(c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission. MANCHESTER, CONN. (Nov. 28) – Wayne Kelati won her fourth consecutive Manchester road race this morning, three years after her first run at the 4,737-mile track. Kelati, an Olympian who lives and trains in Ariz. in Flagstaff, won the 88th annual Thanksgiving Day race today in 23:14, 19 seconds off the record he set in 2021.
Andrew Collin of the ZAP Endurance team in Blueing Rock, NC won the men’s race for the first time in 2022 in 21:09, finishing fourth in 2022 while posting the fourth fastest time in race history (21:07).
There were more than 12,000 participants, but some did not show because of the rainy and cold weather, with temperatures in the high 30s at the start of the race, and the crowd watching the race was also down this year.
Kelati went wire-to-wire, walking the men around him, as he did in his three other victories.
“It feels great,” Kelati said. “This is my first race of the season. I took a break after the Olympics. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I know I was in really good shape.
“I was happy with these conditions. I was hoping to run a little faster.”
Only Amy Rudolph, who won five times between 1995 and 2002, has more wins than Kelati in Manchester.
Annie Rodenfels of Newton, Massachusetts (24:05) finished second, followed by Florencia Borelli of Argentina (24:16).
Kelati took a break from the Olympics, where she finished eighth in the 10,000 meters, and returned to visit her family in Eritrea, but her running gear didn’t arrive, so she took an extra three weeks off. That didn’t seem to bother her on Thursday the day
“It doesn’t take me long to get in shape, so I wasn’t worried about it,” he said.
The men’s pack went through the first mile in 4:28, and the pack thinned out a bit as they tackled Highland Street Hill. Collie started playing.
He led the way down the Porter Street hill, noting how he surfed and wasn’t afraid of falling; “I just let gravity take me,” he said.
But Coley had learned not to take the lead too early in his 2022 race, as the finish line in Manchester is deceptively far after he turned from East Center Street onto Main Street.
“I thought. “It’s a little early to go,” Collie said. “I did it two years ago and I promised my coach I wouldn’t do anything until Main Street.”
He continued. “I did it a little early, but I could tell the others were fading and I wanted to capitalize and really take the wind out of their sails. I was tripping all over the place. “My shoes don’t have much traction. But I was having fun there.”
Collie passed Kurgat on the final turn and held on to extend the lead, with 100 meters to go, Mexico’s Eduardo Herrera passed Kurgat, his Under Armour/Dark Sky Elite teammate, for second in 21:15 third place (21:19).
Herrera said he came to the Thanksgiving race because Kelati, another Dark Sky teammate, talked him into it.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Herrera said. “I’ve only raced in Boston. It was nice to get the full experience. But yeah, the whole thing speeding up the hill, it definitely got to me. It felt like I was revving the engine going up the hill.”
But he still had enough in the tank to topple his teammate at the end.
“I talked to people about the race and they said the best way to get out of the pack was to run down the hill. I was on the way back to the pack. It was Edwin who was motivating me looking back too. At the four-mile mark, he made a jump that I couldn’t cover.”
He added: “Once he achieved that growth, I said: “Oh, I have to have something to finish. It’s my first Thanksgiving race. It was such a good experience.”
