Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Unpacking Team USA Minnesota's Weekend

As Team USA runners finish unpacking from recent travels, let's sort out how they did ...

Eleven Team USA Minnesota distance runners competed over the Thanksgiving holiday in events ranging from the local Life Time Fitness Turkey Day 5K in Minneapolis to the Manchester Road Race in Connecticut and the International Chiba Ekiden in Japan.

At the Turkey Day 5K, Jon Grey was first across the finish line followed by teammate Jason Lehmkuhle in unofficial times of 14:18 and 14:22, respectively. (No official times were kept at the event.).

Also running were Jamie Cheever who finished third and Katie McGregor who was fourth in the women’s field -- behind former Team USA Minnesotan Carrie Tollefson and former Gopher Elizabeth Yetzer. Heather Kampf participated in the event for fun.

At the 75th running of the Manchester Road Race, Meghan Peyton finished second in the women’s field on the 4.748-mile course with a time of 25:03. Kenyan Sally Kipyego won the women's race in 24:22.

In the men’s competition, Andrew Carlson was third with a time of 21:41, Matt Gabrielson was fourth in 21:43, and Matt Llano was 12th in 22:29. Ohio's Brian Olinger won the race in 21:33.

Peyton was making her first appearance at the historic race along with Llano, who was also running his first race as a professional runner. Carlson improved upon his fourth place finish from 2008, while Gabrielson also had his best placing at the event.

In Chiba, Japan, Emily Brown was a member of the USA team that competed at the International Chiba Ekiden. Brown posted 16:25 on a 5K leg of the relay, the sixth fastest runner for the leg. The USA team finished 5th overall in the marathon distance event in 2:09:06. Kenya won the event at 2:04:40.

As an Ekiden alternate, Josh Moen competed in a separate 5K race with a time of 14:12 to finish third in the field.

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