Sound Running’s The Ten may be the marquee event this coming weekend, what with 14 Flagstaff-based runners vying for the Olympic 10K standard, but it’s not all that’s happening.
A rundown:
- Hoka Naz Elite’s Matt Baxter, whose last race was a victory in a trail half marathon in his native New Zealand in January, returns to the roads Sunday at a more conventional venue: The United Airlines New York City Half Marathon. Baxter will be looking to improve on his half marathon PR of 1:02:38. His last major effort was last December’s California International Marathon (2:14:08 for fourth), and he’s said to be in top form for Sunday. Baxter will need to be; he’s in a tough field, featuring two sub-1 hour runners (Abel Kipchumba of Kenya and Gabriel Geay of Tanzania), Ethiopian distance legend Kenenisa Bekele, U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials runner-up Clayton Young and road specialist Hillary Bor, making his half-marathon debut. McKirdy Trained Eritrean Yemane Haileselaisse (1:01:24) also will be in the mix.
- McKirdy Trained will be represented in Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon by Eritrean-born Flagstaffian Tesfu Weldegebreal, making his marathon debut after chalking up a 1:02:48 half marathon personal best. Training partner Tsegay Tuemay originally had been scheduled to run Los Angeles, but he has switched to April’s Boston Marathon.
- To nobody’s surprise, NAU’s Nico Young was named the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Men’s Track Athlete of the Year on Thursday. He sealed the award last weekend by winning both the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston. But don’t forget about Young’s earlier indoor exploits: his NCAA record-setting 12:57.14 at 5,000 meters and becoming the first person to run a sub-4 mile at 7,000 feet in Flagstaff — 3:57.33.
- Officially, NAU opens its outdoor track and field season Saturday at the Arizona Spring Break Fiesta in Tucson, but the entries show no Lumberjack female or male distance runners competing.
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