October 4, 2013
For immediate release
Twin Cities
Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
https://www.tcmevents.org/
Four USA Championships at Stake at Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
$25,000 Prizes Await Men’s and Women’s Marathon Winners
St. Paul, Minn. – Marathoners will race from Minneapolis to St. Paul on Sunday with four USA Championships at stake as Sunday’s 32nd annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon plays host to the USA Men’s & Women’s Marathon Championships and the USA Masters Marathon Championships for runners 40 and older.
Competitors in the USA Men’s & Women’s Championships will be racing for $145,000 in prize money, including $25,000 for the winners, plus an additional $25,000 course record bonus should the men’s champion break Phil Coppess’s men’s mark of 2:10:05 set in 1985 or the women’s winner betters the record shared by Zinaida Semenova (2001) and Irina Permitina (2004) at 2:26:51.
An intriguing group of men’s title challengers – including three naturalized Americans of Kenyan descent – will face 2010 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon and 2010 USA Champion Sergio Reyes (Palmdale, Calif.) in their quest for a USA Championship crown. Shadrack Biwott (Folsom, Calif.), the third-place finisher at the USA Half Marathon Championships in June, Joseph Chirlee (Colorado Springs, Colo.), a veteran with a 2:12:10 marathon best, andJosphat Boit (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.), the USA 25K runner-up in May, will seek their first USA title. Other likely contenders include Timothy Ritchie(Brighton, Mass.), fourth at the USA Half Marathon Championships, and Nicholas Arciniaga (Flagstaff, Ariz.), a veteran with a 2:11:30 marathon to his credit.
In the competition for the USA Women’s Championship, Richfield’s Meghan Peyton, the recent winner of the USA 20K Championship, will face a balanced field of challengers including Atalelech Asfaw (Albuquerque, N.M.), an Ethiopian-born American with a personal best of 2:33:56, Wendy Thomas (Windsor, Colo.), the 12th-place finisher at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, Esther Erb (Richmond, Va.), the 7th-place finisher at last year’s Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, and Minnesotan Michelle Lilienthal (Minneapolis), who finished fourth at the 2006 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.
Reigning USA Half Marathon champion Adriana Nelson, previously announced in the USA Women’s Championship field, has withdrawn from the competition.
In the USA Master Championships, which the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon is hosting for the 23rd straight year and where winners will earn $7,500 for their efforts, defending men’s champion Uli Steidl (Seattle, Wash.) is expected to battle 2012 runner-up Malcolm Campbell (Marietta, Ga.) for the title. The men’s field also includes two-time Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon champ Mbarak Hussein (Albuquerque, N.M) and three-time USA Masters Marathon champ Tracy Lokken (Marquette, Mich.) and American masters 10,000-meter record holder Kevin Castille (Nicholasville, Ky.)
Among the masters women, Olympian Elva Dryer, a 2:31 marathoner who has not raced in a major competition since 2009 appears to be the main competition for 2012 USA Masters runner-up Sheri Piers.
Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend kicks off on Friday with the Health & Fitness Expo at RiverCentre in St. Paul. Activities continue on Saturdaywith the TC 10K, presented by TomTom, the TC 5K Run/Walk, presented by Fredrikson & Byron, and the Medtronic TC Family, all held on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul. The weekend culminates with the 15th running of the Medtronic TC 10 Mile and the 32nd annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday.