Kenya's Rose Kosgei and Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor headline tonight's Grandma's Minnesota Mile at the State Fairgounds in St. Paul.This road mile is the first of two events composing the Grandma’s Minnesota Mile series. A $5,700 prize purse is being offered to the top finishers in the race with the male and female champions each receiving $1,250 for their efforts.
Kosgei has had a knack for winning races in Minnesota. The 26-year-old Kenyan was the runaway winner of the TC 1 Mile in May and won the Boston Scientific Heart of the Summer 10K last year by out-kicking countrywoman Angela Mutuku.
McGregor, who finished 4th in the 10,000 meters at last month's U.S. Olympic Trials, finished second in the St. Paul edition of the Minnesota Mile last year and holds the course record for the Heart of the Summer event at 32:17, the Minnesota state record for the distance.
Kosgei and McGregor lead solid women's and men's fields for the event, composed largely of long distance runners coming down in distance to race the mile. Also likely contenders in the women's field are American Colleen Newhart and Minnesota-based Lithuanian star Rasa Troup.
Kenya ’s David Tuwei, runner-up in last month’s Grandma’s Marathon, is racing in the men's mile against former University of Wisconsin star Matt Downin, who has spent the summer in Minneapolis. Ethiopian Abiyot Abebe, Kenyan Benson Chesang, and American Roger Cahill are also expected to contend.
Full elite startlists can be found HERE.
Action commences at 6:30 p.m. tonight with the kids mile. The elite race goes off at 7:50 p.m.
The second event, Grandma’s Minnesota Mile Duluth, will be run in downtown Duluth on Sunday, September 7.
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