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For Immediate Release
31 March 2011 CONTACTS: (Please do not publish these numbers. THE NUMBER FOR PUBLICATION IS THE RACE HOTLINE AT 301-320-3350): Frank McNally, Media Coordinator Phil Stewart, Event Director Contact Frank McNally for race-day media credentials. Space
on media trucks (one for the men’s race and one for the women’s race) is
limited, so call to ensure seating. TV crews should call in advance to secure
parking for trucks on race morning.
World Class Runners Vie for Area’s Largest Running Event Purse 200,000th
All-time Finisher to be Recognized;
WASHINGTON, DC – The Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run is the city’s only
event with an international reputation among the world’s finest road runners.
This year’s event, scheduled to start at 7:30 A.M. on Sunday, April 3, 2011 on
the Washington Monument Grounds, will once again feature a notable cast in quest
of a total purse of $45,000, the largest in the event’s history. Three-time
winners Lineth Chepkurui and
John Korir
will be attempting to join Bill Rodgers as four-time winners of the event. Chepkurui, 24,
has posted her three wins in consecutive years (Rodgers’ four titles were in
consecutive years between 1977 and 1981) and she has gotten faster with each
win, clocking 54:21 in 2008, 53:32 in 2009, and 51:51 last year. Korir’s three
wins have come in odd-numbered years (46:12 in 2001, 46:56 in 2003 and 46:55 in
2005) which bodes well for 2011. While the 35-year-old Kenyan is not the
dominant force he was in the early 2000s, he still ran 46:05 last year, his
fastest-ever time on the course and good for fourth place.
Chepkurui’s toughest challenges are expected to come from fellow Kenyan Julliah Tinega, who finished
second last year in 52:39; Ethiopian
Alemtsehay Misganaw
who finished sixth in 54:42; and Kenyan
Risper Gesabwa
who finished fifth at the highly competitive World’s Best 10K in Puerto Rico in
February in 32:35.
On the men’s side, Ethiopian
Lelisa Desisa is back after finishing
second by a hair to Kenyan Stephen Tum last year, a result that sent the judges
scurrying to the finish line camera to determine the winner. Desisa clocked
45:44, the third-fastest time ever run on the course and only six seconds behind Ismael Kirui’s course record of 45:38 set in 1995. Also returning is two-time
champion Moroccan Ridoune Harroufi, who seemed to
toy with the field before unleashing powerful kicks to claim titles in 2009 in
45:56 and in 2008 in 46:14.
The event will offer a supplemental American-only purse ($1,000-$500-$250) to
the top three American men and women who place among the top 15 finishers
overall. Lucas
Meyer is the favorite on the men’s side, and
Kelly Jaske,
who finished fifth overall last year, is favored among the women.
To see bios and information on the athletes entered in the Elite Field of the 2011 Credit Union Cherry Blossom, choose an option below:
Bill Rodgers
will be making his perennial return to the Nation’s Capital for the event. Now,
63, he had surgery for prostate cancer in 2008 but is back on the roads again.
Race Director
Phil Stewart said, “We take great pride in our tradition of bringing the world’s
finest athletes to the streets of Washington, DC each year. Washington, DC is a
world-class city and it merits a world class running event.”
As was the case
last year, soldiers and civilians overseas will be part of the Credit Union
Cherry Blossom Ten Mile. This year the organizing committee is supporting a
“satellite” race at Camp Arifjan
in Kuwait. The event is expected to attract close to 1,000 starters. Camp
Arifjan serves as a major staging area for U.S. troops deploying throughout the
Middle East.
Widely known as “The Runner’s Rite of Spring,”
the Credit Union Cherry Blossom is hugely popular among the more-gentle running
population as well. Over 28,000 people applied for the 15,000 10 mile slots and
1,000 slots in the 5K Run-Walk Presented by Kaiser Permanente through
a lottery held last December. This year’s field comes from all 49 states
(lacking only North Dakota) and over a dozen foreign countries.
Sometime about the 1:15:00 mark in this year’s race, our all-time 200,000th
finisher will cross the line. The list of all-time finishers now stands at
198,396 since the first event attracted 141 finishers in 1973. The runner
finishing in 1604th place
this year will be our 200,000th
finisher and will receive five free entries, transportation to the 2012 race
(our 40th running) and
hotel accommodations. One familiar
face among the starters is Bethesda runner Ben Beach,
who will be participating in his
39th consecutive
Cherry Blossom race. An editor at The Wilderness
Society, Beach is the only runner to have finished
every year since the race started in 1973.
Click here for a list of all of
Beach’s performances since 1973. He also will start his 44th consecutive Boston
Marathon on Monday, April 18th.
This year’s ten-mile entrants span 79 years between
8-year-old Jake Ravitch of Bethesda, MD and 87-year-old Lou Lodovico of Ellwood
City, PA.
The event has applied for certification from the Council for Responsible Sport, a non-profit organization that certifies sports events as environmentally friendly based on measures undertaken by the organizers to minimize the environmental impact of the event through the application of rigorous certification standards. To become certified, an event must earn at least 22 of 44 available credits. The Credit Union Cherry Blossom has applied for evaluation on 29 credits, which would earn the event “silver” certification, if approved. One key area the organizers are emphasizing is for participants to use Metro or bicycles get to the race. Last year 13,900 runners, spectators and volunteers used Metro, a 4% increase over 2009. The 2011 goal is to have an additional 4% opt for public transportation. Metro will open at 5:00 A.M. on race day. During the registration process, 1,177 runners purchased carbon offsets from Native Energy for $3.60 each. This offsets 303 short tons of carbon emissions. The funds raised will be contributed to theNortheast Farms Separation Project, which removes volatile solids from dairy farm manure slurry, thus preventing anaerobic decomposition that would normally produce methane. Two of the farms this project supports are nearby: theTwin Oaks Farm in Emmittsburg, MD, and the Mercer Vu Farm in Mercersburg, PA. The event is also providing two local non-profit organizations complimentary booth space at the Health and Fitness Expo to promote their efforts to enhance and preserve the W&OD Trail and the Potomac River Watershed, respectively. Friends of Washington and Old Dominion Trail
support and enhance the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park
(W&OD) as a recreational, environmental and historic resource through volunteer
efforts in fund raising, promotion, educational programming and maintenance.
The
Alice Ferguson Foundation
provides experiences that encourage connections between people, the natural
environment, farming and the cultural heritage of the Potomac River Watershed.
Entries for the 10-Mile and the
5K Run-Walk Presented by Kaiser Permanente
are closed. Spectators are encouraged to view the event in the vicinity of the
Washington Monument Grounds. The staging area is ¼ mile from the Smithsonian
Metro stop (Orange and Blue lines). The event will be broadcast on two large “jumbo-trons” at the
race site and will also be streamed live on the internet at
www.cherryblossom.org. Parents still
can sign up their children ages 12-and-under for a free Half Mile Kids Run at 8:15 A.M.
on the Washington Monument Grounds. Kids Run registration opens at 7:15 A.M. on
Sunday.
Supporting sponsors include Kaiser Permanente of the Middle Atlantic Region; the presenting sponsor of the 5K Run-Walk; Gatorade Endurance Formula; Navy Federal Credit Union; New Balance; and Potomac River Running. The event is a member of the Professional Road Running Association (PRRO) Circuit and is a participating event in the 2011 National Cherry Blossom Festival held from March 26 to April 10. This year’s festival celebrates the 99th anniversary of the gift of the cherry trees and the enduring friendship between the citizens of the United States and Japan. For additional
information visit www.cherryblossom.org, send an e-mail to
[email protected],
or contact the race hotline at 301-320-3350.
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