Aaron Braun of Arizona’s McMillan Elite tied a 17-year-old course record at the 4.748-mile Manchester Road Race in Connecticut on Thanksgiving Day, and New Jersey-New York Track Club athlete Delilah DiCrescenzo upset 10,000-meter Olympian Lisa Uhl to take first place among the women.
Braun, fifth in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000, asserted himself early in Manchester, blasting through the first mile in 4:22. He was a clear leader by the two-mile mark.
Haron Lagat of Kenya, the 2009 Manchester winner, narrowed the gap and came close to Braun, but Braun eventually pulled away and was timed in 21:19.37, getting credit for a tie with Philemon Hanneck’s course record of 21:19. Lagat was next in 21:31.
Olympic steeplechaser Donn Cabral, who was a high school star in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and Bobby Mack and Tyler Pennel were third, fourth, and fifth, all of them timed in 21:33.
Uhl, who now lives and trains in Iowa, went out hard to lead the women, but DiCrescenzo, the Columbia University graduate who was seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and Burundi Olympian Diane Nukuri-Johnson made a race of it.
DiCrescenzo passed Uhl with 300 meters remaining and proceeded to victory in 24:34. Uhl was second in 24:39 and Diane Nukuri-Johnson, who is also based in Iowa, took third in 24:46. DiCrescenzo had been second in Manchester two years ago.
Runner’s World Editor-at-Large Amby Burfoot accomplished his Health - Injuries, Published: Nov 23, 2012 12:00 AM EST.
There were 15,000 Thanksgiving Day celebrants in the Manchester Road Race. More
