KIMbia Athletics

The final time may have been six seconds slower than her World Leader, but there’s no doubt that Lineth Chepkurui remains Queen of the Roads after winning the 2010 AJC Peachtree 10k in Atlanta on Sunday.  Returning to the site of her 2009 triumph, Chepkurui clocked 30:51 to win the women’s race by a whopping twenty-one seconds and finish within shouting distance of the world-leading 30:45 she ran in New Orleans three months prior.  Left in her wake was a field that included Olympian Kim Smith and Boston Marathon champion Dire Tune.

Chepkurui left the rest of the women behind early in the proceedings, and explained, “I didn’t want to worry about anyone … I just wanted to run my own race.”  Nor should she have much reason to worry: running even faster than she did in a stellar 2009 campaign, the African and World Best’s for 10k — 30:27 and 30:21, respectively — might offer the best challenge for her talents, presently.

The USATF 10k Road Championships were also contested as part of the Peachtree Men’s Race with several KIMbians in the field. Read the full article

Brent Vaughn, his wife Sara, and daughter Ciara welcomed a new addition to their family, yesterday morning. Daughter #2, Calia Evelyn Vaughn was born in the early hours of Tuesday, and mother and baby are doing well.  Congratulations to Brent and the rest of the Vaughn family!

KIMbia’s own Brent Vaughn and James Carney raced the Bolder Boulder this past Monday and led Team Colorado to a surprise 2nd place finish behind Team Ethiopia. Read the details below, and get ready to chat with them live!

Who: KIMbia’s own Brent Vaughn and James Carney
What: Live Chat with the fans
When: 2:30pm Eastern/11:30am Pacific

Read the full article

While Bolder Boulder race organizers could celebrate a record number of finishers in the annual 10k Memorial Day race, Brent Vaughn and James Carney stood out from the crowd in the elite race, placing 4th and 7th, respectively. Both athletes represented Team Colorado in the three-person team race, and with Vaughn finishing in 29:56 behind a trio of world-class Ethiopian athletes, Team Colorado took 2nd in team competition, beating trios from Kenya, Australia, and even the United States at-large. In the fourteen previous years of International Challenge competition at Bolder Boulder, no representative of Team Colorado had placed higher than 11th. As each crossed the finish line before a hometown crowd, the Boulder-area-based Vaughn and Carney became the first and second Team Colorado competitors ever to notch Top 10 finishes in a race that has routinely hosted Olympic medalists, World Record holders, and some of the best road runners in the world. Another Boulder-based athlete, Jason Hartmann, represented KIMbia and Team USA in 12th place, clocking a 30:35. In the women’s race, Jelliah Tenega placed 4th in 33:57, scoring for the runner-up team from Kenya.

[ Full Results ]

KIMbia athletes did the memory of Kim McDonald proud on Saturday night, as Chris Solinsky and Simon Bairu smashed the American and Canadian national records, respectively, in the 10,000m race that bears McDonald’s name.

Last year, Tim Nelson won this race in a strong 27:39. In 2010, seven KIMbia athletes toed the starting line for the Kim McDonald 10,000m at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational, and this time, the results were outright astounding.  Chris Solinsky ran steadily in the lead pack for the duration of the race, before stepping around race leader Galen Rupp and making an explosive move with 900 meters to go. Solinsky covered the final two laps in under 2:00 to shock running fans the world over and stop the clock at 26:59.60 — a new American record by an eye-popping fourteen seconds.  Moments later, teammate Simon Bairu would complete his own impressive run, logging a 27:23.63 to set a new Canadian national record. Bairu’s time peeled 12.38 seconds off of the previous record.

Oh, and Tim Nelson? He ran 27:31.56 — an terrific eight-second PB. But this year, on an historic night, it would “only” place him seventh. Clearly, the legacy of Kim McDonald lives on in the performances of the athletes running under the “KIMbia” banner and in the ever-improving performances of athletes around the world. Following Nelson in were Brent Vaughn, making his professional debut at this distance (13th, 28:05), Boaz Cheboiywo (14th, 28:06), and Jason Hartmann (19th, 28:25). Full results can be found here, and a video of the race is at the bottom of the page.

We will have much more on Solinsky and Bairu’s record-breaking races as we move into the week.

Brent Vaughn: runner, father, music-lover.

Brent is the latest athlete to be featured in a RunnersWorld series that shares music playlists from distance runners, and Vaughn’s entry landed him on the front page of RunnersWorld.com.  The accompanying interview, conducted by friend of KIMbia, Peter Vigneron, explains the influence that the youngest Vaughn — daughter Ciara — has had on the music her dad listens to, while the playlist showcases Brent’s penchant for beat-driven ditties.

The full piece can be seen here, while Vaughn’s playlist is available for iTunes download here.

In a match-up pitting Canada’s best distance runner against the fastest American half-marathoner in history, KIMbia’s Simon Bairu came home the victor, winning the Rock and Roll Arizona Half Marathon over Olympian Ryan Hall. Bairu’s 1:02:47 not only won the day, but also took nearly of two-minutes off of the course record. Running just his second half-marathon, Bairu used the 11th mile to put 26 seconds between himself and Hall, and only lengthened his lead to the tape. With high hopes for his next race — the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Poland — Bairu certainly seems on the right track.

Meanwhile, a hop, a skip, and a very long jump away in eastern Texas, the USATF Half Marathon National Championships brought together a deep domestic field.  Houston has a history of auspicious, break-out races — from Hall’s own AR, to KIMbia’s Jim Carney winning the National Championship in his debut in 2008 — and Tim Nelson and Brent Vaughn looked to add their own chapter to that story as each took his first swing at the 13.1-mile distance. Read the full article

The domestic professional season kicks off this Sunday with the American southwest serving as ground zero.  The US Half Marathon Championships will run through the streets of Houston and feature a handful of KIMbia athletes, while the Rock and Roll Arizona Half Marathon goes off in Phoenix, with Simon Bairu taking on American Record Holder Ryan Hall.

There is plenty to be watching and a couple of Running Times pieces have gone inside the KIMbia stories that will be playing out this weekend. Chief among them? The half marathon debuts of Tim Nelson and Brent Vaughn. Vaughn expressed his confidence as he looks ahead with a new coach and new training approach:

“I’m training harder. I’m doing a lot more general strength stuff. My coach now is Jay Johnson. I think he’s a great coach. One of his strengths is knowing how hard I can push once the running is done.”

The full interview can be found here.  Read the full article

As we move into 2010, our athletes will each be sharing a look back at 2009, which we will be running throughout the next two weeks.  Next up: Brent Vaughn, who is preparing to step up to the half-marathon later this month.

1. You have talked a bit about moving up in distance starting in 2010.  Any idea yet when and where you might make your 10k/Half debut, and if longer races will be a part of the coming year?

I am planning to try out a longer race this winter before the track season starts.  I’m not planning to specifically get prepared for anything, but just want to run a road race during my preparation for the 10k and this upcoming track season. [Ed. Note: Brent has since entered the Houston Half Marathon where he'll compete for the USATF Championship at that distance.] Read the full article

The conclusion of the World Athletics Final means that the 2009 track and field season has come to a close for us.  We saw many terrific performances, as our thirteen athletes who hit the track turned in a total of fourteen personal best performances, and with KIMbia talents collecting six top-five finishes in the 5000m and 10,000m races at the US National Championships — including four spots on the American World Championship team.  In particular, we were proud to dominate the Men’s 5000m in Eugene, with five runners in the top nine, and to see OTC member Matt Tegenkamp join one of the most exclusive clubs in US distance running, by going under 13-minutes in the 5000m with his 12:58.56 clocking on a chilly night in Brussels.

If you have questions for any of the members of Team KIMbia about this 2009 season,  please send them to questions[AT]kimbia[DOT]net or post them in the comments below!  If you need a quick refresher on some of the performances from the season, check the athlete bio pages or our race recaps, below.  Make sure you get your questions in by the end of the day Tuesday, September 22! Read the full article