Gabriel Rodriguez finishes 3rd in ING Miami Half Marathon
Posted on Mon, Jan. 30, 2006 - HALF MARATHON
Holassie goes for the gold
Two-time Olympic marathoner Ronnie Holassie easily won the men's half marathon, and Alicia Gabriela Cevallos was the women's winner.
BY SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN
sdegnan@MiamiHerald.com
Ronnie Holassie has won enough races in his running career to know what it feels like to be the leader.
But it's still a thrill to have more than 9,000 people trying to catch him.
'Nobody was ahead of me, and that's a good feeling, because you don't want anybody from the full marathon passing you when you're only going half the distance,' '' the two-time Olympic marathoner said Sunday after winning the ING Half Marathon in 1 hour 8 minutes 42 seconds -- 48 seconds shy of the course record and about a minute faster than runner up Tom Kutter (1:09:49), of Loganville, Ga.
About 6,200 runners competed in the half marathon.
''No one pressed the pace for a course record today because they knew it was so windy,'' said Holassie, 34, who represented Trinidad & Tobago in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (2:24) and 2000 Sydney Olympics (2:19) and became a U.S. citizen in 2003. ``I could have run a lot harder than I did today.''
Holassie, who owns a car detailing business, has competed in a half marathon three consecutive weeks. He fought a bit of lower back pain early in the race, a recurring problem for the past five years.
''But it was easy today,'' he said. ``Most of the guys behind me were running the marathon, so they weren't thinking about me. I was like the rabbit. I did a nice, easy tempo for six miles and then picked it up, and no one really followed.''
WOMEN'S RACE
Alicia Gabriela Cevallos, 26, from Machachi, Ecuador, won the women's half marathon in 1:19:52 in her first 13.1-mile race. Finishing behind her in 1:21:01 was Takami Ominami, 30, whose twin sister Hiromi, older by 10 minutes, won the 26.2-mile marathon Sunday in 2:34:11.
''Last year I heard one of my countrywomen [Sandra Ruales in the marathon] had won this race, and I wanted to come here and leave my legacy,'' Cevallos said through an interpreter. ``My goal is to eventually compete in the Olympics and leave my mark in the marathon.''
Cevallos said the wind was so fierce it was ``hard to breathe, but there was great support along the way, and what I loved is that the race was in miles [not kilometers]. It makes it seem shorter.''
Last year's half-marathon winner, Debbi Kilpatrick-Morris, 42, of Strongsville, Ohio, finished third (1:21:13).
As Kilpatrick-Morris closed in on the runner-up during the last mile, Ominami surged.
''I didn't expect to win, but I did pretty well, considering,'' said Ominami, winner of the 2002 Rotterdam Marathon and 2003 Nagoya International Marathon. She began training in Boulder, Colo., in December after a knee injury sidelined her for six months.
''The weather was perfect for me,'' she said. ``It's very cold in Boulder.''
The men's third-place finisher (1:10:12), Gabriel Rodriguez, 27, is from Miami and works as the game management coordinator for the Florida International University athletic department.
STRONG WINDS
Rodriguez said the half marathon changed its complexion with every wind shift. ''The wind would pick up the pace,'' he said, ``and then slow it down -- slow, fast, slow, until we got the wind at our backs at about 7 ½ or eight miles, and then everyone took off. But the course is beautiful.
``There's the sunrise, a lot of water and boats, and they take your mind off the race.''
No matter how much his tropical thoughts staved off the bite of wind against his face, Rodriguez said he knew Holassie would prevail.
''Ronnie was the guy to beat,'' he said. ``He took it out early, and that was that.''
(Houston Running bonus: Gabriel's wife, Perla, also 27, was 26th overall in the women's part of the ING Miami Half Marathon. Perla's gun time was 1:33:39 and chip time was 1:32:43. The day before, Gabriel won the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Tropical 5K in a time of 15:41. Rodriguez was quoted in the Miami Herald as saying that "when he started he made sure to be behind Frank Shorter, 58, ``out of respect.''
Holassie goes for the gold
Two-time Olympic marathoner Ronnie Holassie easily won the men's half marathon, and Alicia Gabriela Cevallos was the women's winner.
BY SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN
sdegnan@MiamiHerald.com
Ronnie Holassie has won enough races in his running career to know what it feels like to be the leader.
But it's still a thrill to have more than 9,000 people trying to catch him.
'Nobody was ahead of me, and that's a good feeling, because you don't want anybody from the full marathon passing you when you're only going half the distance,' '' the two-time Olympic marathoner said Sunday after winning the ING Half Marathon in 1 hour 8 minutes 42 seconds -- 48 seconds shy of the course record and about a minute faster than runner up Tom Kutter (1:09:49), of Loganville, Ga.
About 6,200 runners competed in the half marathon.
''No one pressed the pace for a course record today because they knew it was so windy,'' said Holassie, 34, who represented Trinidad & Tobago in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (2:24) and 2000 Sydney Olympics (2:19) and became a U.S. citizen in 2003. ``I could have run a lot harder than I did today.''
Holassie, who owns a car detailing business, has competed in a half marathon three consecutive weeks. He fought a bit of lower back pain early in the race, a recurring problem for the past five years.
''But it was easy today,'' he said. ``Most of the guys behind me were running the marathon, so they weren't thinking about me. I was like the rabbit. I did a nice, easy tempo for six miles and then picked it up, and no one really followed.''
WOMEN'S RACE
Alicia Gabriela Cevallos, 26, from Machachi, Ecuador, won the women's half marathon in 1:19:52 in her first 13.1-mile race. Finishing behind her in 1:21:01 was Takami Ominami, 30, whose twin sister Hiromi, older by 10 minutes, won the 26.2-mile marathon Sunday in 2:34:11.
''Last year I heard one of my countrywomen [Sandra Ruales in the marathon] had won this race, and I wanted to come here and leave my legacy,'' Cevallos said through an interpreter. ``My goal is to eventually compete in the Olympics and leave my mark in the marathon.''
Cevallos said the wind was so fierce it was ``hard to breathe, but there was great support along the way, and what I loved is that the race was in miles [not kilometers]. It makes it seem shorter.''
Last year's half-marathon winner, Debbi Kilpatrick-Morris, 42, of Strongsville, Ohio, finished third (1:21:13).
As Kilpatrick-Morris closed in on the runner-up during the last mile, Ominami surged.
''I didn't expect to win, but I did pretty well, considering,'' said Ominami, winner of the 2002 Rotterdam Marathon and 2003 Nagoya International Marathon. She began training in Boulder, Colo., in December after a knee injury sidelined her for six months.
''The weather was perfect for me,'' she said. ``It's very cold in Boulder.''
The men's third-place finisher (1:10:12), Gabriel Rodriguez, 27, is from Miami and works as the game management coordinator for the Florida International University athletic department.
STRONG WINDS
Rodriguez said the half marathon changed its complexion with every wind shift. ''The wind would pick up the pace,'' he said, ``and then slow it down -- slow, fast, slow, until we got the wind at our backs at about 7 ½ or eight miles, and then everyone took off. But the course is beautiful.
``There's the sunrise, a lot of water and boats, and they take your mind off the race.''
No matter how much his tropical thoughts staved off the bite of wind against his face, Rodriguez said he knew Holassie would prevail.
''Ronnie was the guy to beat,'' he said. ``He took it out early, and that was that.''
(Houston Running bonus: Gabriel's wife, Perla, also 27, was 26th overall in the women's part of the ING Miami Half Marathon. Perla's gun time was 1:33:39 and chip time was 1:32:43. The day before, Gabriel won the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Tropical 5K in a time of 15:41. Rodriguez was quoted in the Miami Herald as saying that "when he started he made sure to be behind Frank Shorter, 58, ``out of respect.''
posted by WalkSports.com | 11:28 PM
2 Comments:
Nice to hear that Gabe is doing well in FL. Thanks for posting that, Jon!
thanks jon and way to go Gabe and Perla!!!
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