FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Texas Showdown" Highlights Second Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio
International elite field to lead largest marathon
and half-marathon in Texas
SAN ANTONIO - (November 11, 2009) - More than 31,000 entrants from all 50
states and 23 countries will descend on south Texas to run the Rock 'n'
Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon on Sunday, November 15. The
second edition features elite men's and women's fields vying for a prize
purse that will award $17,500 to the race champions. Interspersed with the
international field at the start line will be some of the fastest runners
in Texas, who will be competing in a statewide battle for a "Texas-only"
prize purse in both the full and half-marathon.
"Building on the success of last year's Texas Showdown, we have over twice
as many elite Texas runners coming to San Antonio this year," said Matt
Turnbull, Elite Athlete Coordinator for the event. "Last year proved what a
flat course San Antonio offers and we should see some terrific competition
at this year's race."
Leading the women's field is returning "Texas Showdown" champion for the
half-marathon Melisa Christian of Dallas. Christian owns a personal best of
2 hours, 42 minutes, 7 seconds from her ninth place finish at the 2007 ING
New York City Marathon, which qualified her for the 2008 U.S. Women's
Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston. She recently won the Dallas Running Club
Half Marathon on November 1 in 1:18:11.
"I really liked the (San Antonio) course," said Christian, who will compete
in Sunday's half-marathon. "It was well laid out, and with all the
participants, it was impressive how well the event was organized. My
training has been going great and you never know what can happen on race
day. I'm hoping we have perfect weather like last year."
The professional women's field features veteran runners who have performed
well at past Rock 'n' Roll Marathons. Russia's Tatiana Pushkareva, 24,
finished fourth in San Antonio last year with a PR (personal record) of
2:34:55 and won the 2009 Country Music Marathon in Nashville. Countrywoman
Svetlana Ponomorenko, 40, won the 2008 Country Music Marathon. She returns
to Texas as a Masters runner after winning Dallas Marathon in 2006 with a
PR of 2:29:55.
Expected to join them in the lead pack is 2008 Olympian Dorota Gruca of
Poland. Gruca, who trains in New Mexico, finished 30th at the Beijing
Olympic Marathon in 2:33:32. She owns a marathon PR of 2:27:46 when she
finished 13th at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. Kenya's
Evelyne Lagat has a personal marathon best of 2:42:14 from a 7th place
finish at the 2009 Chevron Houston Marathon. The sister of U.S. distance
great Bernard Lagat, she finished 6th at the 2009 ING Philadelphia Distance
Run on September 20 in 1:12:25.
In the men's race, American Kyle O'Brien returns to San Antonio to run the
marathon after finishing 4th in last year's half-marathon. O'Brien runs
with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Rochester Hills, Mich. and owns
a marathon PR of 2:15:13 set in Chicago 2007. A 10-time Ohio Valley
Conference champion in track and cross country, O'Brien represented Team
USA in the marathon at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
His competition includes runners familiar to the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon
Series. Leading the strong international field, will be New Zealand
Olympian Mike Aish. Aish won the 2008 P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona
Marathon, to go with his 12 NCAA Division II titles at Western State
College in Colorado. Looking for his second Rock 'n' Roll Marathon victory
in 2009 will be Kenyan Peter Omae, who won the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll
Seattle Marathon last June.
Fellow Kenyans expected to challenge Omae, include Joseph Mutinda, Noah
Talam, Sammy Kiplagat and Laban Moiben. Talam showed third at the Country
Music Marathon in April and is hoping to better his PR of 2:14:54 set at
that race. Muntinda, 31, finished third in the LALA Marathon in Mexico
earlier this year running a PR of 2:13:19 on the way. Kiplagat won the
Dallas Running Club Half Marathon in 1:05:53 earlier this month, while
Moiben, the 2008 Los Angeles Marathon champion, recently won the Vulcan 10K
in Birmingham AL, and has a 2:13:50 marathon PR from 2008.
Up-and-coming Ethiopian Amare Mulu rounds out the favorites in the men's
field. Mulu won the 2008 Ljubljana Marathon in Slovenia with a time of
2:14:41. At only 22-years-old, Mulu will be contesting his third marathon
of 2009 in San Antonio. He finished 8th in Turin, Italy in April, before
placing 5th in September at the Warsaw Marathon in Poland.
Leading the half-marathon field is U.S. 50K record holder Josh Cox. Cox,
who set the 50K mark in January at the 2009 P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll
Arizona, is approaching the 13.1-mile race as a tune-up for the California
International Marathon, to be held in Sacramento on December 6.
"I'm always hoping to win," Cox recently told Competitor Magazine. "I'd
also like to run a PR. I don't want to totally go to the wall, but I really
want to run a fast time, because the faster I can run in San Antonio, the
easier the first half will feel at Cal International. If I can run 1:02,
1:03 in San Antonio, coming through the half in 1:05, 1:06 in Sacramento
will feel really pedestrian."
Locally, Daniel Jess of San Antonio is expected to contend for the top
prize in the "Texas Showdown" for the men's marathon. Jess finished 4th in
the men's race at the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Half Marathon in
August with a time of 1:10:33.
"Rock 'n' Roll Chicago was great, my goal was to run under 1:11:00," said
Jess, who ran track and cross country at Indiana University. "I've slowed
my training down from 120 miles and have had a couple 100 mile weeks over
the latter half of October. My goal is to break 2:25, and eventually 2:19
to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials."
The winning time for last year's showdown marathon was 2:26:28. Jess
recently returned to running and triathlon after recovering from a cornea
transplant a couple of years ago. His sub-1:11 half-marathon qualified him
for the top 100 at October's Chicago Marathon, but the cold weather forced
him to drop out after 18 miles.
"I felt I was in really good shape for Chicago and was on pace for 15
miles, but I could never get warm," he said, referring to the chilly start
line temperature of 33 degrees. "I knew San Antonio was coming up and so I
decided to look at it as an 18 mile tempo run. I'm looking forward to
challenging for the Texas Showdown prize."
The "Texas Showdown" is open to all Texas runners and features a guaranteed
purse of $11,500 for Texas athletes. The top male and female from Texas
will receive $2000 for the marathon and $1000 for the half-marathon. In
addition, a $350 time bonus will be awarded to any Texas participant who
runs the marathon under 2:31 male / 2:56 female or the half-marathon under
1:08:30 male / 1:17 female, but does not win any prize money. To qualify
for the Showdown's prize purse, runners must have been a permanent resident
in the state of Texas as of November 15, 2008.
The professional field will be introduced at the event press conference on
Friday, November 13 at 11:30am on the 4th floor of the Alamodome. Limited
race registration will be available at the event's two-day Health & Fitness
Expo, which begins Friday at 11:00am in the Alamodome. A wheelchair race
will be the first competition of Sunday's marathon, which begins at 7:25 m
on Broadway adjacent to Lion's Field. The marathon and half-marathon
runners will start at 7:30am. Live bands and cheerleaders entertain
participants along every mile of the scenic course that winds more than 26
miles past the historic Alamo, Mission San José and other San Antonio
landmarks before ending at the Alamodome.
The event will conclude with an evening headliner concert featuring Los
Lonely Boys and Grand Funk Railroad at the Alamodome. All participants
receive a free concert ticket with their race entry. For more information,
visit http://san-antonio.competitor.com or call (800) 311-1255.
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