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Mouhcine Outaleb held off Tim Young for the overall title.
Malika Mejdoub The record field of over 2,200 runners heads down Caroline Street to begin the 15th annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5-k race. |
BY KURT NICOLL
Exhausted from a lack of sleep and delayed once to ask for directions, the four Moroccan runners from Baltimore arrived roughly 30 minutes before the start of yesterday's 16th annual Turkey Trot 5-k race.
Their high finishes may have shocked the record field, but not themselves. Mouhcine Outaleb won the men's race in 14:39--four seconds ahead of local runner Tim Young of James Madison University, while Malika Mejdoub emerged victorious in a tight three-way struggle for the women's crown.
Over 2,200 runners competed in the event. And the tot trot mile run reached its cap number of 500.
"If you train very hard, nobody can scare you," said team captain and sixth-place finisher Youssef Ennaciri, who did all of the driving after completing his nighttime job Wednesday.
Three of the runners planned to compete in a half-marathon in Puerto Rico this weekend. Mejdoub will shoot for another strong finish in the Philadelphia half-marathon next week after placing third at the recent Richmond half-marathon.
Outaleb's victory snapped a five-year winning streak by Kenyan runners, but the 1,500-meter specialist had a tough time shaking Young.
"He's good, and a very fast guy," the winner indicated through an interpreter about Young. "I saw the finish line with about half a mile, and then I go."
The two winners received $250 each.
Erin Kipchoge Kiplagat of Kenya was third in 15:52, followed by Stafford High graduates Bert Jacoby (16:01) and Joey Murray (16:11).
"I dropped a little under a minute from last year's race. So I'm glad that I'm progressing," said Murray, a freshman at Appalachian State University. "Being in college, it's almost like your whole day is involved around running. It makes running so much easier."
In the women's race, Culpeper's Briana Whaley finished two seconds behind the winner and Divina Jepkogei of Kenya was third in 17:28.
Although starting in the back third of the field, Tommy Thompson and his daughter Gaither enjoyed working up a sweat and trying to pace one another.
"The little hill towards the end got me and I had to walk," the elder Thompson recounting how his daughter (a member of James Monroe's state runner-up field hockey team) managed to beat him. "They make this 3.1-mile run longer every year."
While favoring the July 4 Heritage Festival 5-mile race, Thompson plans to keep running the fall holiday event, even if the course undergoes changes next season.
"I like the old run, but if they need to accommodate it to handle more runners, I'm all for it," he concluded.
Kurt Nicoll: 540/374-5441
Email: knicoll@freelancestar.com
