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The Runner’s Rite of Spring ®

mat gave far greater visibility to the women’s race and pro- the men’s race in a quick 46:01, and Teyba Erkesso topped
duced a world record for 10 miles in an all-women’s event, the women’s division in 51:44. With the advance start for
simply because this was the first All-Women’s 10 mile event women used again, Erkesso’s time established a new world
to be run under current record keeping standards. Russia’s record for a women’s only 10 mile. John Korir failed in his
Lidiya Grigoryeva established the mark of 52:11 on a beau- bid to match Bill Rodgers’ 4 wins when he finished third in
tiful morning awash with cherry blossoms at their peak. 46:11. The organizers received a scare when they were told
American Turena Johnson Lane notched the American 10 that construction on Rock Creek Parkway would start be-
Mile record in an all women’s race when she finished sixth fore race day and the course would be unusable. Fortunate-
overall in 55:42. The 5K was upgraded from an untimed ly, it was delayed until the day after the race. Washington’s
run to a fully-timed and scored event. The event finally newly elected Mayor, Adrian Fenty, finished in a respectable
cracked the 10,000-runner mark with 10,670 participants. time of 1:08:47. A record number of 10,748 runners finished
The Credit Unions and race participants together raised the 10-mile, and 756 finished the 5K Run-Walk. The funds
over $500,000 for Children’s Miracle Network, bringing the raised by the Credit Union Miracle Day Committee swelled
total funds raised during the Credit Union era to over $1.5 to $850,000.
million. Women’s champion Grigorieva warmed everyone’s
heart when she donated 5% of her first-place $6,000 check 2008 (April 6)
to the charity. With the construction on Rock Creek Parkway underway,
the organizers knew a new course needed to be developed
for 2008, and they started work on it almost immediately
after the 2007 event. With the cooperation of the National
Park Service, the start and finish lines were moved from
West Potomac Park to a spectacular new location on 15
th
St., with the staging area on the Washington Monument
Grounds. The new site was also only ¼ mile from the
Smithsonian Metro stop, which eliminated an unwieldy
shuttle bus service. The new course was a big hit as it in-
corporated the blossoms around Hains Point in addition to
those around the Tidal Basin. The race filled its expanded
allotment of 12,000 finisher slots just four hours after online
registration opened in Dec., 2007. This was less than 1/6
th
the amount of time it had taken the previous several years.
Heavy rains flooded the staging area on the Monument
Grounds and all the start-finish area tents, porta-potties,
etc. had to be shifted to the “Folk Life Festival Grounds” on
the east side of 15 St. just 48 hours before the start of the
th
race. Race day featured intermittent rain, chilly tempera-
tures in the 40s, and blossoms a smidge beyond peak – not
bad conditions for the record number of 12, 294 finishers
under the newly imposed timing limit of 2 hours and 20
minutes for completing the 10 miles. Young Kenyan Lineth
Chepkurui, 20, raced away from Olympic marathon silver
medallists Lidia Simon (’00) and Catherine Ndereba (’04) to
2007 Women’s Champion Teyba Erkesso take the women’s title in a sluggish time of 54:21. Ridouane
2007 (April 1) Harroufi became the first Moroccan to capture a title as he
To celebrate the 35 running of the race, the organizers in- outlegged Nichola Kamakya of Kenya by a single second in
th
vited back numerous past winners including Kathrine Swit- 46:14. The other big news of the day was the Credit Union
zer (’73), Carl Hatfield (’75, ’76), Bill Rodgers (’78, ’79, ’80, Miracle Day Committee cracked the $1 million dollar mark
’81), Greg Meyer (’83), Lisa Rainsberger (’85, ’89, ’90), Jon in funds raised for the Children’s Miracle Network when it
Sinclair (’87), Colleen DeReuck (’98), and John Korir (’01, signed over a check for $1,036,000.
’03, ’05) for a picture perfect weekend with the blossoms at
their peak. Times were fast under the excellent conditions 2009 (April 5)
and when it was over, Ethiopia joined the U.S., Kenya, and 2009 was the year that all of the pillars of the event changed
Great Britain as the only countries to sweep both the men’s – the course was run in reverse in order to avoid a nar-
and women’s titles in the same year, as Tadesse Tola won row section during the first mile on the 2008 route; the

2019 Credit Union Cherry Blossom Media Guide 59