Vega to Make Half Marathon Debut Sunday

Team USA Minnesota’s Antonio Vega will make his half marathon debut Sunday in the talent-packed NYC Half Marathon. The race includes top international stars like sub-1:00:00 Africans Patrick Makau of Kenya and Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa as well as American stand-outs like 2008 Olympic Marathon team member Dathan Ritzenhein and 2000 Olympian Adam Goucher.

Vega, who is coming off a solid 11th place, 29:41 performance at the Peachtree 10K earlier this month, is looking to the NYC Half Marathon for experience and confidence as he prepares for his marathon debut this fall.

DtB caught up with the former Golden Gopher before he left for the Big Apple.

DtB: It looked like you had a nice run at the Peachtree 10k, where you were the top American. How did you feel about the race?

Vega: Going into the Peachtree I really did not have any real expectation. I knew it was going to be a fast race with a lot of talented runners, and my main goal was to go out hard and give myself a shot at being in the top 20 of the race. Looking back on the race I felt I ran a pretty smart race. I did not go out to hard in the first couple of miles, but yet it was hard enough to keep the lead pack within sight.

DtB: What is the focus of your training right now?

Vega: Right now my focus for training is towards the Twin Cities Marathon. This will be my debut in the marathon so a lot of my workouts are going to begin to focus on longer aerobic type training.

DtB: You’ve been with Team USA Minnesota for nearly a year now, how do you feel your transition to professional running is going?

Vega: The transition to professional running has gone pretty smooth. The first three months of training with Team USA Minnesota were a little on the challenging side. It always takes a little time to get used to a new coach and a new type of training philosophy. So far things have been going well workouts have been going a lot better than I could have anticipated. It is great to have teammates that have a lot of experience and knowledge, which has been a lot of help in workouts and getting ready for competitions.

DtB: What are you hoping for at the NYC Half Marathon?

Vega: I am not exactly sure what I am expecting, the main reason I chose to run this race was to gain some experience racing something over a 10k. I am hoping to just gain some confidence before I start my training for the Twin Cities Marathon. I am more or less looking for an indicator as to what I think my marathon pace will be.