in the last 5K to hit the standard.
Maier was through 5K in 16:14 and the chase pack was only two seconds back. At 5200, Amy Hastings surged to the lead with Alisha Williams (still in need of the Olympic A) tucked right behind in second. The slowish early pace had shed very few: 19 still remained attached to the lead.
Hastings kept the pace honest and the lead
16:14 5k (Maier)
16:16 5K (Flanagan chase pack)
73.9 (Thomas)
76.3 (Thomas)
79.0 (Thomas)
80.1 (Thomas/Flanagan - 5:09.3)
76.5 (Maier)
76.5 (Maier)
76.9 (Maier)
77.9 (Maier - 10:17.0, 5:08.3 for the mile)....chase pack at 10:20.4 with a 76.5)
79.3 (Maier)...chase pack 77.3 (Flanagan)
79.8 (Maier)...chase pack 80.5 (Flanagan)
79.4 (Maier)...chase pack 82.0 (Flanagan)
79.5 (Maier - 15:34.8, 5:17.8)...chase pack 77.6 (15:37.5, 5:17.1)
78.9 (Hastings)
78.3 (Hastings)
77.9 (Hastings)