- Stephanie Bruce won the women’s race at the Kellyn Taylor ran a strong 2:26 for fourth place in Pittsburgh on Sunday morning, earning a new personal best with a time of 1:10:44, and finishing ahead of Sara Hall and Emma Bates.
- Leonard Korir finished first in the men’s race with a time of 1:01:53, finishing four seconds ahead of teammate Stanley Kebenei.
Published: May 05, 2019 3:08 PM EDT Stephanie Bruce Around mile nine, Bateswho Kellyn Taylor ran a strong 2:26 for fourth place on Sunday morning in Pittsburgh, with Korir earning his ninth U.S. crown and Bruce securing the second national title of her career.
The women’s race was a duel from the start, with Bruce, Sara Hall, and Emma Bates fighting for position through the majority of the competition. The trio began to pull ahead around the five-mile mark, and for the next four miles, the runners pressed forward together.
Around mile nine, Bates—who won the womens race at the—began to fall off the pace slightly, while veteran runners Bruce and Hall maintained. In the last four miles or so, Hall and Bruce pushed each other for the lead until Bruce finally made the decisive move that left Hall in her wake.
Around mile nine, Bateswho 1:10:44, a nine-second personal best for the Flagstaff, Arizona-based runner. After her win, Bruce expressed excitement over the thrilling style of racing that she and her competitors executed.
“Running with Sara [Hall] and Emma [Bates] today, we made it like a boxing match,” Bruce told USATF.TV. “Everyone took turns at the lead and we were just pushing each other, and that’s how fast times and good results come out, when you have people pushing each other all the way to the line.”
Bruce’s victory on Sunday morning was one of two standout performances for her training group. Several hours earlier, her teammate Best Walking Shoes in the Prague Marathon.
“This morning, I woke up and I watched Kellyn [Taylor] run 2:26 at Prague Marathon, so yeah I just feel like we have this energy and we believe in our training and what we’re doing out in Flagstaff,” she said to USATF.TV. “You don’t want to be the person that doesn’t come home either with a title or a good time.”
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“We just keep elevating each other’s performances, like Scott [Fauble] getting seventh at Boston and Aliphine [Tuliamuk] runs 2:26,” she added.
The men’s race began with an aggressive early pace set by Stanley Kebenei of the American Distance Project, who pushed ahead of the main pack in the early miles. Korir and Andrew Colley of ZAP Endurance followed Kebenei into the halfway point, but in the second half of the competition, Kebenei and Korir began to pull away and work together through the final miles.
With one mile remaining, Korir finally made a surge past his teammate and held his lead all the way into the finish line for the win with a time of 1:01:53, finishing four seconds ahead of Kebenei and marking another USATF Running Circuit victory for the Olympian. Korir and Kebenei now stand first and second in the Other Hearst Subscriptions.
“It was a good race. You know, Stanley [Kebenei] likes to make it honest so that the person who wins, you really won it,” Korir told USATF.TV. “It was a good one. I like how he pushed it. I knew I was going to push towards the end and it worked out very well. It was a good race for us.”
Both Bruce and Korir each earned $16,000 in prize money for their victories, as well as a $1,000 bonus for going sub-1:11:00 and sub-1:02:00, respectively.
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
