USA: Shay Defends USA Half-Marathon Title at Hospital Hill

KANSAS CITY - Ryan Shay of East Jordan, Mich. pulled away at the 5 mile mark to successfully defend his USA Half-Marathon title at the Carondelet Heart Institute Hospital Hill Run. Shay, 25, ran unchallenged to the tape in 1:05:04 with Teren Jameson of Salt Lake City national runner-up in 1:05:28.

As with every USA Championship race, the air around the 31st running of this annual Kansas City, Missouri event was full of nervous energy, but as the field of nearly 3,000 combined entrants set off at the gun, two of the three "H's" - heat and humidity - that seem to frequent this race, were thankfully absent.

Even with partly cloudy skies and not too unreasonable temperatures in the low 60s, a lead pack that included three recent USA national road champions at various distances - Ryan Shay, '03 half-marathon and marathon; Henry Dennis, '03 5K and Scott Larson, '01 marathon - was somewhat tentative as they approached the first mile in 4:56. Also making their presence known were Jameson, Teddy Mitchell and Josh Cox.

As the lead pack made its way up the infamous "Hospital Hill", the group was quickly pared down to four with Shay, Larson, Jameson and Mitchell passing two miles in 10:06 (5:10) and by two and a half miles, it was down to two as Shay, a Team Running USA athlete, began to assert his position with a 4:39 third mile (14:45) on Jameson as Larson and Mitchell fell back.

By the time Shay and Jameson had climbed the 120 feet from three to four miles (4:56/19:42) they were 12 seconds up on Mitchell and Larson, yet Jameson would soon see Shay pull away for good with a 4:55 fifth mile (24:34).

During the sixth mile (4:53/29:28) Shay, a Notre Dame grad, admittedly began to struggle with the mental aspects of the race due to the fact that he was expecting more pressure from the field.

Shay recalled afterwards, "I thought with Teren, Teddy and Scotty that we'd have a nice group through at least seven or eight miles. Once I hit 10 all by myself, I wanted to protect the win and with the Olympic Trials 10,000 coming up, I wanted to try to ease up and not worry too much about the time. I was really happy to come back to Kansas City and win again."

While Shay, also the defending USA Running Circuit Grand Prix champion, was maintaining a fairly steady rhythm of mid-4:50 miles, the race for second was getting interesting as Mitchell and Larson were chipping away at the 22 seconds that separated them from Jameson.

By 11 miles, Jameson, 26, was nearly 30 seconds down from Shay with Mitchell and Larson now only seven seconds behind. It was during that mile that Mitchell told Larson: "I think we can catch him." Shortly afterwards Mitchell committed himself to chasing Jameson down, getting within "two or three seconds". "I know Teren has more speed than me and when he looked back and saw me coming, he really took off, but I'm glad I tried to get him, going after him helped me lock up third place...and maybe a trip to New Delhi for the World Half-Marathon Championships."

Shay was comfortably home at the finish at Crown Plaza in 1:05:04 while Jameson finished in 1:05:28, with Mitchell was 16 seconds back to capture third in 1:05:44.

On his second place finish (an improvement from 4th last year), Jameson commented, "I was pretty happy with it. It was a little slower than I wanted to run, but after Ryan made his move and I was alone, I struggled a bit. This year, I went through 10 miles slower than last year, but when I saw Teddy coming, I was able to put together a pretty good last 5K. I'm thinking about trying my first marathon this fall and today gave some confidence about running one."

With the 2004 USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship complete, both Shay and Jameson are now the leading potential members of the U.S. team for the World Half-Marathon in New Delhi, India this October. The remaining three members will be named following the USA 20K Championship in New Haven, Conn. this Labor Day.

In addition, Hospital Hill was the sixth stop on the 2004 Men's USA Running Circuit and with top performances, Shay, Larson and Mitchell moved up in the USARC standings to third, fifth and sixth respectively and into grand prix contention.

The 2004 USARC, a USA Track & Field road series featuring USA Championships from 5K to the marathon, offers over $810,000 in championship prize money plus a $25,000 grand prix purse. The first ten U.S. runners earn points (15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1). Current Circuit leaders are Olympians Meb Keflezighi and Colleen De Reuck. More USARC information and complete standings available at: www.usatf.org

Carondelet Heart Institute Hospital Hill: USA Men's Half-Mara Championship Kansas City, MO, Saturday, June 5, 2004

1. Ryan Shay, MI, 1:05:04, $4000
2. Teren Jameson, UT, 1:05:28, $2000
3. Teddy Mitchell, NM, 1:05:44, $1200
4. Scott Larson, CO, 1:06:02, $950
5. Josh Cox, CA, 1:06:29, $550
6. Chris Lundstrom, CA, 1:07:18, $450
7. Kevin Collins, NY, 1:07:24, $350
8. Greg Mitchell, CO, 1:07:48, $300
9. Henry Dennis, OH, 1:08:07, $200
10. Brantley Lutz, NM, 1:08:16, $100

For more information, visit the race website at: http://www.hospitalhillrun.com

source Running USA wire