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Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

Road Race Action This Weekend Includes Cherry Blossom and Carsbad Races

Posted April 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

This weekend’s road racing action includes the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 mile in Washington, D.C., and the Carlsbad 5000 in Carlsbad, Calif. Both events are scheduled for Sunday, April 6.

In Washington, two-time world marathon champion Catherine Ndereba will open her 2008 season. The 35 year-old Kenyan, who also holds an Olympic silver medal, has never won the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 mile. Her best finish there was second in 2004 to Kenyan compatriot Isabellah Ochichi. Ndereba, who will be challenged by Kenyan Lineth Chepkurui and Romanian Lidia Simon, will lead a field of elite women in a special early start, 20 minutes prior to the main race of 12,000 runners.
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Race Report: Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile

Posted April 2nd, 2007 at 2:02 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results

It had been eight years since Worku Bikila became the first and only Ethiopian to win the prestigious Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile. This year, that storied running nation returned to the race’s West Potomac Park victory stand, times two, taking both the men’s and women’s titles, with a world record tossed in for good measure.

For the second year in a row race director Phil Stewart gave the elite women a 10-minute head start, but perhaps they should have made Teyba Erkesso start with the main field, just to give the rest of the women a sporting chance. As it was, she left them in the dust from the opening mile and never looked back, obliterating her competition as well as the women’s-only 10 mile world record of 52:11 set here last year by Russia’s Lidya Grigoriyeva.
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Cherry Blossom Ten Mile opens Spring running season in Washington, D.C.

Posted March 30th, 2007 at 1:40 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

The two-week National Cherry Blossom Festival, which begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., honors the anniversary of Japan gifting 3,000 cherry trees to the United States in 1912. These gorgeous flowering trees form the backdrop for another great Washington tradition which is part of the festival: the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile which will celebrate its 35th running on Sunday.

Race director Phil Stewart expects 10,000 runners to compete on the flat course which begins and ends in West Potomac Park near the FDR Memorial. Consistently one of the fastest 10 mile races in the world, the event has seen the men’s world record set in 1983 and again in 1995, and the women’s world record in 1976, ‘77, ‘79, ‘87, ‘95 and ‘98, according to the independent Association of Road Racing Statisticians. At last year’s race, the elite women were given a 10 minute head start, and Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia ran 52:11, the fastest ever 10 mile by a woman in an all-women’s race.
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