Deseret News 10K Race: Snubbed Aussie wins men's 10K against stacked field
“I'm over it now. That's why it's good to have races like this,” Letherby, 34, said Thursday morning after winning the Deseret News/KJZZ-TV men's 10K at Liberty Park. “You miss out on the Olympics, there's other goals.”
Letherby, who has lived the last seven years in Colorado, said he had seen the race advertised and knew someone who knew the race director, Bob Wood, so he decided, “Let's take a little trip. I've never been to Utah. My wife and I, she's running as well, come out, have a bit of fun, do the race and take our time going back, go back through Moab or something, if I have the energy.”
It was his first time running the Deseret News race.
“The downhill was really hard for me because the guys set such a fast pace,” said Letherby, who ran 28:21 minutes to defeat Weber State's Seth Pilkington, who was fourth in the NCAA championships recently. Pilkington ran 28:39.
“I'm a marathon runner, so my legs didn't like the downhill,” said Letherby. “But I noticed on some of the flatter sections that I was catching up and feeling strong. My plan was to wait until four miles and then try to make a move, but I went just after three, three-and-a-half. The last half mile there, I had nothing left. I was just surviving.
“I was just happy to cross the line. It's a hard race. It's downhill, but it's still challenging.”
Letherby, who has run in the world championships and Commonwealth Games and is a part-time editor for an Australian running magazine, first came to America in 1994 to attend Georgia State University. He married an American and moved back to the States in 2001, settling in Colorado.
He's planning to do another full marathon next, but he hasn't decided which one. The 10K is good training for marathons, Letherby said.
He expected to be competitive. “I came to win, but when I saw the field, I knew it was going to be tough because there's some guys there that have a lot of speed. Grant Robison, an Olympian. You don't want that guy around you with 100 meters to go.
“I'm very happy. It was hard work. I really struggled a lot.”
Pilkington said he's run a lot over his senior year at Weber and came into the race feeling “dead-legged,” so he was pleased with what he did. “We went out pretty hard, and then the pace lagged a little bit around three miles, so I put in a bit of a move. After I put in the move, (Letherby) took off and was able to gap me. He's a great runner. I don't feel bad getting beaten by him,” Pilkington said.
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