Team USA Minnesota's Antonio Vega finished 11th in Sunday's NYC Half Marathon, clocking 1:04:26 amidst a world class field in a race that started in Central Park and finished in Lower Manhattan.Vega's half marathon debut highlighted a busy weekend of action for Minnesota athletes.
Vega (pictured), who made his half marathon debut with the effort, was the second place American in the field behind Beijing Olympic Marathon qualifier Dathan Ritzenhein who finished 3rd in 1:01:38. Tadesse Tola of Ethiopia won a close race over Patrick Makau for the NYC Half title, running 1:00:58 to Makau's 1:00:59 on a muggy, overcast day in the Big Apple.
Asked afterward how he thought the half marathon distance differed from the shorter races he's more familiar with, Vega said:
"It's probably how long you hurt!"
"At five miles, I thought 'I'm not even half-way and I'm feeling it a bit,'" the former Golden Gopher said. "I think it's one of those things that's more mental than anything else. You've just got to focus and just recover. I was looking at my splits and I was clicking off 4:50, 4;50, so I felt good when I saw that."
Vega expects to compete next at the USA 20K Championships in New Haven, Connecticut on September 1. His ultimate goal for the fall is the USA Men's Marathon Championship held in conjunction with the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on October 5.
Results from the NYC Half Marathon are HERE.
In Other Action ... Minnetonka High School grad Will Leer, who trains with the Oregon Track Club, ran a 3:56.75 mile at the Morton Memorial Meeting in Ireland on Friday. Leer finished runner-up to fellow American Rob Myers who won in 3:56.23.
Results from the meet are HERE.
Kenyan Michael Chesang and Ethiopian Teyba Naser won the Boston Scientific Heart of the Summer 10K held Saturday at Lake Nokomis. Chesang ran 30:23 to defeat Matt Downin of Minneapolis who clocked 30:41.
Naser ran 32:49 to edge Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor and former Chaska high school star Stephanie Herbst-Lucke who ran 32:54 and 32:55, respectively for 2nd and 3rd. Herbst-Lucke, a former collegiate record holder in the 10,000 meters while attending the University of Wisconsin, is now a 42-year-old Atlanta, Georgia resident.
Results from the race are HERE.
Also ... You can read Mackenzie Lobby's Running USA Wire race recap HERE. She notes that Herbst-Lucke missed the U.S. masters 10K record, held by four-time Olympian Colleen DeReuck, by a scant five seconds.
Olympian Graces Summer League Meet ... You don't expect to bump into a Beijing-bound athlete when you lace up your spikes at an all-comers meet, but last Thursday, there one was.
Shani Marks, who will represent the USA in the triple jump in Beijing, jumped in the season's first USATF Minnesota Summer League meet at Eagan High School, jumping 45-2 1/4 for the win over training partner Amanda Thieschafer who jumped 43-10 3/4 for 2nd.
Results of the meet can be found HERE.
Photo by Victor Sailer http://www.photorun.net/.
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