MONTEREY — Mackenzie O’Toole of Santa Cruz stretched just before dawn on Sunday near the starting line of the Monterey Bay Half Marathon. She was there with high hopes this year, since the event was canceled in 2018 due to unhealthy air conditions caused by Northern California wildfires.
“I was really excited about the course, and I spent the night before the marathon at a friend’s house” in Monterey, O’Toole said recalling last year. “That night, we saw on the computer around 7 p.m. that it got canceled so we drank some beer instead.”
This year, the conditions were clear and O’Toole’s hopes were realized when she ran the 13.1 miles down the Monterey coast with about 6,700 other participants from around the world. The course included parts of downtown Monterey, Cannery Row, and the Pacific Grove shoreline and Asilomar State Beach.
Vicoty Chepngeno broke the tape at the 16th annual race, becoming the first woman to win the Equalizer Challenge and holding off the elite men who started nine minutes and five seconds behind her to be the first runner across the line.
Chepngeno, a Kenyan living and training in Grand Prairie, Texas had a winning time of 1 hour, 8 minutes, 3 seconds, smashing the women’s course record by over a minute and half. The 25-year-old made a clear break from her competitors and maintained a healthy lead throughout the race, clicking off 5:10 miles. Futsum Zienasellassie, 26, of Flagstaff, Arizona took the top spot for the men in 1:02:33, logging the second-fastest men’s finish in the race’s history.
Still, he and the other male competitors were unable to catch Chepngeno as she neared the finish line. As the first runner across the line, Chepngeno collected an additional $3,000 on top of the $4,000 award for being the first female.
“I’m so happy to be here, and I love the people of Monterey,” said Chepngeno. When asked if she’d return next year to defend her title, Chepngeno replied, “Absolutely, I can’t wait to be back out on the beautiful course next year.”
Panuel Mkungo of Coon Rapids, Minnesota took second for the men in 1:02:37, and Patrick Smyth of Sante Fe, New Mexico took third in 1:02:39. Second female was Australian Milly Clark in 1:11:49, followed by 2017 women’s champion Monicah Ngige in 1:11:59.
The top eight runners in the men’s and women’s divisions competed for a total purse of $25,000 plus another $5,000 in total bonus money for the first three runners of either gender to finish.
“It was a spectacular day with many runners setting personal bests,” said Doug Thurston, race director. “We were so glad to welcome back thousands of runners from our canceled race last year and many new runners to our race along the beautiful Monterey Bay.”
Full results are available online at https://ift.tt/36PFda0.
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November 11, 2019 at 06:32AM
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Fresh air, fine racing at Monterey Bay Half Marathon - Monterey Herald
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