SAN DIEGO - (November 12-13, 2005) - It took 9 months of negotiating, cajoling, strategizing and "thinking outside the box," but John Metz, race director of America's premier road ultramarathon, the San Diego 1-Day Race (read: 24 hours), finally realized the dream he had been working to realize for over two years. On Saturday morning, November 12, at 10:00am at Hospitality Point, San Diego, the 2004 Men's and Women's World 24 Hour Run champions, Ryoichi Sekiya and Sumie Inagaki of Japan, stood alongside nearly 80 of the top American long-range ultrarunners as the horn sounded for 24 consecutive hours of non-stop footracing.
Then, with a total race operating budget that would barely pay the airfare for one of the Japanese ultra superstars, Metz had managed to recruit two additional of the top Japanese men and women, and used their commitments to secure the endorsement of the American Ultrarunning Association (AUA) for an historic national team dual meet between aspiring American teams (the American women had won the bronze medals at the recent World 24 Hour, the Men had finished just outside the medals) and the proven, top-of-the-world (team gold medalists) Japanese.
2004 World Champ Sekiya, easily the class of the field, took off after American Rae Clark's 15-year-old absolute U.S. All-Comers 24 hour record of 165.24 miles. His countrywoman and 2004 co-world champ Inagaki assumed the distaff lead after a few hours and never looked back. Sekiya amassed a huge margin of nearly 10 miles on defending national champ Steve Peterson by halfway, but then succumbed to intestinal woes, as did almost half the Japanese team. Peterson then ran unchallenged to the win and national title (over 148 miles), surpassing his 2004 national title total by 5 miles. Taking silver was the amazing 57-year-old Roy Pirrung, who had won his first national 24 hour title in 1988 and had finished among the top 3 in most years in between.
Inagaki was closely pursued through the mid-race hours by defending national champion Rebecca Johnson. But the usual rock-steady Johnson faltered in the waning hours, and seemingly out of nowhere came 2003 national champ Pam Reed to mow down Johnson and offer a last-minute, unexpected challenge to the exhausted and visibly suffering Inagaki who covered over 136 miles.
The American teams prevailed handily in both Men's and Women's team competitions in this historic event.
San Diego 1-Day Race: American National 24 Hour Championships
San Diego, CA, Saturday, November 12, 2005
MEN
1) Steve Peterson, 43, CO, 148.12 miles
2) Roy Pirrung, 57, WI, 141.66 miles
3) Alex Swenson, 41, WA, 141.21 miles
4) John Geesler, 46, NY, 136.28 miles
5) Akos Konya, 31, Hungary, 134.46 miles
6) Joe Gaebler, 28, NM, 133.03 miles
7) Ryoichi Sekiya, 38, Japan, 132.41 miles
8) Danny Ripka, 48, MN, 132.16 miles
9) Tomohiko Yaegashi, 59, Japan, 132.08 miles
10) Wendell Doman, 46, CA, 123.12 miles
WOMEN
1) Sumie Inagaki, 39, Japan, 136.68 miles
2) Pam Reed, 44, AZ, 134.43 miles
3) Masae Kamura, 47, Japan, 132.48 miles
4) Rebecca Johnson, 36, CO, 130.91 miles
5) Laura Nelson, 40, VA, 124.31 miles
6) Brenda Klein, 37, NM, 114.66 miles
7) Susan Lance, 45, GA, 109.54 miles
8) Carol O'Hear, 30, WA, 107.67 miles
9) Bonnie Busch, 47, IA, 104.14 miles
10) Leigh Corbin, 44, CA, 101.00 miles
Men's National Team Competition
1) USA (Peterson, Pirrung, Geesler), 425 miles
2) Japan (Sekiya, Yaegashi, Sato), 368 miles
Women's National Team Competition
1) USA (Reed, Johnson, Klein), 378 miles
2) Japan (Inagaki, Kamura, Leerink), 368 miles
Full results and race commentary at: AmericanUltra.org
# # #
Special thanks to
Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services Director.
385 Oak View Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93111
(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 967-5958
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
http://www.runningusa.org
?
