By Rick Platt
The last time an American male had won the 33rd annual Sentara Colonial Half Marathon was back in 1998 when Mark Andrews, 27, of Chapel Hill, NC won in 1:05:46, the first year the hilly Carter’s Grove Country Road/Kingsmill course was used, and still the No. 3 time ever on the newer route (from 1979 through 1997, the race used the Colonial Parkway-Treasure Island Road-Route 199 course). Since 1998 there had been men’s winners from Kenya (6), Ethiopia (3) and one each from Canada, Morocco, Russia and Belarus, but none from the U.S.
That all changed Sunday when the talented Ricky Flynn, 24, of Lynchburg dominated the second half of the race for a win in 1:07:18, pulling away from a three-runner pack that included the two other pre-race favorites, Kenyan Abraham Ng’etich, 30, of Mount Vernon, NY, and American Jordan McDougal, 24, of Warrenton. Flynn competed in college for Lynchburg College, while McDougal was on the Liberty University team in Lynchburg, so obviously the hills of Lynchburg (famous for the challenging Virginia Ten Miler) were great preparation for the hills of Williamsburg.
Despite being forewarned about the Carter’s Grove hills, Flynn said, “The course was surprisingly hillier than expected,” but called it “a unique course thru the woods, which made it more scenic and enjoyable. I used it mainly as a solid long tempo effort for the upcoming track season,” where he will attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters (where the “B” standard is 29:00 and the “A” standard 28:15). Flynn’s track bests are 29:21 (10,000) and 13:59 (5,000). He has already competed in the Olympic Trials, but at the marathon distance in January, where he ran his debut marathon in a remarkable time of 2:13:41 (12th place), in the top 20 all-time for U.S. debut marathoners. Flynn had qualified for the marathon trials with a PR half marathon time of 1:04:15 at last October’s Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon.
Ng’etich set a hard pace (4:48 for the first mile, then 5:05-5:08 pace through halfway), a few meters ahead of the two Americans for the first five miles, with McDougal finally dropping back around 4 ½ miles. Flynn caught Ng’etich, but the Kenyan twice threw in surges to break away, until Flynn caught him for good at around six miles, passed him, and Ng’etich couldn’t respond. Flynn steadily pulled away for a win ($500 prize money) in 1:07:18. Ng’etich held on for second ($300) in 1:09:53, with McDougal third ($200) in 1:10:11.
The next race was for the first runner with William and Mary connections, and that was won by Rawls Byrd Elementary PE teacher Adam Otstot, 29, of Williamsburg (4th, 1:10:33) over David Hryvniak, 27, of Charlottesville (5th, 1:11:23) and W&M senior Andrew Budiansky (7th, 1:12:17), with Budiansky nipped at the finish by Zachary Reiter, 23, of Fayetteville, NC (6th, also 1:12:17). Otstot said, “I had a super race today. Right now my training is solely focused on preparing for Ironman Texas [triathlon] in May.” It was a half marathon PR for Otstot by three seconds.
The next battle was for first Masters, and that was a close match with Williamsburg’s John Piggott, 46, outkicking Richmond’s Doug Fernandez, 51, 1:18:28 to 1:18:31. Third Masters was W&M grad Andy Mason, 40, of Hagerstown (1:19:55) over Greg Cauller, 52, of York, PA (1:21:20).
For the women it was an historically slow winning time of 1:29:58 for winner Holly Smith, 27, of Rehoboth Beach, DE, with Gabrielle Names, 22, of Arlington second (1:30:22) and Kim Isler, 44, of Oakton third (1:30:45). The only women’s winning times in race history equally slow were in 1981 (1:31:21) and in 1983 (1:29:57). Running good tune-ups for spring marathons were Williamsburg’s Jami Brayton, 30 (4th, 1:32:38), preparing for Shamrock, and Laura Shannon, 49 (5th, 1:32:48), preparing for Boston.
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