New Haven Register
David Borges
NEW HAVEN—No photo finish this year. Leonard Korir made sure of that about 10 miles into the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race on Monday.
Korir, a Kenyan native who became a U.S. citizen 2 1/2 years ago, pulled away from a trio of runners on a downhill slope through East Rock Park and won the 20K national championship race with a time of 1:00:17.
Korir, a motor transport operator for the U.S. Army who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, bested his fellow Army teammate, Haron Lagat, by 12 seconds.
It was a much more comfortable margin than a year earlier, when Korir was edged at the finish line by a few hundredths of a second by Galen Rupp in the closest finish in the race’s 40-year history.
Rupp didn’t run in this year’s race.
“Last year was so painful,” said Korir, who won the race in 2016. “I wanted to win for the second time, but Galen Rupp was so strong. But at the same time, I learned something, too. While I was training for this year, I’d be ready, just in case he comes to the race. Or someone who is stronger comes to the race.”
For a while, it appeared the women’s race would be the closer one this year, as Sara Hall, Allie Kieffer and Emma Bates were bunched together for much of the race and Hall and Keiffer pulled away down the stretch. Hall wound up besting Kieffer by 16 seconds, with a time of 1:09:04.
“This was probably the most brutal conditions I’ve ever run in,” said Hall, who needed a few minutes to overcome the humid, 90-degree temperatures after her run was done. “I’m trying to get better at this. My motto for this marathon build-up is, ‘Be comfortable being uncomfortable.’ Usually, that’s me in Flagstaff (Arizona), doing everything. Today was probably the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been, especially where I’m at in my marathon cycle.”
Korir concurred.
“This is the toughest one,” he said. “It’s like an oven out there. It’s like, ‘Wow, are we going to finish?’ ”
About midway through the 12.4-mile race, a group of four — Korir, Lagat, Kiya Dandena and Aaron Braun — had separated themselves from the rest of the pack. A little after the eight-mile mark, Braun dropped back, turning it into a three-man race.
Running through a downhill, shaded area of East Rock Park, Korir pulled away a bit and had an eight-second lead with about two miles to go.
“That’s where I like (to make a move),” Korir noted. “I knew going in to use the downhill.”
There was another reason for Korir to try to break away at that point and avoid another too-close-for-comfort finish.
“This year, I had a little bit of a problem with my hamstring, so I don’t have top finishing speed at the moment,” he noted. “So, I was like, let me try to change the strategy so I don’t have to sprint. Usually, when I know I’m fit, I like to stay (close).”
Said Lagat: “I know Leonard’s a good downhill runner. He took off.”
Dandena finished in third in 1:00:34, while Braun wound up dropping down to ninth. Ahmed Osman (1:01:43) and Elkanah Kibet (1:01:44) rounded out the top five.
Hall said she was never felt assured of her victory, even when she heard the crowd roaring over the final stretch.
“I heard everyone going crazy, but you don’t know if that means someone’s coming up on you,” she noted. “So, I just tried to dig deep as best as I could.”
Her victory was particularly special because her sister, Amy, has just moved to New Haven with her family to become a professor at Yale. She and her daughters, Abby and Dior, cheered Hall on from their home, which is right on the course, about 1 1/2 miles from the finish line.
“It made it so meaningful to be able to win today,” Hall noted.
Kieffer finished second in 1:09:20, followed by Bates in 1:09:42. Katie Matthews (1:11:55) and Janet Cherobon-Bawcom (1:12:21) rounded out the top five.
Hall said she’ll compete in a Half-Marathon outside of Prague, Czech Republic in a couple of weeks, then compete in the Frankfurt Marathon on Oct. 28.
Korir said he’ll run in a 10-mile race in October, then the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7.