In his first race since taking 8th at the US Olympic Trials 10,000m, Andrew Colley clipped 13 seconds off his own ZAP 10 Mile record to place 5th at the Twin Cities 10 Miler in 46:25. Joining Andrew in the top 10 was Ryan Ford in 9th, running 47:11 in his only race before his marathon debut at New York in 4 weeks. Tristin, also training for New York, was just outside the top 10 in 11th place. In his 10 mile debut Dan Schaffer missed out on the top 10 by 1 second, running 47:17 to also finish 11th.
Andrew’s time of 46:25 over the hilly Twin Cites course was more impressive considering he missed several weeks of training after the Trials with a foot injury. After just a few weeks back to structured workouts Andrew didn’t seem to miss much of a beat. The race itself was very fast from the beginning with the opening 2 miles passed just over 9:00. Andrew and Ryan were both in the front group as Paris Olympic marathoner Conor Mantz led the way. Dan took up position in a chase pack about 10-12 seconds back looking comfortable and biding his time in this first longer effort of his career.
Just past 4 miles the front group made a surge forward off the already fast pace and Andrew let them go as he drifted back to 5th place. Ryan was positioned a few seconds behind Andrew and Dan a bit further back as there was no real semblance of a pack given the blistering pace.
The women’s race started much differently. Tristin found herself leading a large pack as nobody in the field seemed eager to take on a quick pace. Tristin passed 2 miles at a relatively conservative 10:50 with the entire elite field in tow. The pace would pick up after 5k and by halfway Tristin was back in chase pack, still running at 5:25 pace.
As the men rolled up and over the hills in the 2nd half of the race, the field continued to string out with Andrew running by himself in 5th. Ryan and Dan both ran with 1-2 other runners over the 2nd half of the race as they battled to catch the quick starters in front of them. Andrew never gave up on catching the top 4 finishers, but wasn’t quite able to close the gap as he grabbed the last money spot in 5th. Ryan, admittedly stung by the fast quick pace on his marathon legs, was proud of his effort in 9th and confident that coming off a taper in a few weeks he’ll be ready for a strong debut marathon in New York. Dan worked through some cramping in his abdomen after putting in a quick 4:35 6th mile and was able to close well over the final 2k to take 11th.
Tristin, as is often the case in heavy marathon prep, found herself locked into 5:25-30 pace for much of the race feeling like she could run that pace for a long time but not quite able to dip down below it. Her time of 54:52 was off her best time at the distance, but coming off her biggest week of mileage ever and some big time long runs, she knows she’ll be her best in a few weeks after a little rest.
You can watch the full race replay (with many time ZAP guest speaker Carrie Tollefson on the call!) here. And you can view the full race results here.