"Runners ready ... Start!" echoed through the streets of Baltimore Oct. 10 as the ninth annual Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival kicked off with a marathon, half-marathon, 5K race and team relay.
More than 20,000 people, including five Olympians, from all 50 states and 44 countries piled onto Baltimore's city streets. Even a team of American soldiers, led by Capt. Timothy Kirby, ran a 13-mile "shadow race" through the heat and hills of northern Iraq at the same time as the Running Festival back home.
Here's a quick look at the top finishers:
MEN
Alphonce Yatich - 2:14:04
Isaac Macharia - 2:15:53
Elijah Nyabuti - 2:17:12
WOMEN
Iuliia Arkipova - 2:32:09
Tatiana Pushkareva - 2:35:45
Natalia Sokolova - 2:37:50
MEN
John Crews - 1:07:24
Joel Mwaura - 1:08:05 (Waldorf)
Grigoriy Andreev - 1:08:37
WOMEN
Kayoko Obata - 1:15:17
Mary Gill - 1:20:41
Christine Ramsey - 1:21:37 (Baltimore)
MEN
Bado Merdessa - 14:51
Abiyot Endale - 14:56 (Washington, D.C.)
Karl Dusen - 15:33 (N. Bethesda)
WOMEN
Susan Hendrick - 17:57 (Washington, D.C.)
Sherry Stick - 18:08 (Eldersburg)
Shelley Cameron - 20:17
***
On a sad note, a 23-year-old man collapsed less than two miles from the finish and later died at Union Memorial Hospital. It was the second death in the event's nine-year history.
--Krystina Lucido
Issue 142: October 2009