Biwott, Conley Prevail at Sactown 10
Bryan Hacker and Ronald Hess fly to the finish. (SRN photo)
By John Schumacher
Folsom’s Shadrack Biwott overcame two untied shoes and a short recovery time from a half marathon, pulling away from two-time defending champion Tesfaye Alemayehu in the final 100 yards Sunday to win the fourth annual Credit Union SACTOWN Ten-Mile Run.
West Sacramento’s Kim Conley, a 2012 Olympian, came down from high-altitude training with enough energy to pull away from Auburn’s Jane Kibii in the final three miles to win the women’s title on a pleasant, blue-sky morning in Sacramento.
Biwott and Conley, teammates on the Sacramento Running Association’s Elite Team, each took home $2,400 for their victories in the event, which featured a $15,000 purse and served as USA Track & Field’s Pacific Association Ten-Mile Championship.
The race, put on by the Sacramento Running Association and sponsored by local credit unions, combined with the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run held Sunday in Washington, D.C., to raise $487,000 for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which include UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
Biwott, 29, finished in 47 minutes and 58 seconds, just ahead of Antioch’s Alemayehu (48:02) and Eugene’s Craig Leon (49:19).
Beth Zinkand Michel heading for a 2nd place masters finish. (SRN photo)
The men’s champion didn’t have much time to recover from the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark eight days ago, when he finished 39th out of 113 starters in 1:02:28. Biwott also managed to recover from two untied shoes, his right one coming untied 100 yards into the race and his left one coming undone after three miles.
Biwott stopped to tie the first one, falling 40 seconds behind Alemayehu, but didn’t bother to tie the second one when it came untied. He waited until the final turn to surge past Alemayehu, fearing an earlier move might cause him to run out of his untied shoe.
“I looked at it and said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to stop and tie this,’” Biwott said. “I just tried to stay on my mid-foot. When I got on my toes it slipped.”
Even if his 16-month-old daughter Eve kept him up for most of the night before the race.
“I only slept three hours,” Biwott said.
Conley, who made the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in the women’s 5,000 meters, spent the last month training in Flagstaff, Ariz. in preparation for the outdoor track season. She pulled away from Kibii between mile 6 and mile 7, finishing in 54:44.
Kibii, who also runs for the SRA’s Elite Team, grabbed second in 55:11, with Concord’s Jenny Kadavy placing third in 57:43.
“Jane gave me a little fight at first,” said Conley, who also won last year’s SACTOWN women’s race. “Then I went from there.”
Orangevale’s Cadence Stamper, an 8-year-old who was treated at UC Davis Children’s Hospital for a month after suffering a stroke last summer, finished the kids’ Miracle Mile. She has been slowly recovering the use of the left side of her body and has just recently been able to run again.
“She was getting tired,” said Amy Stamper, Cadence’s mother. “She wanted to sit down but she insisted on keeping going. She did really good.”
Congressman Ami Bera, who represents California’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, served as the race’s official starter and also completed the 10-mile course, which started and finished at the state Capitol and went through midtown and east Sacramento.
“We’re one of the fittest cities in the country,” Bera said. “It was great to be a part of this.”
Complete results are here.
Great race detail for the elites, but what about the rest of us and the snafu of the train? I found it quite funny, although people I was standing with did not. You really should address all the race details.
1Agree with Carla.
2That’s the 3rd time that’s happened at an SRA event. One time sucks, but three times is unforgivable and greatly reduces the integrity of the race.
What if the train had passed two minutes prior, in front of the elites? It would have made the news then, right?