BOULDER, Colo.-
Edna Kiplagat of Kenya won her third race this season, bolting out to a big lead halfway through the 10-kilometer Bolder Boulder, which was marred by a fatality in the citizen’s portion of the annual Memorial Day run.
Ross “Jack” Lowe, 65, of Littleton collapsed midway through the course earlier in the day, the Boulder County coroner’s office. This was the first fatality in the 29-year history of the race, which this year had 50,816 participants, race spokesman Dave Plati said.
When the citizen’s race was over, Kiplagat ran away from the elite women’s field, finishing in 33 minutes, 42 seconds and beating Ethiopia’s Amane Gobena by 17 seconds. American Elva Dryer was third in 34:01.
The men’s race was much closer as Ridouane Harroufi of Morocco passed Ethiopian Solomon Tsgie Asfaw on the downhill leading to the finish line at Folsom Field football stadium and used a strong kick to win in 29:52, beating Asfaw by six seconds. Worku Beyi of Ethiopia was third in 30:04.
The elite runners were unaware of the fatality in the citizen’s portion until hours after the competition.
Kiplagat, who also won the Bay to Breakers 12K in San Francisco and the Lilac Bloomsday 12K in Spokane, Wash., this spring, powered past Gobena and her teammates, Dire Tune and Teyba Erkesso, as the leaders exited the stadium and headed toward the race’s midpoint.
“I don’t when she got away from us,” Gobena said. “I was with here and then she was gone.”
American Alan Culpepper took the lead of the men’s race at the three-quarters mark, but was soon passed by Harroufi and Asfaw, who dueled to the finish.
Asfaw was in front and seemed flustered that Harroufi was right on his heels.
“I knew he was behind me and couldn’t do anything about it,” Asfaw said.
When Harroufi made his move, Asfaw had nothing left.
“I sensed he was losing something,” said Harroufi, the first Moroccan to win the Bolder Boulder. “He was starting to work harder to keep his pace. I watched him closely from the halfway point in. I got right behind him and didn’t allow anyone to pass us. When we got to the hill, I turned it up and ran by him.”
Wind and warm weather resulted in the slowest winning time in the race since 1988.
Kiplagat said her strategy also was to stay with the pack but she saw her chance to speed past the Ethiopian trio as the foursome started to run up the stadium’s slope.
“I went to catch them and I pushed hard and found myself way in front,” said Kiplagat, who charged through the remainder of the race well clear of the field.
Ethiopia won the team title, and the United States took second despite defending champion Sara Slattery’s 13th-place finish.
“I know I’m better than what I raced today,” said Slattery, who finished a minute, 40 seconds off the pace. “But you have to take the good ones with the bad ones. So, I’m definitely going to learn from this and train harder and be fit for next year.”
The Ethiopians and Americans also finished 1-2 in the men’s team competition.
With Matt Gonzalez of Albuquerque, N.M., finishing seventh and Boulder’s Edwardo Torres taking ninth, the Americans placed three racers in the top-ten for just the second time since the pro competition started in 1998.
“I’m proud for our team,” Culpepper said. “We all ran hard and we all ran to our potential today.”
