- Pro Runners Ask: Is My Agent Worth the Fee Grand Blue Mile on Tuesday evening with a time of 4:29.7
- Her time broke the record set by Heather Kampf in 2014.
- On the men’s side, Tripp Hurt broke the tape in 4:03.9.
For the third time in 10 days, Nikki Hiltz was the first to reach the finish line—and the last victory of her hat trick earned her a record.
With a controlled kick to the finish, Hiltz won the USATF Road Mile Championships at the Grand Blue Mile in Des Moines, Iowa, with an official time of 4:29.7. Her victory beat the previous Grand Blue Mile record of 4:32.7 set in 2014 by Heather Kampf.
Under the downtown lights on Tuesday night, Kampf trailed Hiltz in 4:31.4 and Hannah Fields closed for third in 4:32.2.
“I’m definitely super stoked about it,” Hiltz said after her victory on the Runnerspace broadcast.
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Hiltz won the road mile with expert positioning and patience. While the trio of Shannon Osika, Hannah Fields, and Anna Shields led the tightly bunched pack through the halfway point, Hiltz remained right behind the front-runners. Off the final turn on the course, three-time champion Kampf attempted to pull away from the group, but found herself surrounded by competitors a few meters later.
With about a minute remaining in the race, Hiltz and Shields initiated a breakaway. With a few seconds left to run, Hiltz unleashed another gear and held her position through the tape.
After graduating as an All-American from the University of Arkansas in May 2018, Hiltz joined Terrence Mahon’s San Diego, California-based group, the Mission Athletic Club, and has since set multiple personal bests on the track and roads.
Just four days earlier, the Adidas pro set a personal best in the 800 meters when she won the Bryan Clay Invitational in 2:01.37. On April 13, Hiltz claimed the BAA road mile in 4:41. Her most recent victory in Des Moines is her fastest mile time ever run on the track or the roads. She earned $5,000 in prize money for her USATF title.
While celebrating her win, Hiltz shared on the broadcast that she will be taking a short break from racing while she trains with her team at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her next competition will be the USATF Distance Classic on May 16.
The men’s race saw an exciting finish from three of the top competitors in the field. Men’s champion Tripp Hurt, runner-up Brandon Lasater, and third-place finisher Nick Harris all finished within milliseconds of each other. Hurt reached the line first in 4:03.9 while Lasater and Harris were both clocked in 4:04.0.
The performance follows an impressive run at altitude in Boulder, Colorado, for the University of Colorado graduate student, who ran 1:53 in the 800 meters on April 6 at the Colorado Invitational. A steeplechaser on the track, Hurt finished 10th overall in the 2018 USATF Outdoor Track Championships and set his personal best of 8:30 last July. During the 2019 indoor season, Hurt claimed a bronze medal and a personal best in the two mile at the USATF Indoor Track Championships.
The Grand Blue Mile marked another personal best in a different event for the former Furman standout.
“I like the mile. I get to run on the ground, which is fun. I’ll still be doing some steeples this year, but the timing was right [for the mile],” Hurt said on the broadcast.
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
