Running USA wire 88, October 25, 2009

Boyd, Magee take MCM10K; nearly 21,000 finish "The People's Marathon"

ARLINGTON, Va. - (October 25, 2009) - Both John Mentzer and Muliye Gurmu earned the honor of taking home the Middendorf Trophy on Sunday at the 34th running of the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington.

However, they captured the nation's fifth-largest marathon in majorly different fashions.

Mentzer, a lieutenant commander at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery where Maine meets New Hampshire, took control of his race by 12 miles and played tourist over the rest of the scenic course with a 2 hour, 21 minute, 47 second run through the nation's capital.

"I'm hurting," Mentzer said moments after crossing the finish into the arms of his wife Amanda. "I'm excited to win. I did [Marine Corps] in 2005, got fourth. I've done a few more marathons since. It's a fun race but the last 10K was tough. This was the toughest last 10K I've ever had in a marathon. I probably pushed it too hard at the beginning."

For Gurmu, an Ethiopian training in nearby Silver Spring, MD, all she needed to do was push hard at the very end. Drafting off runner-up and Air Force Captain Jaymee Marty from miles 22 to 26, Gurmu flew past Marty with less than 365 yards remaining and notched a 27-second triumph in 2:49:48.

"It was easy," Gurmu said through an interpreter. "I felt good. Near the end, I was confident that I was going to win."

The day began with 20,999 starters being treated to arguably the best weather conditions for marathoning. The temperatures stayed in the 50s for much of the day, a huge plus for the back half of the field. And the air was calm, save for one spot near between 22 and 23 miles in Crystal City where the winds were whipping.

Mentzer took advantage and hung back in the hills of Arlington early in the race. After crossing the Key Bridge into Georgetown and travelling along the Potomac River through West and East Potomac parks, he finally caught up to Sean Birren, a 36-year-old from St. Louis, by the 15K timing mat. The pack was falling far back.

Just five kilometers later, Mentzer was on his way, up 29 seconds and not at all worried about Birren.

"I caught up with [Birren] between seven and eight miles," said Mentzer, who originally is from Bozeman, MT. "He said he was only going 13 to 16 miles. I knocked out some 5:12 to 5:15 miles and got the lead."

This was no novice going for victory at midrace, which he hit in 1:10:27 with a 90 second gap. After the 33-year-old posted a 2:24 here in 2005, he significantly lowered his time to 2:19:33 in Chicago in 2006, qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials. There, in November 2007 in New York City's Central Park, he nailed a 2:18:23 (good for 24th).

Mentzer, a 1998 Naval Academy grad, circled the National Mall with its stunning fall foliage and increased his lead over Salvador Miranda from Mexico to more than two minutes by 30K. He had a chance to see the length of his lead during an out-and-back leg to mile 23 in Crystal City. The rest of his course tour was uneventful.

But Miranda couldn't hold on to second. He was passed with half a mile to go by Air Force Captain Jake Johnson, whose time of 2:25:02 was a personal best by nearly two minutes. Miranda, a sergeant first class in the Mexican military and 2000 Olympic steeplechaser, had his best Marine time in five tries, a 2:25:24.

Some 25 minutes later, Gurmu and Marty were set to stage a battle to the finish. Gurmu used Melinda Keesee to tow her through nearly the entire race, passing the half-marathon in 1:20:37. Marty was more than three minutes back.

Even at 30K, Marty trailed Gurmu and Keesee by 2½ minutes but in the next 5K over the last portion of the 14th Street Bridge, she closed to within 17 seconds of the leaders.

"At mile 22, I passed [Keesee] and [Gurmu] and at mile 26, [Gurmu] outkicked me," said Marty, who is stationed in Sacramento and who placed seventh here last year in 2:57. "I ran a marathon three weeks ago."

She said she ran Twin Cities for an Olympic Trials qualifier and just missed by 29 seconds in 2:46:29. Then she said she had to run Marine Corps just three weeks later to qualify for the International Military Marathon in Athens, Greece, next October. She was the third military finisher at that competition this past April in Serbia.

In the end, the 25-year-old Gurmu had the fresher legs and more natural speed and youth up the last painful hill by the Iwo Jima Memorial finish, prevailing over the 42-year-old Marty, whose 2:50:15 broke the Masters event record of 2:50:51 set by Diane Palmason of Ottawa, Canada in 1983.

The Royal Navy / Marines won the annual Challenge Cup competition and Air Force team won the Armed Forces Marathon competition.

Wyatt Boyd of Washington and Kim Magee of Bloomington, MN, won the accompanying MCM10K in 32:54 and 39:20, respectively. Nearly 5,400 finished the 6.2 mile race.

34th Marine Corps Marathon
Washington, DC, Sunday, October 25, 2009

MEN
1) John Mentzer (ME), 2:21:47
2) Jacob Johnson (AR), 2:25:02
3) Salvador Miranda (MEX), 2:25:24
4) Benjamin Payne (MS), 2:26:30
5) Corey Duguette (WA), 2:27:34

MASTERS Men (40+)
1) Mark Croasdale, 44, GBR, 2:39:08
2) Mark Cucuzzella, 43, WV, 2:40:55
3) Alex Heithenington, 42, CA, 2:41:49

WOMEN
1) Muliye Gurmu (ETH), 2:49:48
2) Jaymee Marty, 42, CA, 2:50:15
3) Kayla Barbour (GA), 2:50:47
4) Emily Potter (VA), 2:51:53
5) Martha Nelson (DC), 2:57:20

MASTERS Women (40+)
1) Marty, see above
2) Grace Behrens, 42, NY, 2:58:28
3) Suzanne Himes, 40, DC, 3:00:59

Complete results at: www.marinemarathon.com

National TV broadcast; Joanie, Grete and Deena confab; ING NYCM by the numbers and what's new; charity watch

Expanded Two-Hour National Network Coverage of ING New York City Marathon 2009
NBC Sports will televise the 40th running of the ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 1 at 2:00pm EST. NBC Sports commentator Al Trautwig will be joined in the broadcast booth by veteran race journalist Toni Reavis with NBC Sports' Jimmy Roberts hosting the expanded two-hour recap show.

A record field of more than 40,000 runners from around the globe will take to the streets of New York for one of the world's greatest road race. The 26.2-mile race will be seen by 2.5 million live spectators as runners pace through New York City's five boroughs - Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan and finish at Tavern on the Green in world-famous Central Park. Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain and Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil are back to defend their crowns against the world's best including American standouts and Olympians Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Brian Sell and Abdi Abdirahman. Twenty-five years after her historic gold medal in the first women's Olympic Marathon, Joan Benoit Samuelson also will be running.

Three Marathon Queens Roundtable on October 29
Living legends Joan Benoit Samuelson and Grete Waitz will be joined by a future all-time great Deena Kastor at a special evening of conversation and question and answer open to the public on Thursday, October 29 from 6:30-8:00pm as part of the TimesTalk series at the New York Times building. For tickets and more information go to www.nytimes.whsites.net/talk/index.php or call 1-888-NYT-1870.

Benoit Samuelson will be running the ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 1, and Waitz has won a record nine New York City Marathon titles. Kastor, the 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist, is the U.S. marathon record holder and winner of both the London and Chicago Marathons in her career.

By the Numbers: ING New York City Marathon Style
* 39 years since the first running of the New York City Marathon, held in 1970
* 25 years since Joan Benoit Samuelson's historic gold medal in the first women's Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles 1984
* 100,000+ applicants to the ING New York City Marathon
* 40,000+ record field
* 6,800 runners estimated to represent more than 80 charities aiming to raise $21 million at the ING New York City Marathon 2009
* 64% men, 36% women participating
* 88 - age of oldest female entrant; 87 - age of oldest male entrant
* 100+ live music bands across the course
* 1,500 media credentials issued
* 6,000+ volunteers
* 6,725 pounds of cooked Barilla pasta at the Barilla Marathon Eve Dinner
* 11,410 pounds of ice
* 4,506 members of the ING New York City Marathon Facebook group
* 14,011 members of the New York Road Runners Facebook group
* 330,000,000 people reached by the global broadcast

What's New at the ING New York City Marathon?
Prize purse: In celebration of the 40th running of the ING New York City Marathon, a special prize amount of $200,000 will be awarded to a past champion who wins the Open division. The total guaranteed prize purse of $800,000 is the largest in race history and is the largest of any of the races in the World Marathon Majors series.

Greening the race: NYRR is committed to recycling and reusing-all fluids will be dispensed in recycled cups and all cups, cardboard and plastic from the fluid stations will be recycled. As in years past, all clothes left at the start will be donated to charity.

Slight course change: Because of construction taking place near the Brooklyn Academy of Music, there will be slight alterations to the course.

New at start: A charity row will be added to the start area.

For the second year, the ING NYC Marathon will have three wave starts to alleviate congestion at the start, course, and finish. Instead of releasing a mass start of approximately 42,000 runners at one time, the field will be organized into three separate starts released at 20-minute intervals. Each wave included approximately 14,000 runners. The plan was implemented in 2008 to enhance runners' overall race experience.

The professional women's race will start at 9:10am. Wave 1 will begin at 9:40am, including the professional men's start, followed by wave 2 at 10:00am, and then wave 3 at 10:20am.

Charity Watch
The new charities to join the ING New York City Marathon charity program have brought celebrity participation to help support community outreach, health and fitness, and disease-prevention initiatives. Some of the top charities added to the 2009 program include Maasai Wilderness Conservation Fund, whose board president is the actor Edward Norton; Grassroots Soccer, co-founded by Survivor winner Ethan Zohn and the Leary Firefighters Association, founded by actor Denis Leary.

NYRR also joined the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation - a marathon charity since 2006 - in announcing the participation of Matthew Reeve, son of the late Christopher Reeve, in the ING New York City Marathon 2009 as a part of Team Reeve to support spinal cord research. Reeve, who will be running in his first marathon, will wear bib #1275 to represent the 1.275 million Americans living with spinal cord injury.

Find more race information at: www.INGnycmarathon.org

Find a Thanksgiving Day road race - 343 of them - in more than 45 states

Thanksgiving is typically associated with food and football. However, Turkey Trots and Thanksgiving runs / walks are increasingly becoming an annual tradition for not only athletes, but families as a way to keep off the pounds and spend time together during the holidays. Turkey Trots are the events that bring out family members - mothers, fathers, siblings, kids and cousins - who have never run before.

Active.com, the largest site dedicated to participatory activities and events, is featuring a special Turkey Trot section that can be found at: www.active.com/running/turkeytrot

With 343 races in more than 45 states on the site, visitors can search for Turkey Trots and holiday races in their community and learn strategies for preventing the holiday bulge. In 2009, Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26.

Free health and fitness program underwritten by Big Sur International Marathon begins November 2 in Marina, California

CARMEL, Calif. - (October 23, 2009) - JUST RUN, the award winning youth fitness program of the Big Sur International Marathon, is debuting a specialized program beyond the school setting that focuses on children of highest need.

The new JUST RUN GOLD program, beginning Monday, November 2, welcomes participants in grades 1-5 to a safe and encouraging environment. Geared toward inactive and severely overweight children, the twice-a-week program will focus on health, nutrition and fitness topics, followed by fun and non-competitive relays, drills, and walking / running activities based upon the ability of the child.

The program is free to the participants, with costs underwritten by the Big Sur International Marathon.

"We saw a dire need in the community for programs to serve these children," said Susan Love, JUST RUN program administrator and co-creator of JUST RUN GOLD. "Our new program was designed to be a community resource and to offer a solution, a place where doctors, nurses, school officials and parents can refer and send these children."

The goals and benefits of the program are to increase physical activity and fitness levels while promoting self-esteem, pride in accomplishment, new friendships and weight loss. As with the successful JUST RUN school program, incentives such as mileage tokens, wristbands and t-shirts will be awarded for mileage accumulated and for performing acts of good citizenship, "Just Deeds".

The new JUST RUN GOLD program will be held Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 4:00 to 5:30pm at Los Arboles Sports Complex, 327 Reindollar Avenue in Marina. A parent or supervising adult must accompany and remain with their child at all sessions. The sessions will be led by qualified leaders Christina Price and Kecia Denk, who have extensive backgrounds in health and physical education programs, and co-creator Mike Dove.

"We're very excited about our new program," says Love. "We are confident that it will become a life altering experience for these children."

To learn more about the program, or to refer a potential child, contact Susan Love at (831) 625-6226 or susanwlove@sbcglobal.net.