USA Half Marathon was well attended in Duluth, with kudos from elite athletes. Adriana Nelson won the women’s race, and Mo Trafeh won the men/s. Nice to see Desi Davila running back. Thanks to Brendan Reilly, who provides us updates from races around the world. Photo courtesy of Jill Hilliard.
Adriana Nelson, photo by Jill Hilliard
Boulder’s Adriana Nelson (ASICS) won this morning’s US Half-Marathon title in Duluth, Minnesota, in 71:18 for a seven-second win over US Olympic marathoner Desi Davila.
Adriana ran a fantastic race, running her opening four miles in 21:10 (5:16-5:23-5:16-5:15) to open a 53-second gap on the field. From five miles, the second group including Davila, Stephanie Rothstein Bruce, 2013 Bolder Boulder 6th-placer Mattie Suver, and several others, began the chase. Adriana’s lead was cut in half by seven miles, and two miles later Davila looked prime to catch her, closing to seven seconds at nine miles. Adriana responded with a 5:33 to expand the lead back to 11 seconds (54:28 at 10 miles), then closed with 16:50 for the final 5K (10 miles to the finish) to win her first US title and the $12,000 first-place prize money.
Earlier this year Adriana took 11th at the New York City Half-Marathon in 71:09, the second-fastest time of her career. Her next race will be the Peachtree 10K on July 4th, which will also be the US Women’s 10K Championship.
Quotes from Adriana:
“I took off from the start because I knew I could run a half marathon alone, like I do in my trainings.
Towards the last few miles I heard the pace car talking about Desi behind me with about seven seconds between us. When I heard her getting close I thought, I still have a lot of juice left so I gave a charge. I heard them say ‘well, Desi’s not coming’ and I knew I had it.
Last two miles I was just thinking about my training loop in Boulder. I was imagining Jeremy [Adriana’s husband, Jeremy Nelson] on the bike next to me and since I always finish my trainings fast I knew I could close hard.”
Adriana can be followed on Twitter at @adi_nelson
