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Jun-12-2010
Masai Masters NYRR New York Mini 10K
by Jim Gerweck
NEW YORK - (June 12, 2010) - Watching Linet Masai warm up before the start of the NYRR New York Mini 10K, Roger Robinson opined, "You know, if you were to design the ultimate running machine, she'd probably look just like that." Perhaps the veteran Kiwi runner/writer can fashion a second career as a genetic engineer; after 6.2 miles around and through Central Park, Masai, looking like a running version of the "Six Million Dollar Woman," disposed of perhaps the best field - including numerous Olympians and world champions - ever assembled in the 39-year history of the original all-women's road race as if they were schoolgirls trying to keep pace with a superstar.
Indeed, Masai may be the next great supernova in the Kenyan running firmament; her win here proved that she is just as dominant over 10K on asphalt as she is on a rubberized oval, where she won the IAAF World Championships title in Berlin last August, outsprinting three others for the gold medal in 30:51.24.
Indeed, it was her prowess on the track that indirectly led to her entry in the Mini. Last year, on the same weekend in the same city, she upset Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba at the Reebok Grand Prix meet on Randall's Island. Wanting no reprise of such a rude party-crashing, Masai wasn't invited to the adidas Grand Prix this year, so track's loss became the roads', and the Mini's, gain.
Masai, 20, was content to let four-time Mini champ Lornah Kiplagat lead through the first half of the course, clicking off sub-5 minute miles and reaching the halfway point in 15:25. Kiplagat's pacing was typical and characteristic of her, yet a bit unexpected, coming in only her third race and first 10K since undergoing surgery to remove a cyst on her knee last year. Indeed, Kiplagat, 36, who would finish fourth in 31:40, disregarded her own pre-race advice to the assembled crowd of 5,000-plus women: "Relax, start easy and build up to a nice finish. Well, I told them that so they wouldn't go with me at the start," she joked afterward.
The 5 kilometer point comes halfway up the toughest climb on the Central Park course, and often the deciding move of the race comes here. This year was no different, as Masai, looking incredibly smooth and relaxed, shed Kiplagat, countrywoman Emily Chebet, who had broken the course record at the Freihofer's 5K the week before, and finally Ethiopia's Worknesh Kidane with seemingly no effort.
From that point it became a race against the clock rather than any other competitors, with the 30:29 course mark set in 2002 by Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco in jeopardy.
"I knew about the course record, but I had no one to push me the last half," said Masai, who wound up running 30:48, the fourth fastest time in the Mini's history and just four seconds off Kiplagat's Kenyan record, and earning $10,000. "Maybe next year I will come back and try to get it."
That would certainly be a 40th anniversary present worth waiting one more year to witness.
The finisher total of 5,189 was the highest since 1997 and is evidence that the Mini holds a special place in the hearts of many women. "It all started here," said 2008 Olympian Magdalena Lewy Boulet, who was the top American (11th) and running here for the fifth time. "The atmosphere is something to treasure."
39th NYRR New York Mini 10K
New York, NY, Saturday, June 12, 2010
1) Linet Masai (KEN), 30:48, $10,000
2) Emily Chebet (KEN), 31:13, $5000
3) Worknesh Kidane (ETH), 31:18, $3500
4) Lornah Kiplagat (NED), 31:40, $2500
5) Kim Smith (NZL), 32:15, $1500
6) Teyba Erkesso (ETH), 32:24
7) Shewarge Alene Amare (ETH), 32:27
8) René Kalmer (RSA), 32:32
9) Buzunesh Deba (ETH), 32:37
10) Caroline Rotich (KEN), 32:43
11) Magdalena Lewy Boulet (USA / CA), 33:25, $5000
12) Delilah DiCrescenzo (USA / NY), 33:38, $2500
13) Benita Willis (AUS), 33:42
14) Nina Rillstone (NZL), 33:44
15) Aziza Aliyu (ETH), 33:54
16) Molly Pritz (USA / PA), 33:58, $1250
17) Irene Limika (KEN), 34:08
18) Diane Nukuri-Johnson (BDI), 34:14
19) Adriana Pirtea (ROU), 34:19
20) Kelly Jaske (USA / OR), 34:37, $750
21) Catha Mullen (USA / NY), 34:52, $500
Full race results, photos, video and more at: www.NYRR.org
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