Sarah Crouch turned in one of the finest performances of her career at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler last month in Washington D.C. The race doubled as the US Women’s 10 Mile Championships. Crouch covered the course in a time of 54:15, an average of nearly 5:25 per mile. Her time was faster than the previous American Record for an all women’s race, held by the late Sally Meyerhoff. Her time was good enough to secure her 3rd place in the US Championship field, behind Olympian Janet Cherobon-Bawcom and Brianne Nelson. It was Crouch’s best finish ever at a US Championship and 46 seconds faster than her 5th place time from a year ago. Crouch will see action next at the Rite-Aid 10k in Cleveland this Sunday.
Joining Crouch in Cleveland for the Rite-Aid 10k will be third year ZAP-Reebok athlete, Cole Atkins. Atkins is fresh of a great 10 mile run of his own at the Broad Street 10 Mile Run in Philadelphia on Cinco de Mayo. Atkins led the race early and battled back to the lead group late to finish in 5th place. His early pace setting helped lead him to a very quick finishing time of 47:43, an average of 4:46 per mile. Atkins was the top American in the race by nearly two minutes and was less than 40 seconds off the win in a race that was closely contested by the top 5 finishers through 8 miles. After racing in Cleveland this coming weekend Atkins will look to improve upon his 10,000m track personal best at the Portland Track Festival in early June.