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(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved.  Published with permission. WASHINGTON, D.C. (06-Apr) -- It was a very good day for Puma Elite Running's Taylor Roe at the 52nd Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile here this morning. Very, very good. The 24-year-old former Oklahoma State star not only won her second national road running title in 36 days, but also ran a world best for an all-women's race (49:53; previous best 50:32), smashed the previous USATF record of 51:23, crushed the event record of 51:14, and also set a new national 10K (30:56) and 15K (46:24) records en route.  She also earned $30,000 in prize and bonus money: $10,000 for the USA title, $6,000 for the overall title, $1,000 for sub-52:00, $5,000 for a world best, $5,000 for a national record, and $3,000 for an event record. "That is not what we talked about today with my coach," a stunned Roe told reporters.  "Like, what we talked about?  That is exactly *not* what was supposed to happen.  I think at some point I committed to a pace, and you know, I just had to commit to it, believe in it." That pace began at 5:04 for the first mile, but quickly went down to 4:58 for the next.  Roe led training partner Fiona O'Keeffe, plus challengers Emma Grace Hurley, and Ethiopia's Adane Anmaw.  Roe held that sub-5:00 pace through 5 miles (24:52), and by that point she was already alone.  She had passed her coach, Alistair Cragg, who yelled at her, "just go!" as she went by. "I knew kind of the pace I was running," Roe explained.  "I knew if somebody's going to come get me they're going to have to start running low-4:50's.  And if, you know, they do that?  Props to them." But nobody did.  With just the lead truck, a few spectators, and the beautiful cherry trees in full bloom on Hains Point for company, Roe blasted through 10K in 30:56, then ran mile 7 in 4:57, mile 8 in 4:58, and mile 9 in 5:02.  Her form looked exactly the same as in the first mile. "I kind of knew if I maintained that pace, stay composed, it was going to be hard to come back on me," she said. Roe rolled to the finish alone, and even had time to pose for photos before Anmaw took second (51:00), Hurley got third (51:04), and O'Keeffe got fourth (51:49).  Both Anmaw and Hurley achieved personal bests. "I knew that today was going to be grindy and definitely gritty coming off going out to the West Coast and running a 10,000," said Roe, who ran a personal best 30:58.66 at The TEN in San Juan Capistrano last Saturday.  "Today wasn't going to be, like, fresh legs." The men's race was full of surprises, not least of which was that a popular British athlete won the USA title. Charles Hicks, the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships winner for Stanford University who now represents Nike, was part of a four-man break at 15K along with national road running champions Alex Maier, Hillary Bor and Biya Simbassa.  Hicks --who also has USA citizenship and was eligible to run in these national championships because the race did not function as a Team USATF selection race-- showed the best speed in the final kilometer and won in a new event record of 45:14.  Maier took second in 45:15 (a new USA record; Hicks is not yet eligible to set USA records), Simbassa took third in 45:23, and Bor got fourth in 45:30.  Defending champion Wesley Kiptoo of Kenya finished fifth in 45:55. Hicks, who was running his first road race, entered these championships after his coach, Jerry Schumacher, saw that he was coming into good form and the race would provide an excellent fitness test. "Talking to Jerry before this he's like, let's see how we go, plan the season from here," Hicks told reporters.  "I'm not sure we can really do much better than that, though.  So, I'd expect to see me on the roads a little bit more." Hicks is in the process of changing his allegiance from Great Britain to the United States (he is still listed as "Great Britain & Northern Ireland" with World Athletics).  He spent the first 12 years of his life in England, then moved to Florida where he lived until he went off to Stanford.  USATF officials who were on hand at the race verified that Hicks was eligible to compete in these championships, who praised Maier --the reigning USA half-marathon champion-- for making the race. "All credit to Alex Maier," said Hicks, whose long dark hair was matted with sweat.  "Alex Maier just took that race.  I mean, I was ready to fall off on that backstretch where he was catching the tail wind.  He went straight out, pulling away." Maier, Bor, Kiptoo, Hicks and Simbassa were all timed in 28:07/28:08 at 10K, but a slight headwind on the trip back to the start/finish line helped Hicks who got a second wind. "Then we came around, went into the wind, and I felt the pace slow-up," Hicks continued.  "Got my legs underneath me.  I think I made a great tactical push for most of the time there, and it just paid off." Hicks earned a total of $20,000 ($10,000 for the national title, $6,000 for the overall title, $1,000 for sub-46:00, and $3,000 for the event record.  Maier earned $13,750 because he got credit for the national record. "He's always an animal, seriously," Maier said of Hicks, an athlete he competed against during his NCAA career.  "Going back to college, watching him win it on our home course (in 2022 where Maier finished fifth).  I was like, man, that guy's tough." Well behind the leaders, 75-year-old Bennett Beach of Alexandria, Virginia, finished his 52nd consecutive Cherry Blossom, the only runner to achieve that feat.  He was clocked in 2:30:54 (net). A record 19,920 runners finished the race. PHOTO: Taylor Roe setting a world best 49:53 for 10 miles at the 2025 Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. (03-Apr) -- Coming off of a year where he set personal bests from 1500m to 10,000m, two-time USATF national champion Drew Hunter will run the longest race of his career on Sunday, the 52nd edition of the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile in Washington, D.C.  Hunter, 27, who lives in Boulder, Colo., but grew up in nearby Virginia, will also be competing in the USATF 10-Mile Championships, the race-within-the-race at the Cherry Blossom, where he hopes to beat national road running champions like Hillary Bor, Biya Simbassa, Leonard Korir, Shadrack Kipchirchir, and Alex Maier. "I feel like every year I put a race on the calendar that's a challenge for me, but also just something different," Hunter told Race Results Weekly in a telephone interview from Boulder on Tuesday.  "Last year that happened to be a track 10K.  I'd never done one; I'd focused on the 1500 most of my career.  I was just like, this is going to be hard, challenging, but it's something new.  I think it's really important for us athletes to just stay inspired by our running." Hunter will face an extra challenge in Sunday's race.  He's still recovering from the 10,000m personal best he ran at The Ten in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., last Saturday night where he finished 11th (fourth American) in 27:24.49.  Coached by his mother, Joan, the 2021 USATF 5K road running champion has been getting ready for this two-race peak since he started his winter training. "Cherry Blossom fit in really well with my schedule," Hunter continued.  "The 10K was the priority, so I could run the 10K and still race Cherry Blossom.  I think the 10-mile will be a good distance for me."  He added: "I really wanted to hit the 10K hard, then race the Cherry Blossom and see what I can do.  It's a little freeing, not doing a 10-miler before.  It's my longest race, ever.  Expectations are low, and that's sort of fun for me." Although Hunter founded the adidas-backed Tinman Elite program in Boulder, he is no longer an official member of that group since his eight-year sponsorship with adidas lapsed at the end of 2024 and he signed a new four-year contract with Asics.  Still, Hunter does some of his training with the Tinman group which is evolving into a marathon-focused team.  That's been particularly helpful for his build-up for these two longer races. "I train a lot with (Tinman's) Reed Fischer and he's run really well over that distance," Hunter explained.  "So, I'm very, sort of like, intrigued to see what I can actually do." Hunter --who turned pro right out of high school in 2016 after initially deciding he was going to enter the NCAA system at the University of Oregon-- has focused his career mostly on middle distance running.  He beat Alan Webb's national high school indoor mile record in 2016, running 3:58.25 (his first sub-four mile) then ran 3:57.81 later that season.  He eventually lowered his mile time to 3:54.80 in 2022, and last year ran a snappy 3:33.78 for 1500m. Hunter stressed that running two long-distance races two weekends in a row doesn't signal a move away from the track or the mile.  Instead, he said, he hopes that this phase of his training, which included an 18-mile long run, will make him a better all-around runner. "I just have to get strong," Hunter admitted.  "Racing an over-distance race is really good for me to do.  Just in training, just for the preparation I've done for it, will set me up for a great track season."  He added: "I can really be solid in anything I put my mind to." Hunter's 2024 track season was short, but impactful.  After making USA Olympic Team Trials qualifying marks for both 5000m and 10,000m, Hunter decided to focus all of his energy on running the 10,000m.  He saw an opening for one team spot assuming that Grant Fisher and Woody Kincaid would take the top-two spots (they did).  Near the end of the race, Hunter came close to beating former Northern Arizona star Nico Young; Young only beat Hunter by .95 seconds. Hunter recounted how his mother helped prepare him for one mighty peak at the Trials. "I think I can show up at the Olympic Trials and have my very best race of the year be at the Olympic Trials," Hunter recalled thinking a year ago.  "While under pressure, I think a lot of the other guys will be cooked, they'll be tired, I think they'll be training-through.  I think I can run really well, and my Mom developed a program for me that would have me ready then.  It took a leap of faith --like I didn't run amazingly in some of my earlier races, like U.S. cross country (he finished ninth), and some other things-- but I ran my best race of the year at the Olympic Trials when it mattered the most." Hunter has been a pro for almost a decade, and his recent switch of sponsors --and having a second daughter with his wife Sandy last September-- gave him a chance to reflect on his career, both on the field of play and off.  He has surprised himself, he said. "I did a lot of things in my running career I never thought I would do," said Hunter.  "I started a team, I made a shoe with a company, I sold millions of dollars of gear.  Those are things --they're not running goals-- but they're things I'm very proud of that I accomplished in my career.  So, I think that my path is my path, and my journey is not over with yet.  This new contract with Asics, the excitement about future races, I really feel like I have a lot more to give." On Sunday in Washington, where Hunter said he'll be racing in the Asics Metaspeed Edge, he'll have a lot of support throughout the weekend.  Growing up in Loudoun County, just a one-hour drive northwest from central Washington, he plans to see friends and family alike.  He will also be joining a Hunter family tradition of going to the Cherry Blossom, a race historically known as the "Runner's Rite of Spring." "It's a race that I've always wanted to do," said Hunter.  "One of my first memories of running, actually, was my Dad took some Reston Road Runners to the Cherry Blossom when I was a little kid and I got to watch.  I grew up outside of Northern Virginia, so D.C. is very close to home for me.  All of my in-laws will get to watch me run.  Some of my friends from high school will get to come out and see me run."  He added: "I'm excited to sort of go back home.  I'm actually spending some time with my family afterwards, some of my friends, and we'll celebrate my sister's birthday which is on the day of Cherry Blossom." ** The 52nd Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile will start near the Washington Monument with the elite women's race at 7:18 a.m., followed by the elite men and masses at 7:30 (last year's race had 17,856 finishers).  The race has an $80,600 prize money purse ($48,600 for the national championships), and is also part of the prestigious 2024/2025 Professional Road Running Organization (PRRO) Circuit.  The 28th PRRO Championship will be held at the Utica Boilermaker 15-K on Sunday, July 13, in Utica, N.Y. PHOTO: Drew Hunter competing at The TEN in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., on March 29, 2025 (Photo by Kevin Morris and provided by Asics; used with permission)

(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. NEW YORK (16-Mar) -- New York City may have been socked-in with fog and drizzle this morning, but the champions of the 18th United Airlines NYC Half were crystal clear.  Sharon Lokedi (Under Armour) and Abel Kipchumba (adidas), both of Kenya, won the open divisions by margins of 42 and six seconds, respectively, and both set event records.  Manuela Schar of Switzerland and Geert Schipper of the Netherlands each won the professional wheelchair divisions by about four minutes.  Lokedi and Kipchumba each won $20,000 in prize money, while Schar and Schipper took home $7500.  A record 28,750 runners started today's race on a course which ran from Prospect Park in Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, to Central Park in Manhattan. EARLY FAST PACES With a tough course --including an uphill last five kilometers-- athletes are usually cautious in the early stages of the NYC Half. But not this year. Both the elite men and women got on a quick pace early, especially the men, where USA half-marathon record-holder Conner Mantz (Nike) ripped through the first 5K in 13:50.  Only four other athletes --Kipchumba, Patrick Dever of Great Britain (Puma Elite Running), Hillary Bor of Colorado Springs (Hoka), and Wesley Kiptoo (Northern Arizona Elite) of Kenya-- could handle that pace. "This is a really big race," Mantz told Race Results Weekly.  "I tapered well for it.  This was kind of where I was going to test things out for the Boston Marathon.  So, this was about trying to cover moves, push on the hills, make sure I ran smooth, and was able to adjust off the paces." As the leading men started the ascent of Brooklyn Bridge in the eighth kilometer, Mantz continued to press.  At the crest of the 41-meter high roadway above the East River, Kiptoo was beginning to lose contact (he would eventually finish fifth in 1:00:56).  Mantz split 10K in 27:48 --on pace for an improbable 58:41 finish-- but Kipchumba, Dever and Bor remained with him. Running north on the FDR Drive, a six-lane highway that is normally choked with traffic, Kipchumba became the aggressor and went to the front.  Dever and Bor fell back, leaving Kipchumba and Mantz to battle it out in the last seven kilometers.  In the 17th kilometer Kipchumba put in a surge, and began zig-zagging in the middle of 42nd Street. "I was trying to run away," Kipchumba said after the race.  "I was trying to shake the move." Mantz, 28, battled to stay with the 31 year-old Kenyan, who also won last year's race. "Some of those moves that Abel put in were pretty tough," admitted Mantz.  "I just knew that's where he was trying to make his move."  He added: "When he started to zig-zag I was like, this is his move. I think this is his last move.  I have to go with it." After turning right onto Seventh Avenue and running through Times Square, Kipchumba started to pull away.  By the time he hit the 20K mark at the south end of Central Park, Kipchumba had five seconds on Mantz. "When I see he is not following me, I maintained the pace and ran (by) myself," said Kipchumba. Kipchumba ran the final stages in Central Park to finish on the famous TCS New York City Marathon finish line, albeit in the opposite direction.  He broke the tape in 59:09, breaking Haile Gebrselassie's 2007 event record of 59:24, a remarkable feat given that the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ethiopia ran on a course that was 30 meters downhill. "I am very happy," said a smiling Kipchumba when a reporter pointed out that he had broken Gebrselassie's record. Mantz, who finished second in 59:15, was equally pleased with his race.  Despite the hilly course, he ran two seconds faster than his American record time from Houston in January (the NYC Half course is not quite record-eligible).  His preparations for April's Boston Marathon were right on track, he said. "I'd give myself an 'A'," said Mantz.  "Today was a good day.  I think training's been a lot better than it was going into Houston.  Obviously, Coach Eyestone has prepared me very well."  He added: "I'm very happy about that." Bor, who represents Hoka, finished third in 59:55 recording his first sub-60:00 half-marathon in four tries (three of them this year).  He said he's learning the event and is starting to feel more comfortable with the distance. "Racing against Conner Mantz brings the best out of everyone," Bor told reporters.  He added: "This is, let me count, my fourth half.  It's getting more comfortable, it's getting more comfortable.  I'm getting used to it." Back in 12th place two-time Olympian Woody Kincaid (Nike) made his half-marathon debut in 1:03:00.  He had to deal with some cramping early in the race, and tried to make the best of what he said was a good learning experience.  He had never run a road race longer than five kilometers before today. "It was tough.  I got to the Brooklyn Bridge at five miles and I have this cramp every now and then," said Kincaid, who pointed to his solar plexus.  "For about a minute and twenty, if you see my split.  I thought about how I'm going to attack this from here on out, and I just grinded away after that.  Honestly, for the first time you don't know what's going to happen.  You have to give yourself some grace and try to be competitive no matter what." LOKEDI BREAKS AWAY Thanks to some early front-running by Britain's Calli Hauger-Thackery (Nike), the women's race set up for a fast time.  Hauger-Thackery, who like Mantz is running the Boston Marathon, got to 10K in 32:13.  Only six other women --Lokedi, Diane van Es of the Netherlands (Asics); Fiona O'Keeffe (Puma Elite Running), Emma Bates (Asics), and Sara Hall (Asics) of the United States; and debutante Amy-Eloise Neale (On)-- were able to maintain that pace. "I don't know, I'm not good at running too slow," Hauger-Thackery told Race Results Weekly.  "I felt good and I wanted to, like, go for it.  I don't think I did any crazy moves, but tried to keep it honest." Neale and Hall couldn't hold the pace through 15K (48:12), and Bates was slipping off the back.  Going west on 42nd Street, just a few hundred meters from the United Nations, Lokedi stepped on the gas and quickly opened up a gap on the field.  Despite the elevation gain of about 14 meters, Lokedi ran a snappy 15:26 from 15 to 20K and put the race away.  She ran the Central Park portion of the course alone, and clocked 1:07:04, well under Hellen Obiri's 2023 event record of 1:07:21 (run on a similar course). "I was like, we're almost there so time to go," Lokedi said of her 16th and 17th kilometers in Manhattan.  The Under Armour athlete continued: "I started to warm up.  I felt like I was getting faster and warmed-up, my rhythm and my cadence.  I just kept going with it." Lokedi, who finished second at last year's Boston Marathon to Obiri, is pointing for the same race this year.  She got great feedback today, she said. "I think it's a confidence where my training is," said Lokedi.  "Because, sometimes you just do training and you don't know where you were.  So, I think this was a good run to, like, to tell me what I need to do." O'Keeffe and Hauger-Thackery battled for second, and the American got the best of the Brit by just three seconds, 1:07:46 to 1:07:49.  For O'Keeffe it was her first race of the year, and her first race start since dropping out of the Paris Olympic Marathon last August with a hip injury. "It's just really great to be back out there doing what I love," said O'Keeffe, whose training partner Taylor Roe just won the USATF half-marathon national title two weeks ago.  "I'm glad it was a half so there was some time to figure it out on the course.  It was a fun day, and I'd love to come back and do this race again." Van Es finished fourth in 1:08:03, a much better performance than the 1:12:03 she ran here last year.  Neale ran a solid debut in 1:08:12 to finish fifth, and Bates was sixth in 1:08:21. Norway's Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, the race's defending women's open champion, was unable to run with the leaders today and finished seventh in 1:09:03.  Although her time was six seconds faster than last year's, she wasn't happy with her race and said that she wasn't feeling well. "It was tough," the four-time Olympian, who represents adidas, told Race Results Weekly.  "I don't feel that well today.  I'm not sure if it's something going on in my body, but I felt from the start that something was not very normal.  It was a tough race." SCHAR AND SCHIPPER ROLL AWAY TO VICTORY Manuela Schar, who in 2019 won all six Abbott World Marathon Majors, blasted away from her two key rivals, Americans Susannah Scaroni and Tatyana McFadden, right from the start and was never challenged.  She clocked 54:09 and said her biggest obstacle was the cool and damp conditions. "I think it was a difficult day for us to make the right call for the gear," she told Race Results Weekly.  "It was so foggy and it felt wet.  I think I was just lucky and choose the right gloves for today." Schipper, who was timed in 49:53, more than a minute slower than he did last year.  He said it was a challenge to maintain his focus while pushing for so long by himself. "That's a good question," he said with a laugh when asked how he stayed mentally engaged in the race.  "I don't have a real good answer on it." PHOTO: Manuela Schar of Switzerland and Geert Schipper of the Netherlands were the 2024 United Airlines NYC Half champions in the wheelchair division (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)  

(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. NEW YORK (13-Mar) -- Four-time Olympian Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal of Norway will hit 35 this June, but is nonetheless coming off of her best-ever year as a runner.  In 2024 the adidas-sponsored athlete ran national records at 3000m (8:27.02), 10K (30:52), and the half-marathon (1:06:55).  She was also successful in championships racing, taking the silver medal at 5000m at the European Athletics Championships, the gold medal in the half-marathon at those same championships, and eighth place at the Paris Olympics in the 5000m. But it was here in New York where Grøvdal enjoyed one of her most satisfying wins.  At the 2024 United Airlines NYC Half last March, Grøvdal rallied in the 17th kilometer to catch Kenyans Gladys Chepkurui and Edna Kiplagat.  Grøvdal had finished third in both the 2022 and 2023 editions of the race and didn't want to land on the third step of the podium again. "I was so tired then," Grøvdal told reporters.  "Just thinking, it's third this year also.  But then, I don't know.  I just tried to don't get the gap too big.  Suddenly, I was just behind them again." She ended up dropping the Kenyan duo and went on to win by a comfortable 18 seconds, stretching her arms high as she broke the finish tape in Central Park near Tavern on the Green.  The $20,000 first prize wasn't bad, either. "It's up there," Grøvdal said when asked how last year's victory compared with the other important wins in her long international career which began when she was just 15 years-old.  "I have three European golds.  They are big, but I think this is right around that one." Grøvdal credits consistent training and staying healthy for her late-career success, and she's excited to defend her NYC Half title on Sunday. "I'm not sure what's the secret," Grøvdal told Race Results Weekly today in an interview in Times Square.  "I had a lot of years now with no injury.  I've been training well; I think that's the key.  And, of course, I started the season with this race last year and with a win, so it was a very good start."  She continued: "It's just many years with a lot of work." Varying her running has also been important to Grøvdal, who enjoys cross country, track, and road running equally.  Although she missed last December's European Athletics Cross Country Championships --an event in which she has a record 10 individual medals-- she did place 13th in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships last March. "I think that's what motivates me, to do a lot of races," Grøvdal explained.  "I love cross country, I love roads, and I love track.  So, I've always been very into competing, and competing in different distances from shorter to longer.  I think that's very important to me to have the drive to do running, actually." Remarkably Grøvdal is still maintaining --and even improving-- her speed.  Over the last three seasons she has lowered her half-marathon best to 1:08:07 in 2022, 1:07:34 in 2023, and then 1:06:55 last year.  She's also run season-best times for 5000m of 14:31.07, 14:45.24 and 14:38.62 for 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively.  That made her the fastest European at that distance for 2022, and the third-fastest for both 2023 and 2024. That's noteworthy for an athlete who races half the time or more on the roads. "I just think when I'm in good shape I can do all the distances very good, and now is my first year I am training for a marathon.  Everybody tells me you get slower now.  So, hopefully I will run fast at 5 and 10K still, because I think I have to improve my 5 and 10K for the marathon, also." Grøvdal's first marathon is on the immediate horizon. She has chosen to try the distance at the Haspa Marathon Hamburg, the same event where two-time Olympic Marathon gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge made his debut.  She could have run in London (on the same day) and surely made a solid appearance fee, but in Hamburg she'll be able to run with less pressure and bring her own male pacers (the TCS London Marathon uses an all-women's elite race). "My plan is to run in Hamburg the 27th of April," Grøvdal said.  She continued: "It was that one or London.  But I think for my first marathon maybe it's good to have a more low-key (race).  I can have two guys who helping with the pacing; London is the women-only.  So, I think it will be a good place to start, then I do a fall marathon." On Sunday Grøvdal --and the approximately 27,000 other runners in the field-- will compete on a new course from Brooklyn to Manhattan which will cross the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time.  Her main rivals will be Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel, Sharon Lokedi of Kenya, Emily Sisson and Fiona O’Keeffe of the United States, and Calli Hauger-Thackery of Great Britain. "We like to call the New York City Half 'the one to run,'" said New York Road Runners CEO Rob Simmelkjaer at a press conference this morning.  "We're excited to go over the Brooklyn Bridge." PHOTO: Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal of Norway in Times Square in advance of the 2025 United Airlines NYC Half (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)  

ATLANTA (02-Mar) - In near-freezing temperatures with biting winds, Alex Maier and Taylor Roe of North Carolina-based Puma Elite Running won the USATF Half Marathon Championships this morning in dramatic fashion.  The former Oklahoma State All-Americans survived fast, early paces in their respective races, then used their strength to pull away from their remaining rivals in the final miles.  Both athletes won their first national titles, $20,000 in prize money, and guaranteed berths on Team USATF for the World Athletics Road Running Championships. "They did OK," joked their coach Alistair Cragg.  "For two youngsters at this level they acted like old veterans out there.  It was great; fun to see." KELATI BLOWS OPEN WOMEN'S RACE National half-marathon record holder Weini Kelati (Under Armour / Dark Sky Distance), made the first big move in the women's race.  After following the solid early pace set by Emily Venters (Nike) who went through 5 km in 16:15, Kelati surged in the sixth mile, splitting 10 km in 32:03 with an eight-second lead over Roe, Emma Grace Hurley (Asics / Heartland TC), Amanda Vestri (Brooks / ZAP Endurance), and Jess McClain (Brooks). "Pretty decisive move," said 2004 Olympian Carrie Tollefson on the race broadcast. Indeed, it looked like Kelati, whose personal best of 1:06:09 was over a minute faster than any other woman in the field, would run away with the race.  But in the eighth mile, Roe and Hurley began to work together to reel her in. "Taylor got moving and I went with her," Hurley told Race Results Weekly.  "She kind of made a comment to me, like, 'let's go try to catch her,' so we tried to pick it up and gain on Weini."  She added: "It was awesome to be chasing her." Forty-three minutes and five seconds into the race, Roe and Hurley caught Kelati.  The trio ran together only briefly before Roe pressed the pace and she and Hurley began to pull away.  By the 15 km point (47:50) Hurley had just run a 15:39 5-kilometer segment with Roe just one second behind.  Kelati was eight seconds back, and Vestri was running alone in fourth place after pulling away from Venters. Hurley - who grew up in nearby Roswell and formerly represented the Atlanta Track Club - knew the course better than Roe, and made good use of the many short hills in the latter stages of the race. She built a small gap on Roe, but the 2023 Big 12 5000m champion had more in the tank.  Roe pulled even with Hurley, then began to get away.  She felt confident in her fitness based on the training she had done with her group which includes Fiona O'Keeffe, the 2024 USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon champion. "I train with some of the best people, best in the world, best in the U.S.," Roe said in her post-race broadcast interview.  "I came in with confidence.  What my competitors are going to do to me today is nothing I haven't faced in practice." Roe ran alone to the finish in the Home Depot Backyard adjacent to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and broke the tape in 1:07:22.  She smashed her personal best by nearly a minute and a half, and made her first national team. "It's good news, but it's bad news that I have to run another half-marathon," Roe said with a laugh.  She added: "I'm really glad, grateful." Hurley, who only finished 89th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in her senior year at Furman University, held on to second place and finished in a big personal best of 1:07:35.  Like Roe, today's race was only Hurley's second half marathon and she thought that she got her tactics nearly right. "I may have gone a bit early, although I think sometimes in the race if you're feeling good it's OK to take a little bit of a risk," Hurley told Race Results Weekly.  She continued: "It was so special to be out there today." Kelati struggled in the final kilometers of the race, and was passed by Vestri, McClain and Venters (she finished sixth in 1:09:07).  Vestri held on for third, and in her third half-marathon clinched her first national team berth in 1:08:17.  She was very happy with her race. "By the grace of God," Vestri said, when asked how she maintained her composure in the final stages of today's competition.  "That was the only thing I was holding on to towards the end.  I was like, God, just get me through this.  Miles eight to twelve I was suffering pretty bad." McClain finished fourth, the same position as in last year's USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon.  But the 33 year-old from Phoenix was pleased with a new personal best of 1:08:37 while in the middle of her mileage-heavy Boston Marathon build-up. "It's OK," said McClain, who had trouble getting her words out because her jaw was so cold.  "I would much rather take fourth than Amanda.  I'm happy."  She added: "I felt really good on the hills; that's a good sign for Boston." Given the cold temperatures, strong winds, and hilly course, it was remarkable that the first ten women broke 1:10. BOR TAKES IT OUT HARD Two-time Olympic steeplechaser Hillary Bor (Hoka) stated his intentions early in the men's race, going right to the front from the gun.  He clicked off the first two miles in 4:37 and 4:28, respectively, and built up a small lead.  But by the 5 km point (14:06) the main pack of Teshome Mekonen (On), Nate Martin (Asics), Joe Klecker (On Athletics Club), Andrew Colley (ZAP Endurance), Ahmed Muhumed (Hoka NAZ Elite), Shadrack Kipchirchir (Puma / American Distance Project), and Maier were with him again. "You know I looked at the entries and I knew there were a lot of 10K guys," Bor told Race Results Weekly.  "I didn't want it to come down to a kick."  He added: "I knew if I was going to make the team I had to run my own race." Bor, Martin, Mekonen and Muhumed got away in the fourth mile, but the chase pack --led by Colley-- closed them down just a mile later.  Bor was still leading at the 10 km point (28:27), but the pack had grown to nine: Bor, Mekonen, Muhumed, Martin, Colley, Klecker, Maier, Kipchirchir, and Ryan Ford (ZAP Endurance).  Bor decided to put in another move, and he and Mekonen started pulling away from the field in the eighth mile, but then he backed off his pace again. "I was expecting someone to come with me," said Bor.  "When I got to mile seven I didn't want to run all the second half by myself.  I slowed down, waited for the crew and run with the group." By the 15 km mark (42:55) only Klecker, Martin and Mekonen had been dropped.  That's when Maier asserted himself.  He got on the front, and started to pull the field single-file.  Only Bor and Kipchirchir could stay with his pace.  Like his teammate Roe, he was feeling confident. "I mean, I knew I was capable of it," said the 24 year-old Maier.  "I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself coming into it.  I'm still relatively new to marathons, half-marathons.  I felt like I was in a good place fitness-wise." With about a mile to go, Maier dropped both Bor and Kipchirchir.  He ran unchallenged to the finish, breaking Publix-branded finish tape in 1:00:48, a three-second personal best. "It was about going out and running my best race," said Maier, who enjoyed the hilly course.  "It reminds me a lot of Oklahoma State, training on our cross country course.  Our cross country course is super hilly, right?  So, I feel like I was very in my element today." Kipchirchir edged Bor for second, 1:00:58 to 1:00:59.  Kipchirchir, the 2022 USATF cross country champion, got a personal best.  Bor was disappointed not to get the victory. "I wanted to win," Bor told reporters.  "Every time I start on the line I want to win.  But, at the end of the day I ran my race, I made the team, and I'm glad for Shaddy.  This is a strong guy.  It's good to compete." Muhumed took fourth in 1:01:03, a personal best, and Colley - who did a lot of the work mid-race - was fifth in 1:01:09.  He had hoped to make the team after recovering from a virus and training well. "I didn't really have any expectations for how it would run out," Colley told Race Results Weekly.  "The glutes started seizing up when everybody started moving and I tried to just stay focused and keep an eye on them.  I got closer, but by the time I started feeling good again it was gone." PHOTO: Taylor Roe winning the 2025 USATF Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)