By Lori Riley, @lrileysports | (c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved; used with permission
MANCHESTER, CONN. (28-Nov) -– Weini Kelati won her fourth straight Manchester Road Race here this morning, three years after her first run on the 4.737-mile course. She is now the only woman to win New England’s second largest road race four consecutive times.
Kelati, 27, an Olympian who lives and trains in Flagstaff, Ariz., won today’s 88th annual Thanksgiving Day race in 23:14, 19 seconds off her record she set in 2021.
Andrew Colley from the ZAP Endurance team in Blowing Rock, N.C. won the men’s race for the first time in 21:09 after finishing fourth in 2022 while running the fourth-fastest time in race history (21:07).
There were over 12,000 entrants but quite a few no-shows due to the rainy and cold weather with temperatures in the high 30s at race start and the crowd watching the race was also down this year.
Kelati led wire to wire, pacing off the men around her, as she has done in her three other victories.
“It feels great,” Kelati said. “This is my first race of the season. I took a break after the Olympics. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I know I was in really good shape.
“I was happy, with these conditions. I was hoping to run a little faster.”
Only Amy Rudolph, who won five times between 1995-2002, has more victories than Kelati at Manchester. Kelati is tied with Judi St. Hilaire, who won four times between 1985-92.
Annie Rodenfels of Newton, Mass., finished second (24:05) and Florencia Borelli of Argentina third (24:16).
Kelati had taken a break after the Olympics, where she finished eighth in the 10,000 meters, and went back to visit her family in Eritrea but her bags with her running gear never arrived so she took three extra weeks off. It didn’t seem to bother her Thursday.
“It doesn’t take me a long time to get fit so I wasn’t worried about it,” she said.
The men’s pack took the first mile out in 4:28 and the group thinned out a bit as they tackled the Highland Street hill. After Kenyan Olympian Edwin Kurgat and Evert Silva finished in a dead heat at the King of the Hill mark (Kurgat was deemed the winner and awarded the $1,000 bonus), Colley came into play.
He took the lead down the Porter Street hill, citing his surfing background and how he wasn’t afraid to fall – “I just let gravity take me,” he said.
But Colley had learned from his 2022 race not to take the lead too early because the finish line at Manchester is deceptively far away after he turned the corner from East Center Street to Main Street. When Kurgat surged back into the lead again at Mile 4, Colley remained patient.
“I thought, ‘This is a little early to be going,'” Colley said. “I did this two years ago and paid the consequences. I promised my coach I wouldn’t do anything til Main Street.”
He continued: “I did it a little early but I could tell the others were fading and I wanted to capitalize and really take the wind out of their sails. I was slipping all over the place. The traction on my shoes isn’t great. But I was having fun out there.”
Colley passed Kurgat after the final turn onto Main Street and held on, even lengthening the lead. With 100 meters to go, Eduardo Herrera of Mexico passed Kurgat, his Under Armour/Dark Sky Elite teammate, to finish second in 21:15. Kurgat finished third (21:19).
Herrera said he came to the Thanksgiving Day race because Kelati, another Dark Sky teammate, had talked it up.
“I didn’t know what to fully expect,” Herrera said. “I’ve only done road races in Boston. It was nice to come out to Manchester and get the full experience. I didn’t think the (Highland Street) hill was going to be that bad. But yeah, running full speed up the hill – it definitely got to me. It’s pretty hard. I felt like I was revving the engine a lot going up the hill.”
But he still had enough in the tank to knock off his teammate at the end.
“I talked to people about the race and they said the best way to break away from the group was to run the downhill,” Herrera said. “I wasn’t with the pack at the top of the hill. I made a comeback at the downhill. I caught up with the group. It was motivating to see Edwin with me as well. At the four mile mark, he did a surge I couldn’t cover.”
He added: “Once he made that surge, I was like, ‘Oh, I got to have something for the finish.’ It’s my first Thanksgiving race. It was such a good experience.”
