Sarah Nixon
doubles up and David Hinga hits home run at 2nd
Annual B.A.A. Half Marathon™,
Presented by New England Baptist Hospital
Leading the pack of 3,055 finishers
were two local runners: one was a returning champion
and both were late entrants.
Sarah
Nixon, 38, of Medfield, Mass. held off
a feisty challenge from Simonetta
Piergentili mid-way during the race and
successfully defended her B.A.A. title with a
time of 1:22:34. In the men's race, David
Hinga, 26, of Lowell, Mass. made his decisive
move at the seven-mile mark, and held on for the
remaining six miles as he recorded a course record
of 1:09:47.
Nixon, who runs for Merrimack
Valley Striders and who also trains regularly
with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team,
already has her sights set on running next April's
London Marathon, but was apprehensive about her
chances of retaining her half marathon victor's
trophy. A courtesy call from the B.A.A. and Race
Director Dave McGillivray, however, convinced
her to run. She's glad she did.
With her first mile run in 6:13,
Nixon led Piergentili (6:20), Emily Dranov, of
Boston; Lynda Andros, of Hampton Bays, New York;
and Caitlin O'Connor, of Somerville, Mass. through
Fenway Park. From there, it was a two-woman race
to the finish with Nixon (31:17) leading Piergentili
(31:30) through five miles. She retained the same
margin over Piergentili at the farthest-most point
of the course -- approaching seven miles and entering
the Franklin Park Zoo -- with Dranov still in
third. Returning towards the start/finish area
at Roberto Clemente Field in the Back Bay Fens,
Piergentili caught Nixon at the nine mile mark
(56:50), and the pair ran together for a little
less than a mile. By 10 miles, Nixon (1:03:10)
had begun to pull away again and had opened a
five-second lead, which she extended over the
remaining 3.1 miles to the finish.
Nixon's winning time was 39
seconds ahead of runner-up Piergentili (1:23:13),
and her time was one minute, 18 seconds off her
time at the inaugural B.A.A. Half Marathon in
2001. Lizbie Porter,
28, of Brighton, Mass. surged in the late miles
to capture third place in 1:28:55.
"Winning last year's half
marathon was one of the greatest running experiences
of my life, so I just came out to see what I could
do this year," said Nixon, who works at a
bookstore in Wellesley Square and, coincidentally,
at the half marathon mark of the Boston Marathon
route. "I felt that I wasn't in as good shape
as I was last year at this time, and I really
just came to have fun. I'm actually a little surprised
I won."
Piergentili, also 38, of Whirlaway
Racing Team, recorded her personal best time by
more than two minutes. "My previous best
was at the New Bedford Half Marathon [in March],
but I felt this was a much more challenging course,"
said Piergentili, who recently moved to Wilmington,
Mass. and is a substitute teacher. "Entering
Fenway Park, I had goose bumps," she said.
"I even ran over to touch the Green Monster
as I ran through," she said, referring to
the historic ballpark's legendary left-field wall.
Piergentili, who will run either
the Cape Cod Marathon on October 27 or the New
York City Marathon on November 3, said that she
had her goal split-times written on her hand,
but Nixon's presence ahead caused her to run a
more competitive race.
In the men's race, a lead pack
of five ran together for the first seven miles,
including last year's champion Wayne
Levy; last year's fifth place finisher,
Ryan LaFleur,
of Boston; Michael
Richardson, of Providence, RI; Seth
McClennen, of Newton, Mass.; and Hinga.
Exiting Fenway Park after the
first mile, the group of five quickly established
a 50-yard lead over the next pack of runners.
They remained tightly bunched into Brookline,
around Jamaica Pond, along the Arborway and over
the Forest Hills overpass. Then, just as the heavy
mist changed to light drizzle (30 minutes into
the race), the group ran its slowest mile of the
day from mile five to mile six. Levy, the inaugural
men's champion, briefly lost contact in Franklin
Park, and that may have been the first indication
to the other four contenders that he wasn't destined
to repeat. Hinga, perhaps sensing a weakness among
them, bolted.
The five - Hinga, LaFleur, Richardson,
Levy, McClennen - entered the zoo together, but
Hinga emerged with a lead of 50 yards. The approximately
half-mile run through the zoo broke the field,
and Hinga didn't let up. Self-described "strong
on downhills," Hinga made the gradual slope
down and out of Franklin Park pay off for him
with his fastest split time of the day (4:56 between
miles seven and eight). LaFleur and Richardson
were left 15 seconds back with Levy and McClennen
fractured another few steps behind the pair.
LaFleur would say later: "He
[Hinga] just took off. I kept pushing, but he
had already broken contact with us. I wouldn't
say that I conceded the race to him at that point,
I just couldn't catch him."
In fact, Richardson and LaFleur
- who, along with Levy, all are members of the
Boston Athletic Association's running club - did
try to catch Hinga with LaFleur doing the best
to close the gap. They had a chance during the
race's latter stages and where it has fewer rolling
hills. At 10 miles, Hinga's lead was a mere 20
seconds over LaFleur, who by now had a three-second
lead over third placer Richardson. Richardson,
whose previous longest race was 15-kilometers
(9.3 miles), found himself in uncharted territory
for the rest of the race and faded slightly during
the final three miles. LaFleur, on the other hand,
still was only 21 seconds behind Hinga at 12 miles,
but he ran out of real estate.
After the race, runner-up LaFleur
(1:10:09) spoke about his one minute, 33 second
improvement from the previous year. "Early
in the race, no one wanted to take the pace which
is why we were running relatively slow,"
he said. "I was afraid to because I had difficulty
over the second half of the course last year.
I guess in retrospect that played into Hinga's
hands."
Hinga, who is a citizen of Kenya
but who has resided in the United States for the
last eight years, officially entered the race
this past Friday. It's amazing that the Lowell,
Mass. resident decided to run at all: two weeks
ago he had chicken pox, and he was forced to take
an easy week following a week of absolutely no
running. With the intention of running the Cape
Cod Marathon at the end of October, Hinga was
hoping to log a solid "tempo" run as
part of his training. The Whirlaway Racing Team
member said after the race that he is "more
worried about running good races, running smart
and running well" than he is about winning.
Sunday he did all of the above.
Richardson held on for third
place (1:10:45), while McClennen was fourth in
1:12:03.
