Team USA Minnesota: Busy, Busy, Busy

Team USA Minnesota distance runners are scheduled for another busy week of competitions this week. Five athletes are slated to compete at the USA 1 Mile Road Championships in Minneapolis on Thursday night and another four are traveling to the USA 25K Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday.

In addition, Heather Kampf will be jetting off to Shanghai, China, to compete in the Diamond League’s Dunlop Golden Grand Prix meet on Sunday.

At the USA 1 Mile Championships, part of the Medtronic TC 1 Mile evening of races on Thursday, competing for the organization will be Kampf, Gabriele Anderson, Jamie Cheever, Meghan Armstrong, and Chris Rombough. The women will race in the elite women’s field which will run down Nicollet Mall starting at 7:53 p.m., and Rombough will be part of the men’s elite field which races at 8:03 p.m.

Kampf’s best in the mile is 4:30.95 and Anderson’s best is 4:31.05, both set on the road at the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York last fall. Cheever has run 4:39.5 in the distance and Armstrong has posted 4:40.5. Rombough’s PR is 4:04.95 in the mile set indoors. At the 2010 USA 1 Mile Championships, Kampf finished sixth and Armstrong was 10th. This is the third straight year that the Medtronic TC 1 Mile has hosted the mile championships.

After the mile race, Kampf will head for the airport the next morning to travel to Shanghai to run the 800 meters at the Dunlop Golden Grand Prix on Sunday, May 15. The meet is part of the 2011 Samsung Diamond League series of meets. Kampf has a best of 2:01.05 and is the only U.S. entrant in a field of international women in the 800m.

Toeing the line at the USA 25k Championships on Saturday will be Andrew Carlson, Matt Gabrielson, Josh Moen, and Emily Brown. The championships are part of the 34th annual Fifth Third River Bank Run which starts and finishes in downtown Grand Rapids and is the largest 25K road race in the country.

Carlson is the defending champion having posted 1:14:42 at the 2010 race. Gabrielson has a best of 1:16:42 in the distance, also set at the Grand Rapids race, while Moen's best of 1:18:59 was set when he won the 2010 City of Lakes 25K in Minneapolis. The event will be the longest race of Brown’s career. She posted 41:11 at the Lilac Bloomsday 12k on May 1.