Christo Landry, the hottest American road racer of the year, sprinted to victory in a time of 28:25 in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal Peachtree Road Race over 10 kilometers in Atlanta, Ga., Friday, July 4.
He finished five seconds up on fellow American Tyler Pennel, 26, of Blowing Rock, N.C., who ran 28:30.
Transplanted Kenyan Shadrack Biwott, 29, of Folsom, Calif., edged Aaron Braun, 27, of Alamosa, Colo., for third place as both registered the same time – 28:52.
This year’s Peachtree Road Race, which had – we’re not going to ask you to count them – 57,171 finishers (28,478 men, 28,693 women) – served as the 2014 American men’s and women’s 10K Road Championship.
Landry, who’s 28 and trains in Ann Arbor, Mich., collected $15,000 for winning the men’s title. His time was more than a minute off the Peachtree men’s record of 27:04, set by Kenya’s Joseph Kimani way back in 1996. The American road 10K record is 27:48, set by Mark Nenow in 1985.
Running in unseasonably cool temperatures, the leaders in the men’s race set out at a torrid pace – with the ultimate third-place finisher Shadrack Biwott taking the lead at a pace he later acknowledged was “stupid.” But Biwott and all the other leaders began to tire as Pennel and Landry kept pushing and pushing.
“I think we went under 8:50 from the 1-mile mark to the 3-mile mark,” Landry said later. “We were absolutely flying.”
After five miles it was down to Pennel and Landry. As they began an uphill stretch 500 yards from the finish line, Landry made his move.
“I figured the easiest way to break away is to make that one hard move,” Landry said later. “If he didn’t make a split-second decision on (that final) uphill, I was going to be able to get a big step on him, and it would be pretty hard to catch me.”
For his part, Pennel said after the race he had no energy left to follow Landry’s final move. He had tried to drop Landry earlier, it didn’t work, and he was done.
“I kept trying to peel him off my shoulder,” Pennel said. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to shake him, I’ve got to shake him.’ I just couldn’t do it.”
For Landry, it was his third consecutive American road championship of the year – earlier he had won the US titles in the 10-mile and the 25K.
Incidentally, in case anyone is wondering where were all the African runners in this year’s Peachtree, this year the Atlanta Track Club, organizers of the event, decided to place their focus solely on the American runners – this being the American 10K Championship, after all – and didn’t offer prize money to elite foreign runners. Consequently, none of them entered.
The top three male finishers on Friday, July 4 in the Peachtree Road Race said they all approved of the change. Landry said, “It puts the spotlight on the American athletes on the All-America day.”
The women’s winner and new American 10K champion on Friday at Peachtree was former US Olympian Amy Hastings, 30, of East Providence, R.I., as she ran 32:16, bettering her previous best over the distance of 32:33. It was the first time she had run Peachtree, but she said it certainly wouldn’t be her last.
Hastings admitted she was “running scared” over the closing stretches in Atlanta, although she didn’t dare look back lest someone was gaining on her. “I had a feeling they were coming around that (final) bend right after me,” she said later, referring to the final turn onto 10th Street leading to the finish.
The 2012 US Olympian in the 10,000 meters in London, Hastings finished 12 seconds ahead of Sara Hall, 31, of Flagstaff, Ariz., who ran 32:28 at Peachtree. Rachel Ward, 24, of Charlottsville, Va., finished third in 32:36, and Kellyn Johnson, 27, also of Flagstaff, placed fourth in 32:49.
For most of the race on Friday, the lead pack including Hastings, Hall, Ward, Johnson and the rest of the leaders kept exchanging the lead over the course’s rolling terrain.
Hastings said afterwards, “I think it was Rachel Ward who kind of came up (late in the race) and she took the lead for a while. That was really helpful to me because I just latched on to her and went with her, and then I was able to pull away on the downhill. After that it was just running scared because I knew there were some really incredible women behind me, and I didn’t want to leave it to the very end.”
This being the US Championship, Hastings said she benefited from her familiarity with her main competitors.
“Knowing these women, I know a lot of their strengths, a lot of their weaknesses. I know who has come off a marathon and is just coming back. I know who has been racing a lot lately. There are women who have had babies recently and are just coming back from that.
“Everyone’s getting stronger and stronger. It made me realize I didn’t want to be with people with a mile to go because I’m more of a grinder racer, and a lot of these girls have incredible kicks.”
Sara Hall, the runner-up to Hastings on Friday, agreed with those sentiments about the Peachtree race.
“That’s the thing about US Championships,” she said. “We all know each other and how we run.”
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