Weekend Results:
This much is certain: If you wanted to run fast, Sunday’s Valencia Marathon was the place to do it.
Several Flagstaff-based elite runners heeded that advice, and no one was as swift as Biya Simbassa, who finished in 17th place but along the way ran the fourth fastest time ever by an American: 2:06:53.
Only Americans Khalid Khannouchi at 2:05:38, Galen Rupp at 2:05:56 and Ryan Hall at 2:06:17 have run faster, and none of those time came recently. Simbassa, who finished 11th in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, now leapfrogs ahead of both Connor Mantz and Clayton Young among the current top American men.
Simbassa’s time, however, fell short of the new, difficult World Championship standard of 2:06:30. Simbassa formerly was coached by Hall, who left the profession earlier this year. Simbassa has stayed in Flagstaff, though, and now is coached by Ian Carter of McKirdy Trained.
Among the women, Flagstaff’s Sara Hall, 41, running her fourth marathon of 2024, broke her own American Masters record by throwing down a 2:23:45 for 10th place. That broke her own Masters record by nearly two minutes. As with Simbassa, Hall came close by missed the women’s World Championship standard of 2:23:30.
Other Flagstaff runners at Valencia set personal bests. NAZ Elite’s Matt Baxter ran 2:10:57 for 43rd place, bettering his PR by three minutes. And NAZ Elite’s Alice Wright ran 2:28:48 for 21st among the women, a PR.
As fast as the Flagstaffians were, the top finishers at Valencia were considerably faster.
Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe won with thefastest marathon of 2024 — 2:02:05 — in his debut at the distance. He is the reigning world half marathon champion. It was the fifth fastest all-time men’s marathon performance.
The women’s race was won by Ethiopia’ Magertu Alemu in 2:16:49.
–Closer to home, in high school running, Flagstaff High School’s Yohanes Van Meerten won Saturday night’s Arizona Open 5K Championship, contested on the track, in 14:53.87, easily beating Division 1 champion Hamilton’s Zarian Rodriguez (15:08.08).
Van Meerten’s teammate, two-time Division 2 state cross country champion Alex Bland, finished fifth in 15:14.59.
In the women’s championship race, Flagstaff High’s Oliver Baker, the D2 state champ, placed fourth in 18:09.68, as Chandler’s Taylor Drewry took the win in 17:43.70.
In an earlier heat, Flagstaff High’s Elijah Talkalai ran 16:23.41 to finish 27th in the combined results.
–And at the Ultra Trail Kosciuszko in Australia, Flagstaff’s Abby Hall put in a gutty performance under miserable conditions to win the 100K.
The race was contested in snowy (higher up) and rainy conditions. Hall was easily leading 50K in when the race was halted and runners were transported back to a nearby aid station. The race was resumed, eventually, but Hall and other runners had to rerun part of the course.
Here’s Hall’s description on her Instagram post: “About 50k in, the race was paused for a big storm. course officials put me in a van and drove me back to the previous aid station, where hundreds of other runners were all gathered trying to make sense of the situation. we were in the aid station for about 2 hours, navigating this unique situation together, snacking, staying loose and musing about what might happen next.”
She said she ended up running 70 miles for the day.
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