FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Records Across the Board at The Cowtown
27 Run Faster than Previous Marathon
New Records in Men's & Women's Marathon,
Men's & Women's Ultra Marathon, Wiomen's Half Marathon
Record Participants and Finishers
(Fort Worth, TX) --- Sun., Feb. 23, Ft. Worth, TX - Sunday was a day of
records at The Cowtown as new best times were set in the men's and women's
Marathon, men's and women's Ultra Marathon and women's Half Marathon races.
A record number of participants were recorded in the Sunday races with
nearly 10,000 finishers in the three events, that on top of the more than
14,000 runners finishing one of the shorter races on Saturday.
"We could not be happier with the success of the 2014 Cowtown races. We had
a number of race sell-outs and a record number of finishers across all
races. The Cowtown Elite! program exceeded our expectations as we saw 27
runners better the previous course records; and we were also pleasantly
surprised to see new records set in the men's and women's Ultra Marathon
and the women's Half Marathon," said Heidi Swartz, Executive Director of
The Cowtown.
In the Marathon, the inaugural Cowtown Elite! program brought runners from
around the world to challenge the previous course and all-time event
records. The program and competition resulted in 27 men and women bettering
the previous course records and splitting a prize purse of $36,000 provided
by a partnership of The Cowtown and MarathonGuide.com. A pack of twelve men
were still together at the 10K mark before the race became a contest of two
as Getachew Asfaw of Ethiopia pushed the pace followed closely by Lamech
Mosoti of Kenya. Through the halfway point in 1:09:25, the two were well
ahead of the course record but still trailing the event record of 2:17:35
set in 2000. Feeling strong, Mosoti pushed the pace again and ran alone to
finish in 2:17:12 to set the new event record as Asfaw faded to fifth
place. Two of Mosoti's compatriots, Edward Tabut and Peter Kemboi captured
the second and third spots. In total, 25 men, including defending champion
Craig Ottman, ran faster than the previous best time run on the current
course, Ottman's 2:36:22 from the 2013 race. In the women's race, Dihihinet
Jara ran 2:42:31, bettering the previous record on the current course set
in 2013 by Elizabeth Eder's (2:46:09) and knocking nearly three minutes off
the 30 year best time at Cowtown, Linda Zeman's 2:45:51 from 1984. Camille
Herron also ran faster than the old course record taking the second spot in
2:45:54. Emily Field rounded out the top three with her finish of 2:52:59.
Records were also set in the Ultra Marathon as Michael Wardian ran through
the 50K course in 3:00:21, more than ten minutes faster than the previous
course record of 3:10:40. Brenda Carawan won the women's division in
3:54:20, more than six minutes faster than the previous record of 4:00:40.
Gono Enriquez and Todd Reynolds took the second and third spots in 3:32:08
and 3:36:11, respectively. In the women's race, Megaly Soto took the
runner-up spot in 4:00:11 while Maria Martinez was third in 4:02:09.
A year after setting a course record in the Marathon, Elizabeth Eder opted
to run the Half Marathon and repeated her record-setting ways. Eder ran
1:18:05, the fastest time ever recorded for a woman on the Half Marathon
course. Eder was followed by Christina Ledesma in second place in 1:23:13
and Natalie Merrill, who was third in 1:24:32. In the men's race, Carlos
Aria was the only winner of the day not to set a course record, but easily
bested his competition winning easily in 1:10:54. Austin Dalquist was
second in 1:14:05 and Dane Batzel took the third spot in 1:14:54.
Established in 1979, The Cowtown emphasizes the importance of good physical
fitness in the community by working with local schools and community
centers in teaching proper running, training and nutrition to area youth in
preparation for participating in The Cowtown, as well as a lifetime of
fitness. In 2014, The Cowtown has distributed monetary grants and running
shoes to over 3,300 children. The Cowtown is presented by the University of
North Texas Health Science Center, Chase, HCA North Texas, MillerCoors,
Miller Lite, Star- Telegram, NBC 5, RadioShack and Cook Children's
Healthcare Systems.
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