Venice, the quirky SoCal beach town, isn’t just known for its muscle men and body builders and assorted freaks, it also now is getting known for ectomorphic runners.
Under Armour Mission Dark Sky Distance’s Matt Wilkinson jumped in a road mile, the inaugural Abbot Kinney One, a short ways from the boardwalk on Sunday morning and easily won the elite heat in 4 minutes 8 seconds, some six seconds ahead of runnerup Charles Parrish on Walnut, Calif.
For his four minutes of work, Wilkinson pocketed the first-place check of $2,250.
This was hardly Wilkinson’s goal race. He ran well indoors this winter and is prepping for a busy outdoor season. In Boston in late January, Wilkinson ran 3:57 indoors at the Terrier Classic, finishing second, and a week later finished second in the 3,000 meters indoors at the Scarlet and White Invitational, also in Boston. Both were personal bests.
His last race before the Abbot Kinney One was the U.S. Indoor Championships on Feb. 16 in Albuquerque, where he finished eighth in the 3,000 at 8:01.51.
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