The start of last year’s Freihofer’s Run for Women. © www.photorun.net
Emily Chebet of Kenya, the winner of this year’s World Cross-Country Championships didn’t just break the course record at the Freihofer’s Run for Women in Albany, New York on Saturday; it was the largest course record improvement in the 32-year-history of the event. Her 15:12 winning time for the 5K race, run in humid conditions and 76 degrees Fahrenheit, was a six-second improvement over the old course record set by Morocco’s Asmae Leghzaou in 2005. “I am happy now. I am the winner,” a smiling Chebet told Universal Sports afterwards.
She’s got a great reason to smile—this year’s winner, Emily Chebet. © Take The Magic Step
Though her victory seemed clear-cut at the end, things didn’t appear that way at the starting line. The assembled elite field was chock full of talent. Vying for the win were none other than Mamitu Daska, last weekend’s BolderBOULDER 10K winner, as well as Tebya Erkesso, the 2010 Boston Marathon winner and defending champion—two of Ethiopia’s best runners. After the starting gun went off, the course record didn’t even come into question, though, with the lead pack clocking a relatively pedestrian 3:14-minutes opening kilometer. As expected Emily Chebet, Mamitu Daska, and Tebya Erkesso were part of an eight-women lead pack. That pack held until the third kilometer, when the race’s dynamic began to change. By the fourth kilometer, it was just down to Emily Chebet, Mamitu Daska, and Kenyan Edna Kiplagat. With 800 meters to go, as the runners turned onto Madison Avenue, it came down to a footrace between Kiplagat and Chebet, the latter edging away gradually in the final downhill towards the finish. Emily Chebet’s closing kilometer was an amazing 2:41. Edna Kiplagat crossed the finish line eight seconds’ later in 15:20, while Mamity Daska took third in 15:23. KIMbia’s Jelliah Tenega finished sixth in 15:48.
Elite race results aside, there was plenty of other excitement and fun along the hilly Freihofer’s course, which winds though New York State’s capital. For the second time in the race’s history, charity runners who were raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society took part in the event. And some of the nearly 4,000 women ran for teams in categories such as Mother/Daughter, Sister/Sister, and Family/Friends. With country music and rock and roll bands playing nearly every step of the way and thousands of spectators cheering, waving banners and signs, runners pushed themselves up and down the hills of the challenging course—a course that is more cross-country than big-city road race.
