from RTE sports website Martin Fagan was heavy-legged but happy as he came through a record-breaking Healthy Kidney 10K road race in New York’s Central Park today.
The Arizona-based Olympian was a distant eighth behind race winner Tadese Tola of Ethiopia, who ran the fastest 10 kilometres in Central Park history with a time of 27 minutes 48 seconds.
Yet the Westmeath native, who clocked 28min 45sec, was satisfied to have beaten some world-class runners, including American distance stars Abdi Abdirahman and Anthony Famiglietti and Morocco’s Abderrahime Bouramdane, on a hilly course in New York as he builds up to a 10,000 metre track bid at this August’s IAAF World Championships in Berlin.
Fagan, whose split time for the first five kilometres was 14:06, has recently recovered from a pelvic injury due to over-training and needed cortisone shots to keep him racing.
‘It was pretty tough,’ Fagan said. ‘I was a little tired and my legs felt a little heavy.
‘I tried to pace myself out there. I was in the chase group the whole way.
‘I tried to bridge the gap between myself and the leaders towards the finish but a bunch of guys went past me at the end.
‘It still felt good to get through it in one piece.’
Tola recorded his second victory in the city following his NYC Half-Marathon win last summer and both times he needed to beat Kenya’s Patrick Makau to do it.
The Ethiopian edged Makau by one second in the half-marathon but this time around Tola produced a more commanding performance.
Having run together for the first half of the race, Tola moved clear of Makau in the fourth mile and went on to score a 40-second victory.
‘After mile four, we were moving at a fast pace, and I was confident I’d have the record,’ Tola said. ‘This was a good course for me and I am very happy now.’
Defending champion Makau, coming off a fourth-place finish in 2hr 06min 14sec at the Fortis Rotterdam Marathon last month, his marathon debut, took second in 28:28.
‘This was good to see my endurance – my body is coming back,’ Makau said after finishing just ahead of compatriot and third-place finisher Boaz Cheboiywo, who clocked 28:31.