THE BROOKS BLOG

ATLANTA, GA. – Melissa White and Nick Arciniaga each had strong showings for Hansons-Brooks at the 40th running of the Atlanta Track Club Peachtree 10-kilometer road race. The Peachtree 10km also served as the 2009 United States men’s 10km road championships and drew a star-studded field of America athletes.

White finished an impressive 17th overall and was the 5th American female to cross the finish line in a time of 33 minutes and 37 seconds.

Arciniaga had a breakthrough performance finishing the race in 29 minutes 45 seconds for a new 10km personal best, bettering his old mark by a full minute. Arciniaga finished 30th overall in the deep men’s field and was the 17th American to finish.

The Hansons Luke Humphrey also had a solid performance, finishing as the 20th American in the field in a time of 29 minutes and 51 seconds.

Sammy Kitwara of Kenyan ran away with the overall title in his Atlanta debut. Kitwara covered the 6.2-mile course in 27 minutes and 21 seconds.

Abdi Abdirahman won the U.S. Championship in a time of 28 minutes and 11 seconds. Abdirahman was seventh overall.

The top seed in the women’s field, Lineth Chepkurui of Kenya, won her first Peachtree race in 31 minutes and 19 seconds.

With more than 55,000 registered participants, the Peachtree race is the largest 10km race in the United States. Participants from 47 states and the District of Columbia competed in this year’s event.

The normally balmy race began at 7:30 a.m. with temperatures in the upper-60’s with low humidity. The coolest starting temperature recorded since the event’s inception was 62 degrees in 1986 and 1989.

Joseph Kimani, of Kenya, holds the course record of 27:04 in 1996. Lorhan Kiplagat holds the women’s course record of 30:32, from her 2002 Peachtree victory.

Seattle, Wash. – Patrick Rizzo placed second in the inaugural running of the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-marathon. Rizzo completed the 13.1-mile course running the fastest time by an American on Washington state soil in a time of one hour, five minutes and 34 seconds.

More than 15,000 athletes competed in the half-marathon. Elija Nyabuti, of Kenya, won the men’s race in 1:05:14. Berhane Adere, of Ethiopia won the women’s half-marathon in 1:11:19.

The Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon and half-marathon are part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll series, which includes races in Pheonix, Ariz.; Nashville, Tenn.; San Diego, Cali.; San Jose, Cali.; Virginia Beach, Virg.; Chicago, Illi.; San Antonio, Texas; and Las Vegas, Neva. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series includes scenic race courses and live music along the race routes.

Running her first steeplechase of the 2009 season, Amanda Lorenzen won the Drake Relays 3000m steeplechase. Her time of 10:06 was her fastest season opening time ever, despite the rainy and cold conditions in Des Moines this weekend. Lorenzen was 7th at the 2008 Olympic Trials in the 3000m steeplechase, and she will compete against some of the top women in the world at the adidas Track Classic in Carson, CA on May 16th. Lorenzen will have her sights set on the World Championships A Standard time of 9:40. Her PR of 9:48 was set last year at the Olympic Trials.

A post-race video interview with Amanda can be seen on Flotrack at the link below:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/1305-amanda-lorenzen

Hansons-Brooks athlete, Ryan Sheehan, won the eighth annual Papa John’s 10-Miler Saturday morning in Louisville, Ky. Sheehan led the field of over 6500 runners, covering the 10-mile course in 48 minutes and 37 seconds.

Sheehan’s teammate, Nick Arciniaga, placed third in the road race with a time of 49 minutes eight seconds, just 15 seconds from the second place finisher, Tommy Neal of Colorado.
Sheehan, who led the race from the gun, was satisfied with his performance but still sees room for improvement.

“I would have liked to have run a little faster; I’m happy to have run under 49 (minutes) but was hoping to run 48:20.” Sheehan said.

The Papa John’s course, which finished inside of Papa John’s-Cardinal Stadium, had served as the United States Track and Field Men’s ten-mile Road Championship for four years, from 2003 through 2006. Although the race did not host the 2009 US ten-mile Championship, Papa John’s presented prize money to the first three male and first three female finishers.

For more information please contact David Jankowski at hansonsbrooks@gmail.com

I am still recovering from Germany where I spent the last rainy and overcast week of my life. Last Sunday Brooks Germany sponsored a race called the Strongman. The given name doesn’t really tell the story so I decided to rename the event. The insaneman race was roughly 18-20k long and included two loops of 17 separate obstacles. I will do my best to paint a picture

The obstacles- these little inconveniences ranged from running ankle deep mud to swimming 75m across a 45 degree lake. Sometimes they throw in a hay wall about 15 ft high that you had to climb over and jump off. Sometimes they also had you run over these cute little mogul type hills of about 20 ft in height. Running up was the easy part.

The distance- to be debated really. They called each loop 9k and the total distance 18k. I would guess it was much closer to 20k overall. Afterall, it took me 1 hour and 42 minutes to run this distance with obstacles.

The race- my race was ok. I was moving my way up through the field and trying to pace myself. Not the greatest strategy for this race I found. About half way through the 2nd loop I had moved up to 2nd or 3rd when we started to lap runners. It’ was no normal situation. You had to just stop and wait your turn to go over obstacles. This really ticked me off. I wanted to race and I was just starting to make progress. I decided to embrace the idea of this event and basically just started plowing through people. They loved it! Push a guy off the hay wall, drown an innocent runner, kick a guy�..no one cares. It’s the freaking insaneman! They actually respect you more for pushing your way through. I ended up 10th since I didn’t know running around the last water swim was allowed and cost myself about 5 minutes. Oh well, it was a unique experience to say the least!!

The aftermath- my legs are really sore. I think I was granted official navy seal status based on completing the run so that is always nice. I really can’t put it into words or describe any better�..so I will just post this video to help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9v-tzfGWQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblog%2Eseattlepi%2Ecom%2Fmarathon%2F&feature=player_embedded

It was a great weekend in Landover, MD for high school running! Brooks is the official footwear and apparel sponsor of the Maryland Indoor Track & Field Championships and we are always looking for fun and exciting ways to reward these outstanding individuals.

This year www.flotrack.org came to town to cover the meet and also launched our new “mugshot’ contest. Check out http://www.flotrack.org/brooks/mug_shot_view_photo/258861

We also had a graphic artist at the event to “tag” Brooks Podium shirts for a few lucky athletes!  See you at in Baltimore for the Outdoor Championships!  Check out all meet footage-  http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/234514-maryland-state-indoor-champs

Every year Brooks sponsors some of the best cross country and track meets across the country! We want to support the sport in it’s purest form and it doesn’t get any better than high school running!

To add a little excitement to our events we are partnering with Flotrack to cover these meets and bring these athletes an enhanced experience during and after the competition! To find out where Brooks will be in 2009, the enter contests, and to learn a little more about our athletes check out www.runbrooks.com.

Here is just a quick look at the Brooks NCAA Pre-National meet from last October…..