NEW YORK – While the first four editions of the NYC Half-Marathon were held in the dog days of July and August, the fifth edition this weekend will see over 10,000 runners usher in the first Sunday of spring. Organized by the New York Road Runners, the race was moved to March so that it would better fit the training and racing plans of athletes –both elite and recreational– who planned to run one of the big spring marathons, like Boston or London.
“A spring NYC Half rounds out not only New York City’s calendar of big-time running, but the calendar nationwide,” explained the Road Runners’ president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. “We hope our spring NYC Half serves as a bookend to the ING New York City Marathon and an anchor to the spring running season, nationally and worldwide. It’s the perfect distance for pros and fitness runners alike: a goal in and of itself for many and a perfect buildup for spring marathoners.”
Wittenberg’s organization has put up a $100,000 prize money purse, with $20,000 going to the winners. That makes it the richest half-marathon in the United States, and the race has drawn some of the world’s best athletes, including marathon world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, the course record holder, and American marathon record holder, Deena Kastor.
Here is our exclusive look at the top runners to watch.
MEN
Bib 1: Haile Gebrselassie, 36, Ethiopia.
Half-Marathon personal best: 58:55 (Phoenix, 2006).
Widely regarded as the world’s greatest distance runner, Gebrselassie has set 25 world records from two miles to the marathon, and is the present world record holder for the latter distance with his 2:03:59 clocking from Berlin in 2008. At the half-marathon Gebrselassie is one of the world’s best, the former world record holder with a 58:55 personal best time, and he’s broken the one-hour barrier for the distance five times. One of those performances came at the NYC Half-Marathon in New York in 2007 where he ran the still-standing course record of 59:24. Sunday’s race will be only be Gebrselassie’s fifth appearance at a running event in the United States.
Bib 2: Marilson Gomes dos Santos, 32, Brazil.
Half-Marathon personal best: 59:33 (World Championships, 2007).
Gomes dos Santos was the surprise winner of the ING New York City Marathon in 2006 when he dropped two previous champions and world championships medallists, Paul Tergat of Kenya and Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa, near the 30 km mark. The win rocketed him to national fame in Brazil, a distinction he showed he deserved when he won the marathon in New York again in 2008. This will be Gomes dos Santos’s first appearance at the NYC Half-Marathon, a race he is using as a tune-up for next month’s Virgin London Marathon.
Bib 4: Abdi Abdirahman, 33, Tucson, Ariz.
Half-Marathon personal best: 1:00:29 (NYC Half, 2007).
A three-time Olympian, Abdirahman is returning to the race where he notched one of the greatest performances of his career. Back in 2007, he was in a small lead pack of four runners at the NYC Half-Marathon, scorching through the first 10 kilometers in 28:20. Haile Gebrselassie and Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, the four-time Boston Marathon winner, were also in that group, but Abdirahman wasn’t intimidated. Coming down Seventh Avenue in the 12th kilometer, Abdirahman surged dropping Cheruiyot. Abdirahman turned to Gebrselassie and said, “Let’s go.” A somewhat stunned Gebrselassie had to push hard to shake Abdirahman would finish second in 1:00:29, the fastest time ever by an American at the time. Abdirahman will be testing his fitness for the Virgin London Marathon.
Bib 5: Peter Kamais, 33, Kenya.
Half-Marathon personal best: 1:00:35, Berlin, 2009.
An all-purpose road racer with real speed, Kamais has excellent credentials on the track with a 10,000m personal best of 27:11.09. Remarkably, he’s run even faster than that on the road, winning a 10-K in Tilburg, Netherlands, last September in a sizzling 27:09. That made him the second-fastest 10-K runner in the world last year. Kamais is in good form, finishing fifth at last month’s World’s Best 10-K in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 27:54. This will be his New York City road running debut.
Bib 8: Anthony Famiglietti, 31, Knoxville, Tenn.
Half-Marathon personal best: None (debut)
Twice an Olympic steeplechaser, “Fam” has been moving steadily from the track to the roads. He has won 6 USA titles, including the national 15 k title last year, which has been his longest race so far. He’s chosen a very tough event to make his half-marathon debut, but with world class track speed of 13:11.93 for 5000m and 27:37.74 for 10,000m he’s got the chops to be competitive. Should his race come down to the final sprint for a top placing, Famiglietti is one of the fastest milers in the field with a 3:55.71 personal best.
Bib 10: Shadrack Biwott, 25, Eugene, Ore. (Kenya).
Half-Marathon personal best: 1:01:40 (New Orleans, 2010).
The brother of the second-fastest marathoner of all time, Duncan Kibet, Biwott had a breakthrough performance at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Half-Marathon in New Orleans last month. Running against two of the world’s best marathoners, Kenya’s Samuel Wanjiru and Martin Lel, Biwott finished a close third in a personal best 1:01:40, just seven second behind Wanjiru, the Olympic champion. A former Oregon Duck, Biwott is in his rookie year of professional road racing, and will be making his New York City road running debut at the NYC Half-Marathon.
WOMEN
Bib 50: Deena Kastor, 37, Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
Half-Marathon personal best: 1:07:34 (Berlin, 2006).
Kastor, the 2004 Olympic bronze medallist in the marathon, is the USA record holder for both the marathon and half-marathon. According to her coach, Terrence Mahon, Kastor is in excellent shape, and she’ll be using the NYC Half-Marathon to assess her fitness for the Virgin London Marathon next month, a race she won in 2006 in an American record 2:19:36. She is one of only nine women in history to break the 2:20 barrier in the marathon. Kastor ran the NYC Half-Marathon last year, and had a bad day, finishing 7th in 1:13:48. She’s coming to New York to win this year, she said.
Bib 51: Mara Yamauchi, 36, Tokyo, Japan (Great Britain).
Half-Marathon personal best: 1:08:29 (Marugame, 2009).
A late bloomer who has competed in the shadow of her better-known compatriot Paula Radcliffe, Yamauchi has risen to become one of the world’s top marathoners. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, she finished sixth, the best ever finished a an Olympic marathon by a British woman. She followed up with an excellent second place showing at the London Marathon last April where she clocked 2:23:12, the second-fastest time in the world last year. Like Kastor, Yamauchi will be running the Virgin London Marathon next month, and has also been training at altitude in Albuquerque, N.M. Yamauchi lives in Tokyo where she is coached by her husband, Shigetoshi. Yamauchi used to work for the British diplomatic corps in Japan and is fluent in Japanese.
Bib 52: Irene Limika, 30, Kenya.
Half-Marathon personal best 1:09:46 (Philadelphia, 2009).
Limika, a former steeplechaser, is already an accomplished road running athlete at shorter distances, and is trying to improve her endurance to become a factor globally in the marathon. She has the same coach as two-time Olympic silver medallist Catherine Ndereba, Mostafa El Nechadi, who thought he had her in shape for the last summer’s IAAF World Championships Marathon. But Limika struggled in the late going, finishing 21st. She rebounded a month later to finish second (to Ndereba) at the ING Philadelphia Distance Run half-marathon where she set her personal best 1:09:46. She should be with the leaders at Sunday’s NYC Half-Marathon.
Bib 53: Kiyoko Shimahara, 33, Japan.
Half-Marathon personal best 1:10:16 (Miyazaki, 2006).
Shimahara ran four marathon last year, and made the podium three times. She won the warm and humid Hokkaido Marathon last August in a course record and personal best 2:25:10, then came back to finish second at both Yokohama and Honolulu in November and December, respectively. She’s only done “training races” so far this year, and the NYC Half-Marathon will be her first serious effort.
Bib 54: Madai Perez, 30, Mexico.
Half-Marathon personal best 1:10:26 (NYC Half-Marathon, 2008).
Perez was on maternity leave and recovery for most of 2009, and the NYC Half-Marathon will be her first top-level competition since 2008. The Mexican record holder for the marathon, with a 2:22:59 personal best, Perez finished second at her previous appearance at the NYC Half-Marathon in 2008, setting her personal best time of 1:10:26. Perez trains at high altitude in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and is coached by two-time ING New York City Marathon champion German Silva. She’s using the NYC Half-Marathon as a tune-up for the Boston Marathon next month.
Bib 55: Genoveva Jelagat Kigen, 28, Kenya.
Half-Marathon personal best 1:10:22 (Mazatlán, 2005).
Kigen, who does most of her racing in Mexico, returns to the NYC Half-Marathon after a disastrous race last year when she fainted at the 10 km mark and had to be taken to the hospital. It was a strange result for an athlete who won seven races last year, many by wide margins. She’s been training in Mexico for the NYC Half-Marathon which will be just her second race of the year.
NYC Half-Marathon: Runners to Watch
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