Record Field for Silver Anniversary Race

Price Leads Big Day for adidas Raleigh Track

By Robert Stocks
The Winchester Star
5/8/06

It took a five-hour drive for adidas Raleigh Track Club members Kristin Price, Heather Lee, and Tara Wojciechowski to make it to Winchester for Saturday’s Shenandoah Apple Blossom SunTrust Mortgage 10K, but they made sure they didn’t leave empty handed.

Price made her debut in Saturday’s race a memorable one by taking first place, finishing just seven seconds shy of tying the women’s 10K record with a time of 35:08.

Kristin Price, a member of the adidas Raleigh Track Club, won the women’s race in 35:08. (Photo by Jeff Taylor)

Price, a 24-year-old graduate student at N.C. State, set the pace with her adidas teammates in the first mile, but pulled away at about the four-mile mark to finish 16 seconds ahead of runner-up Elena Orlova (35:24) in the largest field in the 25-year history of the event.

“I was kind of hesitant at the start. I didn’t know what to expect and then once we came back through the starting area I felt a little more comfortable,” said Price, who won the NCAA 10,000-meter championship in 2002. “It really helped out having teammates here. We run together all the time.”

Price, Lee, Wojciechowski and Orlova set the pace with 2004 winner Rebecca Stallwood about two seconds behind through the first mile and no one else moved into the top five.

Price ran a 5:39 pace and said she was pleased with her time.

“I don’t really race on the roads that much and I’m just kind of getting into it, so I’ll take it,” said Price, a 12-time All-American in cross country and track. “Of course everyone wants to go faster.”

Lee came in third (35:35), followed by last year’s champ Wojciechowski (35:57) and Stallwood (36:33).

Price took home the $750 first-place prize and teammates Lee and Wojciechowski completed a solid day for the adidas Raleigh Track Club by sweeping three of the top four spots. Lee took home $500 for third and Wojciechowski won $400 for fourth as prize money was awarded to the top five runners for the first time.

Only three female winners in the 25-year history of the 10K race had won with sub 36-minute times. In Saturday’s silver anniversary race, the top four women finished in under 36 minutes.

“I think we ran well as a group and individually so I’m really excited,” said Lee, a 25-year-old former Campbell University standout who owns 14 school records. “The weather was perfect. It was great running weather.”

Wojciechowski, who finished 10 seconds off her winning time in last year’s race, said she would have liked to have run a little better but was pleased for her teammates.

“I was definitely happy for our team,” said Wojciechowski, 30, of Cary, N.C. “I was wishing I could be a little closer to Heather, but I just didn’t have it. I was lacking a little bit of confidence from missing some (training) days in the past two weeks and I just did what I could (Saturday).”

The sunny, 70-degree weather made for ideal race conditions in what turned out to be the largest field — and maybe the most competitive women’s 10K in race history.

A record 879 runners finished the race and there were more than 900 entries. The top five women placed in the top 25 overall. Price finished 12th overall, Orlova came in 14th, Lee followed in 16th, while Wojciechowski and Stallwood took 19th and 25th overall, respectively.

“It was definitely a great race and I felt pretty good. But I’ve been plagued with an injury for the past two months, so considering everything I felt pretty good,” said Stallwood, who set the race record (35:01) in 2004. “It was a deep field. Kristin Price has won the 10,000 meters and the rest of them are great competitors.”

The talent, however, wasn’t limited to just the women’s open division.

Alisa Harvey, a former University of Tennessee standout who won the 1986 NCAA championship in the 1,500 meters, won the Master’s Division (40-44-year-olds) with a time of 37:26.

Harvey broke the U.S. Master’s Record in the mile (4:46) at the Penn Relays on April 29 and won the Master’s title in her first Apple Blossom 10K.

She said the hill around Handley High School in the first mile makes the race a little tricky at the start.

“The first mile is a serious grade, so you’ve got to control yourself because it’s the first mile and you want to go out hard. But if you do you’re dead meat,” said Harvey, 40, of Manassas. “It made it tough. Plus, it’s a competitive field, so you want to challenge yourself but you have to time it and pace yourself.”

Jennifer Davis, 23, of Romney, W.Va., finished sixth (36:57) overall and won the 20-24-year-old age group. Davis, a former standout at Hampshire High School and West Virginia University, finished ahead of Harvey, who came in seventh. Susan Graham-Gray (37:34) came in eighth.

Maria Spinnler, a five-time champion in the race, won the 40-44-year-old age group but came in second to Harvey for the Master’s title.

Spinnler, who ran collegiately at Eastern Kentucky, said she has a long history of racing against Harvey that dates back to her collegiate days at Tennessee.

“Alisa Harvey, the Masters’ winner, she’s world class,” Spinnler said. “I’ve been racing her since back in college and she’s probably the best Masters runner in the country.”

Spinnler said Saturday’s Apple Blossom race might have been the deepest field ever.

“I was fourth overall last year, but this was the most competitive one that I’ve been to and I’ve been running in them since 1993.”

Local age group winners included Crystal Printz, 14, of Cross Junction (44:45); Alina Dawson, 31, of Winchester (40:09); Melissa Langan, 45, of Stephens City (45:39); Mary Mayhew, 60, of Winchester (58:01); and Bessie Solenberger, 70, of Winchester (1:10.26).

Saturday’s race was sanctioned and certified by the USA Track and Field and timed by Runner’s High.