Azat
Rakipov of
Course Record 1:05:22
Tetyana
Hladyr of the Ukraine Wins Easily for Women
By Rick Platt
There were no real surprises
at the top in the 26th annual
Anheuser-Busch Colonial Half Marathon Sunday afternoon in Williamsburg.
There were 1,821 runners entered in both the half marathon and
accompanying 3 mile run, with 1,108 finishing the half marathon and 279
finishing the shorter event.
Three international runners
were all given a chance to win the
$500 first-place men's prize money, and Azat Rakipov, 36, of Belarus
set
a course record 1:05:22 to win over Kenyan Charles Kibiwot, 30, who
also
dipped under the old mark with his runnerup 1:05:31, good for $300. The
previous course record of 1:05:46 (for the current Carter's Grove
Country
Road/Kingsmill course) was held by Mark Andrews of Chapel Hill, NC in
1998 (the last American to win the men's division). The overall race
record is
three-time winner for the men. Rakipov and Kibiwot were the only two
runners to set race age-group records, Rakipov breaking Jim Hage's
men's
35-39 mark of 1:06:22 from 1993, and Kibiwot tieing the 1:05:31 record
for men 30-34 by Paul Mbugua (another Kenyan) in 1995. The two had both
raced a marathon just two weeks earlier, with Rakipov placing second in
Austin's Freescale Marathon in 2:14:00, and Kibiwot sixth in that Texas
event in 2:17:34. Clearly they were quick to recover from the demands
of
a 26.2-mile race.
From the start it was a
two-man race, with Rakipov setting the
pace until 10 miles, then Kibiwot surging to the lead. Rakipov came
back
and pulled away for his nine-second victory. "They were running for
the
win, not the course record," said Kibiwot's agent Natasha Smith, a
Russian who acted as Rakipov's interpreter. The surprise for the top
three men was that the third race favorite, John Korir, 25, of
trains in
he missed the start by less than a minute and had to dart through
hundred
of runners to eventually catch Kevin Taylor, 29, of
third-place $200 prize money. Korir, with a PR of
could only manage
American.
The top four men across the
finish line inside William and Mary
Hall had race numbers 2-1-3-4. The women's race was even more
predictable, as the top three seeds finished in that order. Tetyana
Hladyr, 29, of the
and she pulled away after three miles from runnerup Casey Smith, to win
with a relatively slow
Buckwalter ran a
1:18:52 in 2004 at Colonial, then had 1:17:48 and 1:17:49 half
marathons
later in 2004, was disappointed with her runnerup 1:21:28 on Sunday,
saying it was just a bad day. Third for the women (same $500-300-200
prize money as the men) was 1993 race winner Tammy Slusser, 39, of
other race winner present was 2000 champion Buckwalter, fifth in
1:28:02,
with only unseeded runner Michelle Mudge, 28, of Richmond (4th in
1:25:28) breaking up the expected order of finish.
What was surprising Sunday
was that the top local finisher wasn't
one of "The Usual Suspects" of the area's best
roadracers--Williamsburg's
John Piggott (who was eighth in 1:12:56), Hampton's Michael Mann (who
was
sick and didn't run), W&M chemistry professor Rob Hinkle (2nd in
the
men's Masters 40-and-over category in 1:16:18) or even Billy Edwards,
if
you include Virginia Beach (sixth in 1:11:44). Edwards, Piggott and
Mann
went
division.
Instead the top local
finisher was Trevor Cable, 22, of
students who train together, eat dinner together and socialize
together.
Cable, in his first road race since high school, was fifth overall in
finished under 1:18, including Cable, team leader and founder Bert
Jacoby, a senior (10th, 1:13:23), sophomore George Ingham (14th,
1:14:28), senior Chris Healey (15th, 1:15:07), freshman Marshall Miller
(22nd, 1:17:14) and senior Ryan Stevens (23rd, 1:17:26). All won age
group or overall awards.
The group gave a Tour de France
look and feel to the half
marathon, as a bicycling friend chalked various motivational slogans on
the course to encourage Team Blitz, as well as the other 1,100+
finishers. On some of the tough hills on the course were the words
"Don't
Give Up," "Kill the Hill" and "What Would Lance
[Armstrong] Do" (with a
bicycle depiction).
Most of Team Blitz ran at one
time or another with the W&M men's
cross country and track teams (the organizers of the Colonial Half
Marathon), but either got injured, couldn't handle the mileage, or got
burned out. Jacoby started the club with Stevens his sophomore year,
and
it has blossomed this past year, with over ten regulars to serious
training. Four are planning on running the Shamrock
Beach
Cable was a star in high
school with a
Penn Relays) and a
W&M to
regressed and finally reluctantly quit the team after his junior year.
This year he covers 40 miles per week (vs. 70-80 before), and his
enthusiasm for running has returned, and he has made lifetime friends.
For full details on Team
Blitz, check their website at:
http://ahjaco.people.wm.edu/blitz/
The top Masters finisher was Mark
Malander, 46, of Oak Hill, VA
in 1:15:22, ahead of Rob Hinkle, 40, of Newport News (1:16:18) and
two-time defending Masters champion Chuck Moeser, 53, of Sterling, VA
(1:17:31). The women's Masters winner was Leisa Ensle, 46, of
Beach
The top local female was
Ashley McWilliams, 28, of
in
In the three mile race,
former Bruton runner Adam Canning of
Williamsburg won easily in 15:21, almost a minute ahead of Brian Derr
of
Newport News (16:15). Aurora Scott, second in the Virginia AAA high
school cross country meet last fall as a freshman, dominated the
women's
race in 16:27 (third overall, including the men), a whopping 2 1/2
minutes ahead of second place. Linda Sawvell of
19:03, while Pamela Lovett of
(40-and-over) division in
----------------------------------------
Brief race writeup via Bruce Davis of the Peninsula Track Club, and
edited by Rick Platt
Below are the award winners for the 26th Annual Anheuser-Busch Colonial
Half Marathon and 3 Mile Fun Run held on the campus of William and Mary
and the Carter's Grove Country Road on Sunday afternoon, February 27,
2005. The course for the 3 Mile Fun Run winded its way around the
campus
of William and Mary, finishing inside William & Mary Hall.
The featured
race, the Colonial Half Marathon, started on the campus of William and
Mary and followed a course taking runners out the Carter's
Road
William & Mary Hall. Conditions at race time for both races
were partly
cloudy with temperatures in the 40s.
Records were set in the
Colonial Half Marathon for the men. Azat
Rakipov, 36, of
time of
Andrews of
Kibiwot, 30, of
to break the old record, but not enough to beat Rakipov.
For the women, Tetyana Hladyr,
29, of the
of
the women was Casey Smith, 25, of
In the 3 Mile, Aurora Scott,
15, of
the women with a time of