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A high-energy host known for his magnetic presence and deep connection to the running community, Ronnel Blackmon brings years of experience as an emcee, announcer, and race day personality at premier running events across the country. His dynamic style and passion for endurance sports have made him a favorite among athletes and race organizers alike. Get to know the emcee of the 2026 Running USA Industry Conference in this new 5 Questions interview with Jay Holder, Running USA Executive Director..

(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. NEW YORK (07-Jun) -- Hellen Obiri of Kenya, one of the most decorated women in distance running, who had won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country plus the Boston and New York City Marathons, added one more big victory to her résumé today: the Mastercard New York Mini 10K.  Obiri, 35, who runs for the On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colo., won the world's original road race for women here this morning in Central Park, prevailing in a late-race duel with USA half-marathon record holder Weini Kelati (Under Armour Dark Sky Distance), 30:44 to 30:49.  Obiri covered the up-and-down back half of the race in a blistering 15:09 and won $10,000 in prize money. "First of all, I'm so happy to win this race because the elite (field) was so strong," Obiri told reporters.  "Also, coming after Boston (Marathon) and Manchester (10K) I felt like, let me try to give my best.  For the last two weeks I have been working on my speed." Obiri needed both speed and endurance to win today.  A savvy racer, she stayed tucked in the lead pack of eight which broke away in the second mile.  Amanda Vestri (Brooks/ZAP Endurance), who was the top American at this race last year when she finished fourth, set the early pace.  Vestri covered the first (downhill) mile in 4:57, then the down-and-up second mile at the same tempo.  Vestri and Obiri were joined by Sharon Lokedi (Under Armour) and Grace Nawowuna (Nike) of Kenya, Gotytom Gebreslase (Nike) of Ethiopia, Taylor Roe (Puma Elite Running), and Emma Grace Hurley (Asics). The group of eight stayed together as they climbed up Cat Hill --named after a statue of a mountain lion mounted on a rock outcropping on the side of the course-- and were still together at the 3-mile mark (15:02) and 5K (15:36).  Kelati decided to take the lead in the fourth mile, and after the leaders passed Engineers' Gate at 90th Street on the park's east side, Hurley began to drift off the back (she would finish eighth in 31:42).  Kelati was on the front. "At first the race was kind of slow," Kelati told Race Results Weekly.  She continued: "The race kind of got stronger and stronger, and at some point Hellen came up next to me.  She's a strong runner." Kelati split the fourth mile in 4:55, and that was fast enough to drop Vestri and Nawowuna who finished sixth and seventh in 31:20 and 31:34, respectively.  That left five women --Obiri, Kelati, Gebreslase, Roe and Lokedi-- to battle for the win as the race turned back south in the fifth mile on the park's East Drive. Moments later, Obiri made her big move.  Roe, the American 10K record holder with a 30:56 personal best, immediately reacted along with Kelati. "I mean, like that's the move," Roe told reporters.  "Like, that was going to be the move that broke open the race, and it's either you hopped on the train and you're in it, or if you don't hop on it you're going the wrong direction." Roe did her best to stay in contact with Kelati and Obiri, but the former Oklahoma State star eventually fell back and was passed by Gebreslase, who took third in 30:54 to Roe's 30:58. Up ahead, Kelati and Obiri continued their battle for the win.  With 26:30 showing on the clock, Kelati went in front with Obiri right on her heels.  But moments later, on the course's final downhill, Obiri opened up her stride and surged ahead of Kelati. Kelati pushed herself to match the 2:17:41 marathoner's move. "She's a tough runner, she's like a marathoner," Kelati said of Obiri.  She continued: "I was like, no matter what, I have to follow her.  I know she has a great finish.  I just had to push myself today." But Obiri was too strong for Kelati today.  She held her lead all the way to the finish line on the 72nd Street Transverse right in the middle of the park.  Her time of 30:44 was well off of Senbere Teferi's 2023 course record of 30:12, but very solid given the extremely humid conditions today. "For me it's incredible," said Obiri of her victory.  "And the winning here tells me, like, I have a lot to give out in coming marathon.  You know when you win here, they have an incredible field, really strong women.  So, for me winning here it's a good indication that I'm also strong coming from Boston, and taking it into the next marathon I feel so strong." Interestingly, Kelati earned more prize money than Obiri.  She collected $8000 for second place plus another $5000 as the top American for a total of $13,000.  The 2019 NCAA cross country champion for the University of New Mexico said she hoped to win the Mini before her career wrapped up. "I wish I did today," she said. Susannah Scaroni broke her own course record in the professional wheelchair competition, clocking 20:49.  It was her sixth Mini win, good for $2500 in prize money.  She was worried that it might rain, a big risk factor for wheelchair racers. "I did not expect it," Scaroni told Race Results Weekly of her win today.  "It started to sprinkle on the (starting) line, and I was starting to get nervous.  Then it stayed dry, no wind.  And just like, amazing day." The race had a record 9973 finishers, according to New York Road Runners officials, an event record. PHOTO: Hellen Obiri of Kenya winning the 2025 Mastercard New York Mini 10K in 30:44 (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)  

NEW YORK (06-Jun) -- There may not be lights, but there will be cameras and plenty of action. The 53rd edition of the Mastercard New York Mini 10K, scheduled here for Saturday at 8 a.m. in Central Park, is really an extension of this city's famous theater district about one mile to the south.  It's a big production, with stars, a supporting cast, an audience, and thousands of extras. "The sense of joy and camaraderie at the Mini is unlike anything else," said New York Road Runners board chair Nenna Lynch at a press conference today. She's right.  The Mini, along with the TCS New York City Marathon and New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile, is one of New York Road Runners' three signature events with a long history.  The Mini was founded in 1972, just three weeks before the passage of Title IX.  There were no road races for women then and the Mini changed that forever.  Seventy-two women finished the first edition of the race which was won by 17 year-old Jacki Dixon, who covered the then-six-mile course in 37:02. "I was just hanging on the last five miles," said Dixon, who is now the mayor of Loveland, Colo., under her married name of Jacki Marsh. Like women's running, the Mini grew slowly.  It wasn't until 1978 that the race had over 3,000 finishers, and it didn't hit the 5,000 mark until 1985.  L'eggs, a brand of women's hosiery, sponsored the race from 1978 through 1990, then Advil took over from 1991 through 1997.  The current title sponsor, Mastercard, didn't come on board until the 2021 race (the first edition after the COVID pandemic shutdown), and this will be the fifth year that the credit card company will have its name on the race.  New York Road Runners officials expect over 10,000 women to finish the race (there were a record 9,688 finishers last year). Of course, some of the greatest female distance runners have won the Mini, including Norwegians Grete Waitz (five times) and Ingrid Kristiansen (twice).  Kenya's Tegla Loroupe won five times, as did Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat.  Another Kenyan star, Mary Keitany, won the race three times. This year's race features a superstar cast of Olympians and other fast women, like Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon champions Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi of Kenya; like American Olympians Weini Kelati, Emily Sisson, Emily Infeld, and Dakotah Popehn; and American up-and-comers like Taylor Roe, Emma Grace Hurley and Amanda Vestri.  Each of them would love to become a Mini winner. But the real stars are the nearly quarter million women who have finished the Mini since the race's inception.  Fast and slow, black and white, young and old, these women have come from all places and walks of life to celebrate the joy of running, to have a race they can call their own.  This is just as true now as it was back in 1972. "I absolutely love all-women's races," said women's running pioneer Marilyn Bevans who, at 75 years-old, will run the Mini for the 14th time.  "I absolutely love it." And if you're a man, the Mini has a place for you, too.  Get over the Central Park tomorrow, find a spot along the course, and cheer for these active women.  It's one of the greatest off-Broadway shows you can see, and admission is free. PHOTO: New York Road Runners chief commercial officer Christine Burke (left) with women's running pioneer Marilyn Bevans (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)  

(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. NEW YORK (05-Jun) -- Halfway through the 2024 Mastercard New York Mini 10K here in Central Park, Amanda Vestri quickly took stock of her position.  She was running in fourth place and the three women who were just one-second ahead of her --Senbere Teferi of Ethiopia, and Sharon Lokedi and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya-- were among the world's best road runners.  It was time to test herself. "My goal was to be top American in the race," she told Race Results Weekly a year ago.  "So, there was a moment in time when it was either stay back with the chunk of the Americans or go ahead with the faster women at the front." Vestri, now 25, stayed cool as the three Africans eventually pulled away.  She went into grind mode and pushed through the second half alone.  Somehow, she managed to achieve a negative split (15:40 for the first half and 15:37 for the second), and finished fourth in a personal best 31:17.  She earned $7500 in prize money, a hugely important payday for a runner who was part of a well-established training group but had no shoe company sponsorship at the time. "That's probably one of the first things that my coach (Pete Rea of ZAP Endurance) mentioned to me after the race," Vestri said in a telephone interview yesterday when asked about that negative split.  She continued: "Obviously, the goal is the same this year, just to go faster." Vestri --along with another 10,000 women-- will race the 53rd edition of the Mini here on Saturday, the world's first-ever road race for women, founded in 1972 by New York Road Runners.  She is part of an incredible elite field which includes some of the very best American distance women, like Olympians Weini Kelati, Emily Sisson, Emily Infeld, and Dakotah Popehn.  Abbott World Majors champions Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi of Kenya, and Gotytom Gebreslase are also in the field (Teferi will not be back to defend her title). Vestri comes into this year's Mini as a completely different athlete from a year ago.  Working with her agent Josh Cox, she picked up a sponsorship with Brooks Running (based, at least in part, on her Mini performance), and has been stacking up months of quality training under Coach Rea and his deputy Ryan Warrenburg. "I just feel like the consistency that we had built throughout the last summer of 2023, after I graduated, and then into 2024 started compounding," Vestri explained.  "Month after month, I just felt like I was getting better and better, and training seemed to be getting better every month, even every week." After her Mini success, Vestri has achieved extraordinary growth as an athlete.  She took fifth in the USA Olympic Team Trials 10,000m last summer just three weeks after the Mini, beaten only by Weini Kelati, Parker Valby, Karissa Schweizer, and Jessica McClain.  She got second at the USATF 6K road running championships, and sixth at the USATF 10K road running championships. A year earlier it seemed unlikely that she would be a factor in those races, but her run at the Mini changed all that. "It just kind of all culminated at the New York Mini," Vestri said.  "That's why this race is so special to me.  I don't know; it just kind of gave me a different confidence as a runner."  She added: "I'm excited to be back." Vestri wanted to try the half-marathon distance last fall, and Coach Rea was all-in.  She had planned to peak for the Valencia Half-Marathon at the end of October, but a little injury forced her to push back her schedule.  Instead of taking the long trip to Spain, Vestri went to Florida and ran in the low-key OUC Orlando Half-Marathon last December.  She popped a solo 1:08:12 in her debut making her the fourth-fastest American for 2024. "My coach and I always wanted to go up to the half this past fall," Vestri said.  "The plan was to do the Valencia Half-Marathon because we were just like, we want to run fast.  We want to go as far under 67 minutes as we can, and when I had that hiccup, that little injury, in October we were like, OK, we have to re-route now.  So, I took a few weeks off, and I'm actually the one who brought up the idea of doing Orlando just as a rust-buster, not for a good time.  I went into that race going, if I run under 70 minutes I'm going to be stoked.  So for me, it came as quite a shock that I came across the line close to 68 minutes.  I guess I didn't realize how good it was at the time." She ran even faster at the Aramco Half-Marathon last January, arguably the most competitive half-marathon in the United States.  She finished fourth in 1:07:35 after smoking through 10K in 31:40 and ten miles in 51:17.  Remarkably, Vestri wasn't satisfied with that performance because her expectations had risen. "We started thinking better numbers in Houston because we know how stacked Houston is," Vestri said.  "Houston is another one of those races I feel, and my coaches feel, was an under-performance day.  I kind of grade myself on effort and performance outcomes after the race."  She continued: "Houston should have been a 67-flat day, or under.  That's where my fitness was at at the time." Vestri would run one more half in that training cycle, the USATF Half-Marathon Championships in Atlanta on March 2, part of the Publix Atlanta Marathon Weekend hosted by the Atlanta Track Club.  On a raw and windy day, she took third on a hilly course in 1:08:17 behind Taylor Roe (1:07:22) and Emma Grace Hurley (1:07:35).  She qualified for Team USATF for the (now cancelled) 2025 World Athletics Road Running Championships. "Atlanta was just a grind fest," Vestri lamented.  "I felt really, really bad the whole way.  That one was all heart.  There was no good feelings for me in that race, physically." Since then Vestri has raced three times, from the mile to 10,000m.  She was happy with two of them, but the third was a big disappointment for her.  At The TEN in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., on March 29, she finished 18th in 31:56.56, nowhere near what she had hoped for. "That race was one of the ugliest races of my life," Vestri groaned.  She continued: "When me and my coaches sat down after that race, we all think that what happened is that the three half-marathons, which was a new distance for me last year, in the span of three months that I did it in was just too much on my body and I did not give myself a chance to recover after them.  We were asking my body a little too much at that point." Vestri's most recent race, a 5000m personal best at the Sound Running Track Fest in Los Angeles on May 24, went much better.  She finished fifth in a personal best 15:01.22.  That came on the heels of a 4:47.8 road mile in North Carolina, a race she did for training.  Those two races stimulated a different part of her aerobic system, part of her quest to be a more complete athlete. "We're going to dip down now," said Vestri, who explained that she needed to also work on her speed.  "It's not going to be comfortable; it's going to feel like you're sprinting.  But, at the end of the day that's only going to help your 5K, which is going to help your 10K, which is going to help your half-marathon, which is going to help your marathon.  That's kind of the approach that we took for that one." Reflecting on the past 12 months, Vestri has learned a lot about professional running and about herself.  She's learned to trust the key people who are in her corner, she understands better the business end of the sport, and she's learned not to worry too much about the approval of others.  She's also trying not to be so hard on herself. "Because I take my workouts so seriously I do have those high expectations for myself," she said.  "It's me putting those expectations on myself, it's no one else.  I just feel like that's always how I've been.  I think that's ingrained in a lot of runners.  We're always, like, type-A, I feel.  I envy the type-B runners.  I know some type-B runners and I'm like, I wish I was you." The 2025 Mastercard New York Mini 10K will be broadcast LIVE and FREE on four different platforms on Saturday beginning at 7:45 a.m. EDT: . WABC-TV . ESPN+ . abc7.ny.com . NYRR Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@nyrrvideo) PHOTO: Amanda Vestri after finishing third at the 2025 USATF Half-Marathon Championships in Atlanta on March 2 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. ALBANY, N.Y. (31-May) -- Through a lashing rain and several ankle-deep puddles, Molly Born of the Puma Elite Running team cruised to victory at the 47th Delightful Run For Women 5K.  Despite the awful weather, the 25-year-old former Oklahoma State athlete ran a surprisingly fast 15:31, finishing six seconds ahead of her teammate Jessica McGorty.  Born's time was a personal best and the fastest here in 11 years. "I'm just excited to get back out racing pushing it, making it hard, getting the most out of it," said Born, who hadn't run a race since last November because she was recovering from a stress fracture. Born made her intentions known early.  She and McGorty led key rivals Amy Davis-Green (Hansons-Brooks ODP) and Anna Kostarellis (Asics) through the uphill first kilometer.  The wind and rain were hitting them directly in the face, but both Born and McGorty looked composed.  Born was embracing the bad conditions. "The headwind was really bad in the first, like, K," Born told Race Results Weekly.  "But, I kind of like the bad weather, too." As the leaders turned left into Washington Park where the course goes up and down several short hills, Born used the first downhill to open a gap on McGorty.  She split the first (mostly uphill) mile in 5:17, two seconds ahead of McGorty, a 1500m runner with a powerful kick. "Jess is so fast, I needed to make the race hard," Born said of her strategy.  "I just felt good the first mile." Born ran the up-and-down second mile in a very fast 5:00, increasing her lead on McGorty to 20 seconds.  She shot one final glance back over her left shoulder before plowing through a huge puddle at the park's exit.  When she made the final right turn onto Washington Avenue for the long straightaway to the finish, she was greeted by applause and shouts of encouragement from the runners at the back of the pack who were running in the opposite direction. "All the women were just going crazy on the other side of the street," Born said.  "It was amazing.  They were so, so excited and cheering me on.  It was great." McGorty, who also set a personal best, wasn't surprised that Born got the win today. "I would have liked to stay with her longer, but Molly's tough," McGorty said.  "She's strong and has been having some really good workouts, so the fact that she's out there grinding by herself was not a surprise to me at all.  I'm very happy for her." Davis-Green, who finished second last year, was able to stay close to McGorty in the middle section of the race, but fell behind in the final kilometer.  She finished third in 16:04.  That mark was slower than her 15:45 last year, but was still remarkable given that the 2:28 marathoner is 12 weeks pregnant. "To run almost sub-16:00 I was really pleased with," the rain-soaked Davis-Green said.  "That was really nice." Kostarellis, who like McGorty grew up in Upstate New York, finished fourth in 16:28.  Standing at the finish line with the back of her Asics uniform splattered with mud she said, "That was brutal." The top four women earned $3000, $2500, $2000 and $1500 in prize money, respectively.  When a reporter mentioned to Born that she now had some extra money for end-of-year holiday shopping she smiled. "It will probably go to rent," she said. PHOTO: Molly Born winning the 2025 Delightful Run for Women 5K in a personal best 15:31 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)