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The USA Marathon Championships will be held on Sunday in Minneapolis, Minn., in conjunction with Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, and defending men's open and masters champion, Mbarak Hussein of Albuquerque, N.M., and two-time Olympian, Marla Runyan of Eugene, Ore. lead their respective fields.
Hussein, who was born in Kenya but became a USA citizen in October, 2005, won an unusually warm and humid edition of the race last year in a 2:18:28, earning $38,000 in open and masters prize money. The 41 year-old has a career best time of 2:08:10 set in Seoul in 2004. He's won the Honolulu Marathon three times.
Hussein's top challengers will be the 2003 national marathon champion Ryan Shay, who has a personal best time of 2:14:08 set at New York in 2004, and hometown favorite Jason Lehmkuhle who has a personal best of 2:16:27. Simon Sawe, another Kenyan-born American, Chris Graff, and Fasil Bizuneh will also be trying to win the open title.
Runyan, with a 2:27:10 personal best and multiple USA national titles on the road and track, is by far the strongest woman entered in the race. Her top rival will also be her training partner, Heather Hanscom, who ran 2:31:53 for sixth place at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials, still her best time.
"I train with Heather, she is a great training partner and incredibly tough," remarked Runyan in a press release. "She will run well."
Turena Johnson Lane (2:34:43), Sara Wells (2:33:15), Emily Levan (2:37:01), Jenny Crain (2:37:36) and Zoila Gomez (2:41:43), also hope to mount the podium. Susan Loken is the top entrant in the masters field (2:43:10 PB).
The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon is one of the largest in the United States. Last year's edition had 7,753 finishers plus another 3,974 in a companion 10 miler and 1,151 in a 5-K.
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