2011 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

The crowd didn't completely fill the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center last night, but several superb races made up for at the 2011 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix meet.

As always, there were a number of mile races. The meet began with a wire-to-wire victory for Charlie Kern in the men's masters mile (4:19.73), and ended with a brilliant victory for N.H. native Russell Brown in the men's open mile (PR 3:54.81) over a stellar field .

In between, there were exciting races in the junior invitational miles, great races (and upsets) in both the men's and women's 3000m, a meet record in the women's 400, and more.

The race of the night might have been the men's 3000. The field included England's Mo Farah, who famously won both the 10000m and 5000m at last year's European Championships, Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel, who ran 13:11 for 5K at the 2010 Boston Indoor Games (and has an outdoor PR of 12:53), Kenya's Nixon Chepseba and Sam Chelanga, and a well-rounded pack of 7:50-ish guys. The rabbit, Josphat Boit, led the field through 1400 meters on the way to a 4:03 1600 split. That was also about the time the crowd noticed that Gebrmeskel had lost one of his shoes.

(I remarked to Terry at this point that there was "no way" Farah would lose to someone wearing only one shoe.)

The last 1000 meters was a a great, classic battle, with first one and then another runner seizing the lead. The final lap was a furious display of speed and guts from the top three, with Farah doing his best to hold off Gebremeskel on the final turn. But the one-shoed runner with a 3000 PR of only 7:44 inched ahead and hit the line first, running 7:35.37, a half second ahead of Farah and two seconds up on Chepseba. Remarkable!

We didn't think the women's 3000 could live up to that race, but the finish was pretty satisfying. Unlike the men's race, the pace of the women's 3K dawdled and the favorites -- Jenny Simpson (nee Barringer) and Kalkidan Gezahegne seemed completely unsure about what they wanted to do, whether to lead or follow, set a brisk pace or let it get completely tactical. Meanwhile, former Texas Tech great Sally Kipyego was running solidly in second, hanging around and waiting for the right moment to commit to a final surge. That moment came about 250 meters from home when she seemed to catch Simpson napping and surged hard to take the lead with a lap to go. Simpson had a great last lap but her earlier indecision cost her the race as she couldn't make up Kipyego's 10-15 head start.

As always, the high school miles were a treat. The tactics might be somewhat raw, but it's always exciting to see the talent and the effort on display. Connecticut's Lindsay Crevoiserat won the junior women's race in 4:52.60, with Phillips Exeter's Katrina Coogan second (4:54.69) and Lincoln-Sudbury's Andrea Keklak 3rd (4:56.22). Newton South's Kathy O'Keefe was 5th (4:58.51).

Miles Schoedler won an evenly-paced junior men's race in 4:16.92 after Shrewsbury's John Murray led the race in the middle laps but faded to 6th.

The revelation of the race for me was Mansfield's Josh Lampron who ran in last place through 1000m, and was only 7th with 160 meters to go. Lampron, who broke 2:30 for 1000m at last week's MSTCA meet, unleashed a tremendous kick to pass three runners at the end and take 4th, despite having to move out to lane 3 in the final straight. It was a 9-second PR for the junior, and one has to believe that had he run the early part of the race with more confidence -- or started his kick a little earlier, he would have challenged for the win.

Decide for yourself! I've posted a somewhat crappy video of the race on YouTube:



Ok, so this account wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the performance of two-time footlocker champ Lukas Verzbicas in the men's open mile. He looked so young and skinny standing next to Nick Willis on the starting line and among all the rest of those fully-developed miling machines. But he ran totally within himself to finish 8th in a PR of 4:03.88. If anyone tells you that's a disappointment, laugh in their face, because it's a hugely impressive result for a newly-turned 18-year-old in the middle of generic winter mileage without access to an indoor track for speedwork. Add in the fact that he was thrown into a professional race with crazy hype -- well, the kid handled himself superbly.

"And," as Newton South coach and former South Eugene HS and U of Oregon star Steve McChesney said as we left the building, "he's going to be a Duck!"

2011 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Results