The history of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon is short but impressive.
Four years ago, in its debut year, the women’s race was won by Catherine Ndereba, better known as “Catherine the Great.” In its second year, a new course record was set (1:02:37) and four American men notched qualifiers for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
The prize purse includes $1,200 for the male and female winners and $600 for top Americans. The race also hosts the Road Runners Club of America National Half Marathon Championships, the Potomac Valley Association USATF Championship and the National Industries for the Blind Visually Impaired National Half Marathon Championships. And with a fun yet challenging course that starts with eight miles on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, climbs over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and finishes with a big loop around National Harbor, the race draws more than 3,000 runners of all abilities.
Oh, but those eight opening miles on GW Parkway, a national park …
On day two of the federal government shutdown – four days before the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon – Race Director Steve Nearman was forced into making a tough decision.
Due to the shutdown, the race was postponed until November 10, more than a month after the original date. Deferrals to next year’s race were offered and about 600 were processed, Nearman said, while 1,739 runners came out to race on the new date.
Meanwhile, Nov. 10 was as good as Oct. 6 for Kellyn Johnson. The 27-year-old professional runner claimed her second straight win in 1:13:02 and earned prize money in both the overall and American-only divisions.
“It just gave me a little more time to train,” she said. “It was something that was on my schedule before and then it happened to fit perfectly into it after.”
Johnson trains in Flagstaff, Ariz., with Team USA Arizona and said she is still experimenting with distances between 5K and the half marathon. She ran the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, and was 4th in this year’s national 10-mile championship hosted by the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run. She will return to the area Nov. 17 for the .US National Road Racing 12K Championships.
Johnson was followed by Desta Tadesse of Ethiopia (1:13:53). Waynishet Abebe, an Ethiopian runner who lives in D.C., was 3rd in a personal best time of 1:14:10, just a few weeks after winning the Atlantic City Marathon.
Lindsay O’Brien of Washington, D.C., in her second half marathon, finished 7th overall and was 2nd American. Her time, 1:18:54, was more than a minute faster than her last attempt at the distance.
O’Brien was a three-time cross country All-American at Yale who took a break from competitive running and now trains with Georgetown Running Club.
“I’m trying not to be daunted by the distance,” she said. “This was a good step in the right direction.”
The men’s race was led by a pack of three: Girma Gebre, Siraw Kebede, and Nahom Mesfin, all from Ethiopia.
They raced side by side, charging together up a tough hill in National Harbor. But at the 12-mile mark, Gebre made a strong move to win decisively in 1:04:40.
Gebre has been living in New York with his manager, Alem Kahsay, who said Gebre’s background is in the middle distances. Mesfin, though, is no slouch in the leg speed department, either: He has competed in two Olympics in the steeplechase, and said he spent most of the past nine months training at altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz. Mesfin, however, admitted that Gebre’s move was simply too strong to match.
“Anyway, I’m happy,” he said, smiling after his third-place finish.
The men’s chase pack of four included Georgetown Running Club’s Kieran O’Connor.
O’Connor, 26, has only been running competitively for a few years. But he has already won a marathon and was the 8th American in Boston in 2012. After earning a master’s degree at a university in Cairo, Egypt, O’Connor recently moved to D.C., joined Georgetown Running Club, and – for the first time – started doing speed work under the eye of coach Jerry Alexander.
Going into today’s race, O’Connor’s half marathon best was in the 1:09s. He took it out easy, he said, on the opening downhill from the start in Mount Vernon; men and women were flying ahead of him. But then they started coming back – 5:05 miles clicking away.
At the top of the hill in National Harbor, O’Connor knew his goal of breaking 1:07 was within his reach. And rather than be intimidated by the professional runners surrounding him, O’Conner dropped them on the way to running 1:06:49 – good for 4th overall and top American.
In the visually impaired national championships, Aaron Scheidies, like Johnson, appreciated having extra time to train.
Scheidies won the men’s division last year in 1:18:05. This year, in the week’s before the original race date, Schiedies finished 2nd in the visually impaired division of the triathlon at the London Paralympics. Afterward he took a vacation.
Guided by Georgetown Running Club’s Dave Wertz, Schiedies won his second straight national championship and claimed a new personal best and event record of 1:16:24.
“I didn’t expect it, so I’m really happy with the time,” he said.
Adjusting to a New Race
The Wilson Bridge Half Marathon was supposed to be Briana Whelan‘s tune-up race for the Marine Corps Marathon, her first attempt at 26.2 miles.
When it was postponed, Whelan did not find a replacement race. She nonetheless had a great experience in her first marathon, which she ran with her cousin and uncle.
As for this morning, the Washington, D.C., resident and running newbie ended a two-week break to finish her third half marathon of 2013.
Chris Beeler, a U.S. Army colonel on a year-long assignment in the District, has been training with DC Road Runners and planned to use the Wilson Bridge Half Marathon as a confidence booster for the Army Ten Miler, held on October 20. Her goal race complete, it was hard to stay motivated to run another race, she said.
“But in the end,” she said, “it is what it is, and it was a beautiful day today.”
Miguel Gonzales of Manassas, Va., said the shutdown and the postponement it forced derailed his training. In the 1990s, he ran professionally, but with a busy job and four daughters between 2 and 9, Gonzales – until about a year ago – had more or less stopped running altogether.
“I got to 200 pounds and said I need to lose some weight,” he said. And while today was tough for him and he “felt horrible,” Gonzales said he thought of today’s race as a fresh start.
Mark Geiger of Waldorf, Md., finished his first half marathon, culminating several months of training. He said he could not remember the exact reasons he started running about a year ago – only that he started with walking and, week by week, added a little more running.
“I think it worked out better because the weather today was better,” said Geiger, referring to the rescheduled date.
The weather this morning was perfect for racing. October 6 in Washington, D.C., on the other hand, was a hot day. And let me tell you: This runner has woken up on many such race days and thought to himself: Man, if there’s any way this race could be postponed …
If tailwind and the downhill course weren’t enough to get people rolling at the Pike’s Peek 10k in Rockville, five days of pent-up tension led to a moment of silence on the starting line to honor the victims and their families affected by the Boston Marathon bombing.
[button-red url=”http://www.mcrrc.org/pikes-peek-10k-5″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Race director Jean Arthur said that Monday’s tragedy created anxiety for her with less than a week until the race.
“It added a few extra steps,” Arthur said. “But it went off okay. People showed up and I’m happy about that.”
An impressive group made up the elite competition and led the way through some heavy wind conditions and a cool breeze. But runners seemed to enjoy the near-ideal running conditions downhill along the Rockville Pike to White Flint Mall.
First place finisher Girma Gebre and second place finisher Ayele Feisa, both of whom came from New York
City to compete, pulled away from the leading pack near mile three. Less than a mile later, Gebre was able to widen the gap even farther and brought home a $1,000 check with a winning time of 28:23. Washington, D.C.’s very own Tumicha Horsa also had an impressive finish with a time of 28:45, placing third and winning $650.
The women’s competition came down to Tsehay Getiso, a 19-year-old visiting from New York City for the race, and Jane Murage of Royersford, Pa. Both Getiso and Murage led the close-knit women’s pack for the majority of the race.
Getiso, who recently overcame an injury, is currently working toward qualifying for the 2016 Olympics. And despite her best attempt to hang on, Murage took home the $1,000-winning prize money by crossing the finish line two seconds faster than Getiso. Trailing less than a minute behind the first two women was third-place finisher Hirut Mandefro of Washington, D.C. Mandefro brought home $650 with a fast finish of 33:13.
The race’s additional security included K9 dogs at the start and finish and motorcycles that drove up and down the course. Though every year requires a strong police presence, which involves coordinating several large road closures, this year’s race implemented heightened security measures in the wake of recent events.
Caroline Thompson of Rockville, Md., who has been running with a group of five other friends, said that she noticed some anxiety in the air.
“I think everybody had such a great spirit about it,” Thompson said. “I didn’t hear anyone wanting to drop out and not run.”
While the 18th Annual Pike’s Peek 10k marked Thompson’s second time competing in the race, she ran the course seven minutes faster than she did in 2012.
Pike’s Peek marked Calvin Baxter’s first 10k race. A runner since 2001, Baxter of Silver Spring, Md. competed in a Superman t-shirt, the same shirt that his son wore for the Kids Fun Run. Though Baxter was a little nervous about competing in a race that he had signed up for only one day prior, he said he found himself wanting to pass people on the course.
“I just wanted to compete in the race to bring my son out here so that he could do the kid’s race,” Baxter said. “I didn’t realize that when you get out here, it gets kind of competitive.”
Tradition is important for Pike’s Peek, a race that celebrates finishing with a festival area full of food, family activities and live music. Thirteen years ago, Lieutenant Pedro Meneses competed beside his recruiting class when he was enrolled in the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Training Academy. On the day of the Pike’s Peek 10k, Meneses led his own group of recruits to the race as head of the recruit fitness department for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, a tradition that he said has been going on for at least 13 years.
“This is culminating a lot of the training they’ve been going through at the academy,” Meneses said with recruits around him. “They’ve got another 10 weeks to go.”
Despite race security concerns throughout the country, the tradition and timeless racing spirit led to another successful Pike’s Peek. The event proceeds went to the Montgomery County Youth Recreation Fund, Rockville Youth Recreation Fund, Scleroderma Foundation of Greater Washington DC and the RRCA Road Scholars.
