Amanda Vestri capped off her breakthrough 2024 with stunning performance at the OUC Orlando Half Marathon last weekend. Amanda jumped in the race on a whim, thinking she would use it as a hard workout in preparation for the Houston Half Marathon in January. That whim turned into a dominant victory and the 13th fastest half marathon in US history when she stopped the clock at 1:08:13.
Amanda had originally planned on running the Valencia Half Marathon at the end of October, but a piriformis injury caused her to miss 3 weeks of training and the race. She started back training in November, jumped in her hometown Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and then decided to run something longer close to where she was staying with family in Florida.
Teammate Josh Izewski had a similar path the Orlando Half Marathon. After returning from training after struggling with an injury during the New York City Marathon, Josh finished 4th in a good men’s field, running just over 1:05.
Amanda passed through the opening mile a little quicker than she was planning and was already out on her own. She felt strong and decided to stay committed to the pace, passing the opening 5k in 16:10. Her 2nd 5k was a notch quicker, as she went through 10k in 32:04 (a time that would have been a 10k track PR a mere 10 months ago.) She cruised in to the finish with a 2+ minute cushion over 2nd place and eventually stopped the clock with the 4th fastest US performance of 2024 and 13th fastest of all time. She also took over 3 minutes off the ZAP record, her 4th club record of the year (3k, 5k, 10k, Half.)
It was more than she had expected, commenting after the race she thought a 1:10 would be a good run given her training leading into the race. She exceeded those expectations, and it has her excited for her next attempt at the distance in Houston 5 weeks from now.
You can view full results here, listen to her interview on the Citius Mag Podcast here, or watch the YouTube version below.