Less than two weeks after a record breaking day in Boston, the ZAP team is back in action across the globe. Dan Schaffer and Eric van der Els will kick off the weekend Saturday morning at the US 5km Road Championships in Indianapolis. Andrew Colley will be returning to the marathon distance for the first time since the Olympic Trials in Prague on Sunday morning. And Josh Izewski will be lacing them up in his hometown at the Broad Street 10 Miler in Philadelphia.
Prague Marathon
Andrew Colley is on the ground in Prague and ready to carry forward the Boston momentum in the Czech Republic. Not only that, Andrew will be looking to carry the momentum of his 12 months of success into the marathon distance.
After big breakthroughs on the track last summer that saw him finish 8th at the Olympic Trials 10,000m in July Andrew went on to become the first ZAP athlete to win the Manchester Road Race in November. Since the calendar turned in January Andrew has notched the 2 best half marathon performances of his career as well, a 1:00:47 performance in Houston and a 1:01:09 run at the US Half Marathon Championships in March. In between, he took the win and course record at the Armagh Road Race 5k, in a blistering 13:33.
The only distance Andrew hasn’t seen a major breakthrough in over the last 12 months is the marathon and Prague will be the first opportunity he’s had to do it. Andrew’s PR is 2:11:22 from the 2023 Chicago Marathon, but he has never been more prepared for the distance than he is now and he will be taking aim at lowering that mark significantly on Sunday. The race takes place at 9:00am local time (3:00am est) on Sunday morning, May 4th.
There will be a live stream on the RunCzech YouTube page and live results should be available on the RunCzech app, otherwise you can find results afterward here.
US 5km Championships
Dan Schaffer and Eric van der Els will be taking to the roads of Indianapolis at 7am on Saturday morning to compete in the US 5km Championships. The race was originally scheduled to the selector event for the World Road Running Team, but since San Diego pulled out of the event earlier this year World Athletics was forced to cancel the World Championships due to not being able to find a host on short notice.
Despite there being no world team to compete for, there is still a phenomenal field in town to compete with a US title on the line. And it has done nothing to dampen Dan and Eric’s excitement for the event. Dan comes into the race fresh off a 13:34 personal best at the end of March as well as a strong 3:41, 2nd place finish at the Wake Forest 1500m 2 weeks ago. He has found success in this event in the past, placing 4th at the championships in 2023.
Eric is returning to form after a breakout 2024 season that saw him run 13:21 on the track and make the final at the Olympic Trials in July. He has worked his way into form after undergoing surgery in the fall and has built up some momentum at a few lower key races this winter and spring. Dan and Eric are both training better and better each week and are eager to test themselves against the country’s best 5k runners on Saturday.
The race begins at 7am eastern time. There will be a live stream of the race available here (subscription required) and live results will be available here.
Broad Street 10 Mile
Josh Izewski ran his 10 mile personal best of 46:59 at the Broad Street Run in 2023 when he finished 7th. Josh has an affinity for turning in strong performances on his home turf, including wins at the Philly 10k and Wyoming Valley 10 Miler in the past. The point to point course at Broad Street looks like it may have a stiff headwind on Sunday, but Josh will be aiming to improve his finish from 2 years ago.
Josh has been training well coming off a couple of disappointing races to open his spring at the Raleigh Relays and Cherry Blossom 10 miler. He is only 4 months removed from his 2:10:54 marathon PR at Houston and is eager to throw down another good result this weekend before turning his attention to the Gold Coast Marathon in July.
The race begins at 7:00am Sunday morning and you can track Josh live here.