Returning men's open and masters champion Mbarak Hussein ran 2:13:52 to successfully defend both titles and two-time Olympian Marla Runyan dominated the women's field running 2:32:17 at The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, host of the USA Marathon Championships on Sunday (1 October) in Minneapolis.
After rough start, Hussein takes narrow victory
Despite the cool, dry conditions that met the sell-out crowd of 10,500 at the start, the men's lead pack of nearly 25 cruised through the first mile in only five minutes, 25 seconds, before hometown favorite Jason Lehmkuhle took charge with a 4:45 second mile. Running on his own, the Team USA Minnesota athlete opened a 20 second lead by five miles over a chase pack that included new American citizen Simon Sawe; first-time marathoner Fasil Bizuneh; and 2003 USA Marathon Champion Ryan Shay.
Once the chase pack joined Lehmkuhle at seven and a half miles, Hussein's title defense looked to be in jeopardy as he ran 50 meters behind the leaders, struggling to warm-up. Having suffered with a hamstring injury for most of the summer, Hussein chose to remain cautious for two more miles before he began to make an effort to establish contact with the front group.
Crossing Lake Nakomis between 11 and 12 miles, Bizuneh was feeling confident enough to flash a thumbs-up to the pace car while Hussein was noticeably less comfortable having just joined the leaders.
As the group of five steadily made their way through the remaining portion of the Minneapolis section of the course, maintaining a rhythm between 5:00 and 5:10 per mile, Shay began to drop off and soon found himself ten seconds behind the leaders at about 17 miles. Crossing the Mississippi River at 19 miles, he managed to rejoin the leaders and quickly made his way to the front in an attempt to make his run at a second marathon title.
With the course running along the river, the leaders began the steady climb into St. Paul. By 20 miles, Bizuneh began to loose his grip on the lead pack and quickly faded from view, less than a half mile later Lehmkuhle would falter. Approaching 21, Shay appeared to be in control, while Sawe trailed by a step and Hussein still seemed to be uncomfortable but somehow managed to hang on.
Despite the 22nd and 23rd miles passing in 5:25 and 5:28 respectively, Shay found himself beginning to fade as Sawe and Hussein began their duel up Summit Avenue. As the pair made their way towards the finish at the State Capitol, Hussein made one last effort to pull clear of Sawe for a 17-second win. Shay held on to run 2:14:58 for third. Chris Lundstrom (Minneapolis, Minn.) came from ninth at half-way to finish fourth in 2:17:34 and Bizuneh held on to fifth in 2:18:14.
Smooth sailing for Runyan
In the women's race, the heavily favored Runyan took charge early and never looked back. By 10 km she had a 36 second lead over Mary Akor and another 30 seconds on Maggie Chan-Roper.
Runyan passed the half-way mark in 1:14:20 to open a comfortable lead of one minute, 46 seconds on Akor, while Zoila Gomez had overtaken Chan-Roper to move into third.
By 30 km, Runyan's lead over Akor had grown to nearly two minutes and Gomez was making a move to close to within 12 seconds of second place. Despite temperatures rising towards the 70's, Runyan began to slow but managed to hold on to most of her lead for a 1:33 victory over Akor, whose 2:33:50 was a personal best by 3:29.
Running perhaps the biggest personal best of the day Gomez turned in a 2:35:26 for a 6:16 personal best to finish third. Michelle Lilienthal, the second U.S. woman at Boston earlier this year, also turned in a personal best to finish fourth in 2:35:51 and Turena Johnson Lane rounded out the top-five in 2:36:15.
Hussein's titles earned him a total of $39,000 in open and masters prize money and Runyan's win was worth $30,000.
Jim Estes (USATF) for the IAAF
