Wish's RunTex Captiol 10K Coverage
Cap 10 Theme Song: Thick As a Brick
By Wish
With just two miles left in Sunday’s 29th annual Austin American Statesman Capitol 10,000, the defending champion Bernard Manirakiza had his second straight victory all but locked up. At the five-mile mark along Cesar Chavez, Manirakiza had almost a two-minute lead on Jacob Rotich with just a celebratory final mile left to wrap up the win.
Not so fast.
After climbing the two little hills on Cesar Chavez, Manirakiza began to wobble. Clearly in trouble, he fought to stay on his feet as he crossed the South 1st Bridge with the finish line on Riverside in sight. But the Burundian went from bad to worse and began weaving from side to side. Then, his legs buckled and he was reduced to a walk while holding onto the rail of the bridge.
Finally, after passing the six-mile mark in 30 minutes, Manirakiza—the top runner in Austin—went down in a heap. Medical personnel and Gilbert Tuhabonye, his cousin and mentor, got to him quickly with assistance but there would be no repeat winner of the Cap 10 this year.
Instead, Rotich—a 28-year-old Kenyan who lives in Austin—cruised by the seriously cooked Manirakiza to win in 32:02 which is almost two minutes slower than the winning time last year.
Nearly everyone in the 14,000-runner field could relate to how badly Manirakiza felt. Not that everyone suffered as much as he did, but with race conditions that bordered on barbaric, this was not a morning for PRs and fast times.
That much was evident from the first mile along Congress which climbed to the Capitol. “I knew in that very first mile that it was so warm and humid that it just wasn’t going to be my day,” said Paul Pugh, who ran 38:01, about two minutes slower than he expected.
With the humidity approaching 100 percent, it made for thick, oppressive conditions. Especially since it was the first exceptionally humid day of the season, nobody had conditioned yet for the extreme warmth.
Back in the medical tent, Manirakiza had drained two IVs of saline and more than two hours after collasping, he was still woozy. But he wasn’t dehydrated. What Manirakiza needed was an ice bath as he had overheated so badly that it had knocked him off his feet.
“I don’t remember anything about the race,” said Bernard who then proceeded to throw up. You can’t blame him. This is one race he’d like to forget.
He had started out strongly enough, going through the first two miles in 9:36 and even ran a 5:16 third mile. After cruising up and over the hills, Manirakiza banged out a 5:04 mile and followed that with a 5:03 before the wheels came off.
“I’ve never seen anything like this happen to Bernard before,” said Tuhabonye who wisely sat out this race in deference to a half-marathon he’s running in Oklahoma City in a few weeks. “Bernard just got too hot.”
He wasn’t alone as the race turned into a survival test.
Top survivor was Rotich who was followed to the finish by 24-year-old Ben Payne in 32:33 and Gate Davis in 32:51. Greg McMillan (Kelly Keane's coach) was fourth in 33:58 with his training partner Brandon Marsh a step behind.
“It was rough out there,” said McMillan who hoped to run a couple of minutes faster. “You combine the hills with this type of humidity and it made for dangerous conditions. I saw Bernard lying by the side of the bridge and I was very worried about him.”
(Manirakiza never went to the hospital and later in the day, was doing fine.)
The first master was Randy Reina of The Runnin’ Reinas. The UT—San Antonio coach, a former internationlist who is now 46, ran 34:18 to finish ahead of Joe Flores of Houston and John Paladino for top 40+ honors.
Reina finished just ahead of Albina Garrymova—a 41-year-old Russian--—who won the women’s division in 34:24. Christine Kimbrough of Austin was second in an inexplicably huge PR of 36:44 with Helen Rotich third in 37:22. Margo Braud, 47, was the first master in 41:24.
Time of the day? We give the nod to 16-year-old Rory Tunningley of Lockhart who took off with the leaders before falling back and yet still ran a sparkling 34:31.
Tunningley thought race conditions were just fine. He might have been the only one who did.
By Wish
With just two miles left in Sunday’s 29th annual Austin American Statesman Capitol 10,000, the defending champion Bernard Manirakiza had his second straight victory all but locked up. At the five-mile mark along Cesar Chavez, Manirakiza had almost a two-minute lead on Jacob Rotich with just a celebratory final mile left to wrap up the win.
Not so fast.
After climbing the two little hills on Cesar Chavez, Manirakiza began to wobble. Clearly in trouble, he fought to stay on his feet as he crossed the South 1st Bridge with the finish line on Riverside in sight. But the Burundian went from bad to worse and began weaving from side to side. Then, his legs buckled and he was reduced to a walk while holding onto the rail of the bridge.
Finally, after passing the six-mile mark in 30 minutes, Manirakiza—the top runner in Austin—went down in a heap. Medical personnel and Gilbert Tuhabonye, his cousin and mentor, got to him quickly with assistance but there would be no repeat winner of the Cap 10 this year.
Instead, Rotich—a 28-year-old Kenyan who lives in Austin—cruised by the seriously cooked Manirakiza to win in 32:02 which is almost two minutes slower than the winning time last year.
Nearly everyone in the 14,000-runner field could relate to how badly Manirakiza felt. Not that everyone suffered as much as he did, but with race conditions that bordered on barbaric, this was not a morning for PRs and fast times.
That much was evident from the first mile along Congress which climbed to the Capitol. “I knew in that very first mile that it was so warm and humid that it just wasn’t going to be my day,” said Paul Pugh, who ran 38:01, about two minutes slower than he expected.
With the humidity approaching 100 percent, it made for thick, oppressive conditions. Especially since it was the first exceptionally humid day of the season, nobody had conditioned yet for the extreme warmth.
Back in the medical tent, Manirakiza had drained two IVs of saline and more than two hours after collasping, he was still woozy. But he wasn’t dehydrated. What Manirakiza needed was an ice bath as he had overheated so badly that it had knocked him off his feet.
“I don’t remember anything about the race,” said Bernard who then proceeded to throw up. You can’t blame him. This is one race he’d like to forget.
He had started out strongly enough, going through the first two miles in 9:36 and even ran a 5:16 third mile. After cruising up and over the hills, Manirakiza banged out a 5:04 mile and followed that with a 5:03 before the wheels came off.
“I’ve never seen anything like this happen to Bernard before,” said Tuhabonye who wisely sat out this race in deference to a half-marathon he’s running in Oklahoma City in a few weeks. “Bernard just got too hot.”
He wasn’t alone as the race turned into a survival test.
Top survivor was Rotich who was followed to the finish by 24-year-old Ben Payne in 32:33 and Gate Davis in 32:51. Greg McMillan (Kelly Keane's coach) was fourth in 33:58 with his training partner Brandon Marsh a step behind.
“It was rough out there,” said McMillan who hoped to run a couple of minutes faster. “You combine the hills with this type of humidity and it made for dangerous conditions. I saw Bernard lying by the side of the bridge and I was very worried about him.”
(Manirakiza never went to the hospital and later in the day, was doing fine.)
The first master was Randy Reina of The Runnin’ Reinas. The UT—San Antonio coach, a former internationlist who is now 46, ran 34:18 to finish ahead of Joe Flores of Houston and John Paladino for top 40+ honors.
Reina finished just ahead of Albina Garrymova—a 41-year-old Russian--—who won the women’s division in 34:24. Christine Kimbrough of Austin was second in an inexplicably huge PR of 36:44 with Helen Rotich third in 37:22. Margo Braud, 47, was the first master in 41:24.
Time of the day? We give the nod to 16-year-old Rory Tunningley of Lockhart who took off with the leaders before falling back and yet still ran a sparkling 34:31.
Tunningley thought race conditions were just fine. He might have been the only one who did.
posted by WalkSports.com | 2:57 PM
1 Comments:
there's a good photo gallery on the austin american-statesman's web site. shows the guy that was leading having to stop.
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